"What made Japan better was that even if what you did didn't make a difference, you could kinda... Hope? Pretend? That your actions might make a difference, that, like, perhaps the idiots who were too scared to do anything might realise that they could actually do something. Here it's like, well... We're just pawns, right? And in some ways, it's more obvious than the way people were pawns in Japan. There were ways to go against the system. Here, it's just..." Shinji paused, searching for the right word. Unable to think of the one he was looking for, he went with the next best thing. "Supposed higher beings. If they're higher beings than this is nothing than an elaborate game where they can direct us as they want and there's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it".
"A little", he stated, as matter-of-factly as he could manage. "It seems kind of pointless to spend much time and energy missing them". It was true; it wasn't as if he'd have been able to see them if he weren't here. Although, of course, it didn't stop him missing them, but that was besides the point.