Note: I don't know. This was just a shot in the dark at a Fafner fic. I have no idea what is accurate and what is completely bullshit I made up on the spot. It'd be nice to get some feedback, yeah.
Soushi never thought of himself as a particularly interesting person. He didn't have any hobbies, any particular likes or dislikes. He didn't have many he would consider friends.
Or rather, he simply didn't have the luxury to be more.
Not that Soushi was one for luxury in the first place. The closest he got to luxury was that his room was precisely eleven steps away from a vending machine. It was convenient.
Unfortunately, the rest of the world didn't work that way. But Soushi wasn't incompetent enough to let that hinder him. His duty was to protect the island and the core. And if he had to fight tooth and nail to do that, he would. He would shoulder all the pain, the secrets, the guilt- just to protect the tiny speck of land that was his and the rest of Tatsumiyajima's residents' paradise.
It was their only paradise. The only place where they would be allowed to live as peacefully as they could.
Soushi truly appreciated the beauty of Tatsumiyajima, having seen the ravaged Earth beyond the horizon. Festum flourished there, while the remains of humanity struggled to keep up.
Soushi watched the island come closer into view and the fear that one day, he would return to see the island smoking and destroyed, suddenly bubbled in his heart. Quickly, he smothered it.
That was exactly why he existed. To prevent that image from becoming reality.
Failure wasn't an option.
[It was fear of failure, the negation of his existence.]
And thus, he would perpetuate that lie- the lie that everything was still fine and dandy.
That the rest of the world hadn't wiped Japan off the face of the Earth years ago, and the few survivors scrambled to create a future for themselves and their descendants.
It was necessary, in order to keep the culture of peace that Tatsumiyajima had maintained for so long.
Soushi ran. There was no time to waste. The Welle Shields could hold back the Festum, but only for so long (as in only for a few minutes at most) and every second counted.
He had to pilot the Fafner and protect the island.
It was what he had prepared for his entire life. The reason for his existence.