Central Dogma, Terminal Dogma.
Gendo Ikari looked up at the enormous white giant on the cross, while Kozo Fuyutsuki, standing beside him, cast him a sidelong glance.
Fuyutsuki had actually gone to the office first to look for the Commander-in-Chief, but he had found no one there.
These days, though, not finding the Commander-in-Chief in his office seemed to be the norm.
Fuyutsuki rarely saw Gendo in the upper levels anymore. The Commander-in-Chief spent far more time in Central Dogma than he did above.
"The Fifth Eligible has made contact with both Rei and Shinji," Fuyutsuki said.
He noticed that the Commander-in-Chief had switched to a pair of full-coverage goggles with red lenses and black frames.
Now even he, the Deputy Commander who understood Gendo better than anyone, could no longer read a single thought in those eyes.
"Is that so?" Gendo said flatly.
Fuyutsuki could not help frowning. Everyone had grown accustomed to Gendo's calm in the face of everything, but his voice now was far too cold.
So cold that he seemed like a stranger.
"The MAGI is doing everything it can to investigate the Fifth Eligible's records, but we still haven't been able to establish his true identity. His past seems to be a complete blank," Fuyutsuki said.
"But we can be certain that this Fifth Eligible is the boy we saw on the moon. His appearance and demeanor are exactly the same."
"Probably another of SEELE's plans that even we know nothing about." Gendo did not turn around, his tone still utterly flat.
Fuyutsuki was long accustomed to the way Gendo always seemed to have everything figured out. "Could he be a product of the Marduk Plan?"
A humanoid life-form capable of surviving normally on the lunar surface without any equipment could not possibly be an