Shinji Ikari watched Misato Katsuragi's clumsy attempt to act unconcerned. She glanced over now and then, probably worried that he and Gendo Ikari would come to blows.
"Didn't she leave any photos or anything?" Shinji asked, looking at the overly plain black gravestone.
"When you left back then, you took everything to do with her, too. I can barely remember her face anymore."
"There's nothing. This grave is just for show. It's empty inside," Gendo said calmly, drawing his gaze back.
"Misato said the same thing. Her mom didn't leave her anything, either." Shinji looked the other way.
They had clearly come to visit the same woman, yet now they couldn't even meet each other's eyes.
"It's all in my heart. This is enough as it is," Gendo replied flatly.
Misato had said the same thing, but hearing those words from Gendo surprised Shinji a little.
Even when his mom had been alive, Gendo had never said anything so moving about his love for her.
Shinji had never seen his parents show affection in front of him, their child. Sometimes, he had even felt that Gendo was so cold he treated them like strangers.
Yet now, so many years after his mom's death, this man acted as though he loved her deeply.
"The things Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki told me-you told him to do that, didn't you?" Shinji suddenly asked.
"You figured that out?" Gendo sounded a little surprised.
"He's not the kind of person who casually spills secrets." Shinji smiled.
"I merely told him that whatever you wanted to know, he could tell you, as long as he knew the answer," Gendo said impassively.
"So you're saying everything he said was true?" Shinji scoffed. "Always beating around the bush. You people really need to fix that rotten habit of talking