Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from EVA

White smoke curls from the crater of Owakudani, and the streets are filled with tourists wearing yukatas and wooden clogs. Wind chimes hang in the general stores along the way, tinkling in the breeze, exuding a sense of peaceful and languid tranquility.

"Get up! The sun's already high in the sky!"

The paper door was violently ripped open with a "whoosh." Nuonuo kicked off her slippers, strode into the room, and yanked the blanket off Lu Mingfei.

Today, Nono wore a bright yellow windbreaker, her red hair tied in a neat high ponytail. She stood high above, arms crossed, looking down at the seemingly lifeless corpse on the tatami mat. Too lazy to waste words, she simply threw a clean T-shirt at Lu Mingfei's face.

"Wash up, get dressed, and meet in the lobby in ten minutes. Today, I'm taking you to splurge on Kassel's budget." She turned and hurried out, tossing a final line at the door: "If you dare say you're not coming, I'll strip you naked and hang you on the crater."

Half an hour later, at the Owakudani crater observation deck.

Open your mouth.

A black egg, peeled until it was pitted and uneven, was roughly shoved into Lu Mingfei's mouth.

"The locals say that eating one of these will add seven years to your life. Look at you, so weak and dying, you'd have to eat at least a whole basket of them to break even."

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment. He choked on the egg yolk and his eyes rolled back, but a long-lost warmth rose in his heart.

"Seven years?" Lu Mingfei mumbled indistinctly, chewing on a hard-boiled egg. "Does this seven-year lifespan count towards the previous life, or this one?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Nono rolled her eyes at him, then casually stuffed the other half of the peeled egg into his mouth. "Stop talking nonsense and keep eating!"

In the afternoon, they boarded a pirate ship for a tour of Lake Ashi.

The cruise ship had an extravagant design, and the deck was crowded with tourists taking photos. Children ran and played among the crowd. Sunlight shone on the wide lake, making it sparkle. The distant mountains were lush and green, and the blue sky and white clouds were reflected in the water, making it as beautiful as a postcard with a high-saturation filter.

A massive, antique-style sailboat cleaved through the waves on the azure lake, a gentle breeze ruffling Nono's dark red hair. Leaning against the wooden railing on the second floor, she held two shaved ice slabs thickly coated with strawberry jam, and shoved one of them into Lu Mingfei's hand.

"How's it going? Did the wind here blow away some of the musty smell in your head?" Nono nudged him with her shoulder, her smile carefree and bright.

The sun was very strong, and the shaved ice melted extremely quickly.

Crimson strawberry syrup dripped down the rim of the plastic cup and onto the back of Lu Mingfei's hand. It was thick, bright red, and cool to the touch.

Nono's eyes flickered slightly, and her fingers, which were casually resting on the railing, quietly tensed.

Lu Mingfei blinked, took out a tissue from his pocket, casually wiped the syrup off the back of his hand, and then picked up a spoon to scoop out a mouthful of ice covered in red shards.

"It's too sweet, Senior Sister," he complained, turning to look at the azure lake.

He remembered it was a rare day off; NERV had unusually given the pilots a day off. The research institute's ecology museum recreated the ocean before the Second Impact. Asuka, wearing a proud red swimsuit, splashed around in the water, insisting on having a water fight with everyone; Shinji frantically dodged the splashes; and he stood with Ayanami in front of the huge glass wall, watching the schools of fish swimming in the azure sea.

"Once we win the war," Asuka, soaking wet, swam over and, clinging to the edge of the pool, announced loudly, "I'll take you to see the real ocean! The unpolluted kind!"

The sky is blue, and the water is blue.

This is the sea she wanted to see; although it's a lake, it's pretty much the same.

"Lu Mingfei".

Suddenly, a cool sensation touched my cheek.

Lu Mingfei snapped out of his daze when Nuonuo pressed the iced oolong tea against his face. The girl tilted her head slightly, a hint of worry barely perceptible in her eyes: "What are you looking at? Your gaze is so far away."

"Watching the clouds." Lu Mingfei smiled, this time with a much lighter smile. "Someone once told me that a beautiful sunset is like orange-flavored soda."

Nono followed his gaze to the fiery clouds on the horizon and commented carelessly, "That's all the taste she has."

Night falls on the Japanese-style hot spring inn located halfway up the mountain.

After enjoying a sumptuous kaiseki meal, the innkeeper, dressed in a kimono, respectfully reminded them that there was an open-air bath (hot spring) in the inn's backyard, where they could wash away the day's fatigue by drinking in natural volcanic spring water.

"I'm not going."

Every time he sat in the cockpit, the LCL solution filling the endotracheal tube was at this temperature. He'd had enough of that liquid enveloping his entire body and filling his lungs.

