Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from EVA

The Gulfstream Sleipnir glided silently across the runway in the night, its nose slightly raised, like a sharp blade slicing through the darkness, piercing the sky.

Kassel College was still asleep at this moment, and no one knew that the S-class freshman who had shone brightly on the day of freedom had already boarded a special plane to the battlefield just one week after enrolling.

"At cruising speed, we will arrive at the Three Gorges in fourteen hours." Zero sat on the sofa at the end of the aisle and pushed a tablet to the table. "Then we will transfer to a helicopter to reach the Qutang Gorge waters, which will be 1:30 pm Chicago time."

"The executive department will handle the preliminary work and wait for you to participate in the mission."

Lu Mingfei leaned against the porthole, watching the Chicago coastline transform into a patchwork of tiny starlight.

"Zero," Lu Mingfei suddenly said.

"Um."

"What kind of person are you, really?"

Why do you ask that?

"Lu Mingze asked you to look after me. If it was to repay a debt of gratitude or to carry out a death order, then just do your duty. But you," Lu Mingfei turned his face, "went too far."

Ling put down the tablet and placed his hands on his knees, folded over each other.

How much do you know about the boss?

"That's enough."

"Not enough," Zero said bluntly. "You don't know how he found me."

Lu Mingfei turned his head to the side; this was the first time Zero had brought up his past on his own initiative.

"I lived in Siberia, Russia, until I was thirteen, where it was always ice, snow, and permafrost," Zero said. "After leaving there, for a long time, no one talked to me. I didn't dare to talk to anyone, and my pronunciation became increasingly strange until I couldn't even understand myself."

"Where are your family members?"

"Yes." Ling paused for a moment, "but then it stopped."

Lu Mingfei didn't press further. He had seen far too many kinds of "disappeared" in the Third New Tokyo City, none of which needed explanation, nor should they be explained.

"My past is a blank frozen wasteland," she said. "I met him when I was thirteen, and before that, I wasn't really a living person."

Lu Mingfei thought that was probably it. Some people need another person to give them a direction before they can begin to move.

"The boss is asleep," Lu Mingfei said, "so you're here to watch over me."

"You are an extension of his will," Zero nodded, then added, "and you seem to need someone to take care of you."

"Me?" Lu Mingfei smiled. "If it weren't for the mess you guys made at the last minute, I could have single-handedly taken down the entire Kassel during today's exercise."

"It has nothing to do with combat strength," Zero said. "You look like you'd rot in some ruins if no one took care of you."

"So that's why you came to check on me," he said helplessly. "Because I look like... something bad will happen if I'm left unattended?"

"It's not that things will go wrong if no one takes care of you," Zero calmly corrected him. "It's that if no one takes care of you, you'll exhaust yourself."

The cabin remained quiet for a long time, the sound of the engines filling the silence.

"zero."

"What if Lu Mingze keeps sleeping?" Lu Mingfei turned his head to look at her. "What if he never wakes up again?"

"Then it's just you left," Zero said.

Lu Mingfei was completely speechless.

He thought about it and felt that the logic itself wasn't wrong, but there was one thing that just didn't add up. Of all the people he knew, none of them treated taking care of others as a mission. Some did it casually, some were used to it, but this level of precision and intensity…

"So, are you watching me drink water and sleep because of him, or because of me?" Lu Mingfei asked in a different phrasing.

Zero raised his eyes and looked at him for a moment.

"It's because of you now," she said.

The casual conversation ended there. She picked up the tablet again and swiped it toward Lu Mingfei: "There are three more pages in the briefing."

"Can I not watch it?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"Take a look," Zero pushed the tablet across the table and brought up the underwater structure map of Bronze City. "Scan the general terrain within thirty minutes."

Looking at the screen full of alchemical matrices and geological data, Lu Mingfei scratched his head: "Zero, have you considered that most people might not be able to handle your forceful approach?"

She stopped flipping through the documents. She looked up and stared directly at Lu Mingfei.

"Can't you take it anymore?"

Lu Mingfei immediately lowered his head: "I'm watching, it looks pretty fast."

Zero looked away and continued reading her documents. The cabin reading light shone on her profile, her light blonde hair falling to her chest, obscuring her expression.

Thirty minutes later, Lu Mingfei pushed the tablet back.

Zero checked the pages he had browsed, randomly inspected two details, and after Lu Mingfei confirmed that everything was correct, he ticked a box on the terminal: "The preparations are complete. You can rest well for the next eight hours."

Lu Mingfei leaned back in his chair, turning his head toward the porthole filled with stars.

He said casually, "You just said you met him when you were thirteen."

"Yes."

"Before that, you were alone."

"Yes."

Were you scared back then?

The low hum of the engine enveloped the problem and carried it away to some distant place.

"I've forgotten," Zero said. "When something lasts long enough, it ceases to be a feeling."

He knew what she meant by that feeling. Soaking in LCL solution long enough will make that suffocating sensation disappear. Your lungs will accept that as the shape of air; you'll no longer think it's wrong because you'll forget what's right.

They remained silent, one leaning against the porthole, the other sitting on the opposite side of the aisle.

He didn't know how much time had passed when fatigue overwhelmed him. He shrank deeper into his seat and closed his eyes.

"Lu Mingfei".

"Um……"

"The seat angle is wrong, and your lumbar spine is under pressure."

Lu Mingfei laboriously opened one eye and glanced at her: "I haven't said I want to sleep yet."

"You've closed your eyes." Zero had already stood up and reached over to press the adjustment knob. The backrest slowly lowered. "You need the correct posture."

"You even want to control what I do when I sleep?"

"Yes."

"it is good."

Lu Mingfei completely gave up, letting the chair recline him.

The girl, known as the Ice Queen of Kassel, bent down and took out a cashmere blanket to cover him. She carefully tucked in the collar and the drafty edges, her movements practiced and swift.

The blanket was warm and had a faint fragrance.

Lu Mingfei was momentarily dazed, and the pungent smell of disinfectant suddenly flashed through his mind. When he woke up after his Unit-03 was torn apart by Unit-01, the short-haired girl was standing by his bedside.

Rei Ayanami doesn't know how to comfort people, nor does she understand what gentleness is. Everyone in that world keeps their softness too tightly closed, as if they're afraid that if they loosen their grip, they'll shatter.

Lu Mingfei knew that no one could replace the people of the past, just as he himself could not become a substitute for someone else. But sometimes, there are just such people in the world, who possess a certain quality that you can recognize.

"Zero." He didn't open his eyes; his voice was already drowsy.

"explain."

"Thank you."

"...Go to sleep."