Ben Nakayama
Ben Nakayama House The Nakayamas Parents Akio Nakayama, Samantha Grace Albert-Nakayama First appearance The Glass House, chapter 6 |
Ben Nakayama is a figure of the C9 universe, a son of the Nakayama house, the keeper of Naka's, and the author of the third book of The Confidence.
How he arrived
Ben was six, in the Greiss settlement, in the eighth year of Akio's decade. He was reaching for the bread at the back of a supply wagon when a man at the edge of the square raised a weapon, and Akio crossed the square, took it out of the man's hand and crushed it[1].
Akio turned round to find him still holding the bread in both hands, watching with all calculation and no softness, waiting for the condition to reveal itself, because nothing in six years had arrived without one. Akio sat down in the dust and wept, and then got up and made soup. Ben came closer when it was ready and ate watching him the whole time. Akio asked his name after a long silence, then refilled the bowl, and Ben ate the second faster than the first[1].
Akio brought him home that night and did not leave again. Ben was in the doorway still holding the piece of bread when Samantha asked whether he was hungry. He said he had bread. She said that was not what she asked. He said yes. She pushed her chair back, said "sit down," and went to find a pot[1]. He never left.
Life
Ben has no abilities and is baseline. He learned to knead dough before he learned to read. He is the only one who can bring Samantha down out of a bad noise day.
As an adult he took over Naka's, and the restaurant became the place the plateau ate. He is not a soldier. He feeds the soldiers.
The third book
Ben wrote the last book of The Confidence, and he wrote it from the restaurant. He did not go anywhere; he stayed, and everyone who went came back and sat at his table. He had his parents across it, Sienna home describing what the Voidomorphians felt like, Celestine telling him what she remembered in the Void, Chryssander's arms, and Eon's notebooks.
His access is the most complete of the three authors, not because he was present but because everyone who was present came to him. Of the three, Leinder watched from outside and turned, Eon was inside and could not stop recording, and Ben stayed home and listened. His voice is the warmest of them: no pretension, no literary distance, a man trying to tell the truth about people he loves.
Family
Ben is a son of Akio Nakayama and Samantha Grace Albert-Nakayama. His siblings are Seral, Jory and Little Miri.