Ever since I was little I saw monsters.
They all wore masks, like they were ashamed of themselves, and were hiding away. Like they could put a barrier between themselves and the way they acted.
I wish my Father had worn a mask. Then I'd have known from the start he was one too.
When Mother died, he left me all alone. Alone with the masked monsters. He didn't need me, he said.
He was worse than those monsters ever could be. They didn't pretend to be a father. They were just themselves.
Alone with the Hollows.
-
I found one of their masks, once. When I was older. I'd stopped seeing them with the same frequency as I had when that man left me alone.
I kept it. No one else could see it, but I could feel it on my face. The Hollows knew I was a human, but with the mask on, they treated me as one of their own.
Admittedly, that wasn't much better than that man had. But they didn't pretend to have cared. They didn't abandon you because they didn't need you. You were just another person to them, someone they knew.
I wore that mask alot.
With the Hollows.
-
When the message came, I read it through my mask. No emotion. A Hollow didn't have many emotions. I was empty. No, not empty. That implies I could've had emotions at that point.
Hollow. I felt hollow. I was Hollow.
He needed me again. No, he didn't.
He needed Shinji Ikari. But he wasn't here anymore.
Nothing beyond the mask. Nothing but the mask.
Hollow.