Fuite de Fukaéri des Précurseurs

Fukaéri’s flight from the Pioneers brought her, at ten years old, alone and unable to speak, to the mountain home of the Master, an old family friend. Her arrival began seven years of separation from her parents: although the Master tried repeatedly to reach them, neither parent made contact. The event is defined as much by what remains undisclosed—the grave reason she left and the circumstances of her parents’ silence—as by her difficult journey to safety.

Flight and arrival

In 1981, an armed conflict led to the dissolution of L’Aube, the dissident community that had split from the Pioneers. The Master distinguishes that conflict from Fukaéri’s later flight: she came to his home four years after he had arrived there, and he does not consider her arrival connected to L’Aube’s troubles. He describes it instead as the consequence of a separate, serious event, one that forced her to leave her parents and escape alone.

Fukaéri appeared unexpectedly at the Master’s door. She had a little money and a slip of paper bearing his address, and had managed the journey to his mountain home by making connections between different forms of transport. The journey was especially difficult because she had been raised in an isolated environment and could not express herself. The note gave her a destination; it did not make the route easy.

A child transformed

The Master remembered Fukaéri as a taciturn child who kept her distance from strangers but spoke freely with him, whom she had known since early childhood. The girl who arrived at his home was markedly different: she seemed to have lost the use of words. When spoken to, she could only nod to indicate yes or no. The Master and the woman who helped the household, together with his daughter Azami, cared for her. A few days later, once Fukaéri seemed calmer, the Master tried to call the Pioneers.

He asked to speak with Fukada, but was told that Fukada was not in a position to talk. Asked what that meant, the people at the Pioneers gave no explanation. The Master then asked to speak with Fukada’s wife and was told that she, too, could not talk. He chose not to tell the community that Fukaéri was with him while he could not speak directly to Fukada. Later he tried many ways to establish contact, but none succeeded.

The break with her parents

The Master confirms that Fukaéri had absolutely no contact with her parents during the seven years after her arrival. The silence was difficult to reconcile with what he knew of the family: her parents loved her deeply and regarded her as their most precious possession. They had also told her that she could go to the Master’s home if necessary, and he believed it was the only place where she could receive help. Yet, despite his efforts, no message came from either parent.

The absence of contact was particularly striking because Fukaéri’s parents had themselves broken with their own families, leaving her without contact with any grandparents. The Master cannot explain why they neither sought news of their daughter nor responded to his attempts. His account establishes the separation and its duration, but not its cause; the reason for the parents’ silence remains unresolved.

Shelter without interrogation

The Master says Fukaéri did not appear frightened, anxious, or visibly shocked into separation from her parents. Rather, she seemed completely insensitive to what had happened, though he stresses that something grave had made her flee. She adjusted to life in his household more easily than he had expected. Because she would not discuss her past, he decided not to force her to open up, believing she needed time; he acted as though her silence did not alarm him.

Fukaéri spent much of her time with Azami. When Azami returned from school, the two would finish their meal and then shut themselves in their room together. The Master did not know what they did there and did not intrude, allowing them to act as they wished. Apart from Fukaéri’s inability to speak, he recalls no problem in their life together, and describes her as intelligent and attentive. Her flight therefore leads not to an account of the event that drove her away, but to a household that offers her room to settle without demanding an explanation.