"I'm going back to my room to play some handheld game." Lu Mingfei turned to leave.

"stop."

Nono, wearing a loose bathrobe and holding a towel, stood at the end of the corridor, looking at him with a half-smile.

"You're even afraid to go into the water?" She looked Lu Mingfei up and down, a wicked smile playing on her lips. "What, afraid I'll peek at you from the women's bath? You innocent loser?"

Lu Mingfei's eye twitched violently. Stared at by that provocative gaze, he sighed and reluctantly admitted defeat.

Well, since I want to reintegrate into the normal world, I have to get through this.

The men's and women's baths are separated only by a low bamboo fence.

The hot spring water was indeed very comfortable; it was clear and had a faint mineral aroma. Bamboo pipes on the artificial hill guided the babbling water down.

Amidst the rising steam, he couldn't help but think of the hot spring trips everyone had taken.

Back then, Asuka would loudly mock Shinji for being a coward through the wall, while Misato would shout and drink ice-cold beer in the women's bath, and even Penguin Piece would splash water a meter high in the water, splashing him all over his head and face.

"Feed—Lu Mingfei!"

From the women's bathhouse, separated by a wall and a tall bamboo fence, came the soft, clear sound of 'nuonuo' accompanied by the splashing of water.

Lu Mingfei tensed up: "What?"

"Make a sound, or you'll drown," Nono chuckled on the other end. "They order sake blind boxes next door, it's on me, wanna drink?"

Hearing the splashing water from next door, Lu Mingfei's tense shoulders finally relaxed completely. He looked up at the bright stars in the night sky, and a gentle smile involuntarily appeared on his lips.

Yes, it's too quiet.

If those noisy guys were here, they'd probably be fighting over towels by now.

"...I'm just enjoying life, senior sister." Lu Mingfei submerged half her face in the water, blew out a string of bubbles, and replied through the bamboo fence.

Nuonuo's contented humming came from the other side of the fence.

-----------------

In the dead of night, the inn fell silent. Only the deer, its water cup full, struck the stone with a "smack," the ethereal sound echoing in the night.

Lu Mingfei changed into a clean bathrobe and sat on the wooden veranda outside the room, staring blankly at the dry landscape garden in the courtyard.

Light footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor.

Nono changed into a clean bathrobe, her hair casually tied up behind her head, exuding a faint scent of shampoo. She took two cans of iced oolong tea and sat down beside him, about half a body length away.

With a "click," she pulled the tab and handed a can to Lu Mingfei.

"Are you feeling better?" Nono looked at the moonlight in the courtyard, not at him, her tone casual and gentle, like that of a friend.

Lu Mingfei looked down at the oolong tea in his hand, which was still glistening with water droplets.

"Senior sister, one day, the world ended. The sea turned orange-red, and everyone turned into orange juice." He spoke as if telling an absurd story. "Everyone I knew died."

Nono's fingers tightened slightly as she gripped the can.

"When you open your eyes again, the old man is playing chess, and the supermarket is having a sale. Your mind is full of air raid sirens, but everywhere is peaceful as can be."

"You desperately try to find some ruins, or the name of a dead person, but you can't even find a tombstone. It's as if everything you've experienced is just a hallucination caused by a split personality."

Lu Mingfei spoke in a low voice about his past, like a veteran who had survived alone on the battlefield, walking with a cane across the battlefield where blood had flowed like a river, only to find that it had been turned into an amusement park, and everyone was laughing and telling him: War? There was never a war.

He had lived a muddled life in this world for eighteen years, achieving nothing. His experiences in the previous world defined who he was now. But it was like waking up from a nightmare, as if nothing had happened.

"It's good that we can't find it."

Nono turned her head and looked directly into his eyes.

Lu Mingfei was stunned.

"We can't find them," Nono said, "which means their fate has changed."

Lu Mingfei stared at her blankly.

"Maybe in some parallel universe you can't see, that girl who loves drinking orange soda and watching the clouds is just an ordinary high school student who worries about math exams every day; the person who loves arguing with you is happy because they bought a limited edition dress." Nono reached out and gently patted Lu Mingfei's head like she was comforting a stray cat. "Lu Mingfei, no news is good news. It means they're living well in this world, and you don't need to mourn them."

The startled deer struck again with a crisp "smack".

Lu Mingfei looked down at his reflection in the water and suddenly laughed while holding the soda can.

He tilted his head back and took a big gulp of oolong tea, then turned to look at Nuonuo.

"Senior sister, at your Kassel College..." Lu Mingfei's eyes finally lit up a little, "How's the food?"

Nono's eyes instantly curved into two smug crescent moons, and she slapped him on the back.

"All you can eat! German-style grilled pork knuckle until you're sick of it!"

"Alright then." Lu Mingfei smiled. "I'll join."