For Shinji, whose impression of his mother had always been a blurred haze preserved only in fading photographs and fragmented anecdotes, these narratives were like a long-awaited rain upon a parched land.
He listened greedily to every word, attempting to use these shards to piece together a more vibrant, three-dimensional image of his mother in his mind. What he heard was not just a "Mother," but a living, breathing human being with her own thoughts and ambitions. This added an unspeakable sense of closeness—and longing—to his feelings for her.
Simultaneously, through Fuyutsuki's descriptions, he caught a glimpse of the emotional bond that once existed between his parents. This stirred a subtle, complex understanding of his cold father: Gendo Ikari had not always been the man he was today.
The conversation was brief. Fuyutsuki exercised perfect discretion, stopping just before touching upon sensitive areas. Yet for Shinji, it was an impact of immense informational magnitude. When he left Fuyutsuki's office, his heart felt heavier than when he arrived, yet it was also infused with something new and nameless.
He had not obtained a direct answer regarding his mother's "disappearance," but Osiris's goal had been achieved. The void in Shinji's heart regarding his parents was partially filled, replaced by specific curiosity and doubt about the truth behind NERV. Furthermore, a subtle but real channel of communication had been established between him and the Deputy Commander.
Following Osiris's subtle guidance, Shinji began attempting to touch the layers of the obscured past in his own way. This time, he even changed how he addressed the man, carefully using the title "Professor Fuyutsuki"—a term carrying the weight of academic lineage.
Defying his previous impulse to confront Gendo, Shinji visited Kozo Fuyutsuki again with a pure posture of "wishing to understand his mother's academic footsteps." Fuyutsuki was slightly surprised by this second visit and sensed something unusual. However, faced with Shinji's respectful student-like demeanor, he maintained no overt guard and shared limited memories of Yui Ikari's early research philosophy and academic spirit.
Later, Shinji found Osiris again. His emotions were much more stable than before, but his eyes held a heavy, contemplative depth. He recounted the fragments of Yui's past he had heard from Fuyutsuki.
Osiris listened quietly, his mind racing to cross-reference these emotional memories with the classified intelligence he had obtained from Kaji Ryoji, his own technical analysis of the EVAs, and the memory framework transmitted from his original body. Though Fuyutsuki omitted the core secrets, the descriptions of Yui's research tendencies and her shared trajectory with Gendo perfectly matched the key profiles of the Human Instrumentality Project's origin phase.
"These pieces of information are valuable," Osiris said in a calm tone, helping Shinji organize his thoughts. "They bring you closer to your parents, especially your mother. But, Shinji-kun, based on this, have you considered a more fundamental question?"
Shinji looked up at him with confusion and a spark of expectation.
"What, exactly, is the nature of the EVA?" Osiris posed the heavy question without providing an answer, guiding Shinji toward the core of the mystery. "It isn't a simple technical definition. It was the ultimate subject your mother poured her heart into—one she may have even given her life to explore."
He paused deliberately to let the words sink in. "Perhaps understanding what she was actually researching and pursuing is the key... to understanding Unit-01, your father, and even why you are standing here today."
Shinji froze, his eyes filled with turbulent thoughts. The research of his mother... the essence of EVA... everything seemed to be connected by an invisible thread. Dr. Osiris's words had opened a door; though the path behind it was unknown, it seemed the only way to understand his own situation and his family's past.
However, after this meeting, Fuyutsuki informed Gendo Ikari of the matter.
When Gendo learned from Fuyutsuki that Shinji was touching upon the past of "Yui Ikari" in an unprecedented, investigative manner, the man experienced an intense, almost uncontrollable surge of emotion. His gaze behind the orange-tinted lenses grew suddenly deep, and the knuckles of his crossed hands turned white from the force of his grip.
Gendo Ikari's feelings for Shinji were far from simple hatred or displacement of anger.
The core, most private objective of his "Human Instrumentality Project" was to break the boundary between life and death—to create a world where he could reunite with his lost wife. To this end, he was willing to wager the entirety of human civilization as the price.
In this extreme and distorted obsession, his feelings for his son were cold and contradictory. It wasn't that he didn't love Shinji, but in his blueprint, this life created by him and Yui—the proof of their existence and union—had become a "unnecessary" entity.
He fantasized about reuniting with Yui in a post-Instrumentality world where death and separation did not exist. In such a world, there was no need for "offspring" to carry on the legacy of life. By excluding Shinji from his plans and maintaining a cold distance, he was, in a twisted and self-righteous way, performing his own form of "atonement."
He did not choose estrangement because seeing his son reminded him of his late wife and caused him pain; rather, he viewed the boy as a remnant of a world he intended to transcend.
Osiris knew the guidance had taken effect. This channel might be used in the future to extract more critical information, while he himself continued to navigate through the fog of the past with these heavy fragments of history.