Chapter 31: The Recluse
Chapter 31:
The Recluse
The Recluse
W
HEN TOJI THOUGHT
of a place in the mountains south of Kyoto, he imagined a tatami-matted tea room and a picturesque garden with a rhythmically clacking bamboo fountain. But the only part of reality that matched his imagination was Fuyutsuki’s informal kimono.
I shouldn’t have wasted my time going over reports on the plane.
Fuyutsuki had let his gray hair grow out, and he looked like he’d dwelled inside this old house, amid its mountains of books, far longer than Toji had been alive.
Except it’s only been three years,
Toji reminded himself.
The building was a white, Western-style affair with a hipped roof and white clapboard, and had once been a clubhouse owned by the university where Fuyutsuki used to teach. The only way the modest abode could have looked more like an old school building was if it had a weather instrument shelter standing in the yard.
But there was a little more to it than that. Nerv had remodeled the building to turn it into a secret safehouse. Though no alterations had been made to the exterior, the structure was now earthquake (and other disaster) resistant, and its power, heating, and water supplies could last through temporary shortages, of which there were many these days.
Fuyutsuki sat at his desk in front of the window, surrounded by well organized but overwhelming stacks of books on anthropology and religion. The man had turned his chair to face the acting deputy commander, who told him everything that had happened thus far and humbly requested he return to service.
Fuyutsuki Kozo had been a teacher and mentor to former commander Ikari Gendo. Three years ago, he’d worked as Gendo’s second-in-command. Because he knew too much of the past, the Nerv information security department had effectively imprisoned him deep in the mountainside. To this day he remained under twenty-four-hour surveillance, complete with countermeasures against third-party espionage. But the current commander, Misato, had afforded him a certain level of freedom as a personal favor.
But none of those efforts, either to restrict or enhance his freedom, changed much for Fuyutsuki. Judging from the state of the room, Fuyutsuki passed the time reading his vast book collection and organizing his research.
This guy’s an academic by nature. If anything, his stint as Nerv’s deputy commander was when his life jumped the rails like a runaway train.
I’m wasting my time here,
Toji thought.
But Fuyutsuki said, “How long can you give me to get ready?”
Toji gaped and blurted out a reply. “Huh? Er, ah… I’m flying right back by an N
2
Flanker, but we’ve got a heavy VTOL aircraft on standby for you. You can simply let the pilot know whatever time works for you.”
Yes!
Toji tried to keep his celebration on the inside, but the excitement leaked out into his expression and gestures.
Fuyutsuki had imagined that Nerv might one day ask him to come back. But he’d expected the visit would come from Misato or Shinji. In that situation, he’d intended to firmly refuse. He would’ve had trouble believing that they truly needed him after all this time.
But instead it was this boy, Toji, who’d arrived on his doorstep. Fuyutsuki knew little about him, aside from the fact that he was the Fourth Child and the test pilot of Eva-03. From what the boy had said, over the past several weeks that he’d served as Katsuragi’s second, Nerv had managed to maintain control of the situation, at least, as best as could be expected.
The boy’s calm, competent demeanor took Fuyutsuki by surprise, and his resistance—whether borne of hesitation or pride—vanished. Before he was even aware of this change of heart, he found himself accepting the request. He wanted to see what had become of the children he knew three years ago.
Fuyutsuki was starting to see why Katsuragi had entrusted the role of second-in-command to this young man. Toji had been a simple go-between but one whose background had already been thoroughly checked. And he wouldn’t have been of any use without access to important information and the ability to interface between different departments.
Individuals talented only in their respective fields didn’t often operate well as a single group. There were, of course, exceptions, but on the whole, such people tended to be poor collaborators. For Fuyutsuki, that truth had been brought home three years ago.
This boy,
he realized,
has the social aptitude to connect people.
Fuyutsuki felt burdened by the debt he’d left behind. But when Gendo was swallowed up by the Chronostatic Sphere, Fuyutsuki had simply desired to be free of it all.
Can this young man, and all the people of Nerv, overcome the sins that Ikari and I committed?
He was interested in learning the answer.