blogombal Arrival at 012
Arrival at 012
The red sea was calm.
He remembers that peace.
The world is rotten, and there is no sound anymore.
Ayanami stood on the shore, looking at him, and opened her mouth as if to say goodbye.
But before she could utter a sound, her body collapsed. Like a pile of building blocks that had lost their weight, she instantly turned into a puddle of LCL solution, splashing onto the parched earth.
She never needed to speak. Sometimes he felt that all the truly important things between them were done in silence.
He wanted to ask her how things ended up over there.
But he knew she wouldn't answer.
She just stood there, like an answer he could never decipher.
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The plane encountered slight turbulence, and the fuselage shook slightly. The ice cubes in the glass hit the glass tube, making a crisp sound.
Lu Mingfei opened his eyes.
Above us was the off-white dome of the Gulfstream aircraft, the Sleipnir, with a constant-temperature air conditioner blowing out a gentle breeze carrying a faint scent of fragrance.
He instinctively held his breath, raised his right hand, and touched his neck.
Nono was sitting on the sofa on the other side of the aisle.
She curled her legs up on the sofa, crossed her arms over her chest, and stared intently at him.
"The way you sleep is very strange," Nono broke the silence first.
"What's considered normal?" Lu Mingfei picked up the ice water on the table and took a sip.
The water was cold and slid down his esophagus, completely waking him up.
"When a normal person has a nightmare, they frown, sweat, scream, and tremble." Nono stared into his eyes. "But you, you just stopped breathing for a full forty-five seconds."
"For a full forty-five seconds. I thought you were going to die."
"And yet you just stood there watching, not even offering me a token gesture of artificial respiration." Lu Mingfei slammed down his water glass.
Nono felt a little uneasy, and she tried to piece together Lu Mingfei's nightmares through profiling.
But he couldn't piece it together. This loser's resume was shockingly clean—playing StarCraft, having a crush on the class beauty, and being constantly tormented by his aunt. Yet the guy in front of him, who didn't even flinch when he stopped breathing, looked like an old demon who had crawled out of a pile of corpses.
How can two completely different species grow in the same person?
Nono was too lazy to waste words, so she took out a document with the half-decayed World Tree school emblem on it and slid it across the table to his side with a "thud".
"Sign the papers once you've had enough sleep. Kassel doesn't support freeloaders."
Lu Mingfei didn't look at the document. He looked at Nuonuo and asked, "Do you have any long-term bases near Hakone?"
"We don't have permanent staff," she said. "It's not under our jurisdiction."
"Who is in charge?"
Nono stared at him for a while, then pushed the document in front of him.
"Sign first, then try to get information out of me."
"I told you, let's go to Hakone first." Lu Mingfei pushed the documents back untouched.
"Look at what?" Nono squinted. "Enjoy the scenery? Or are you looking for an ex?"
Lu Mingfei glanced at her but didn't say anything.
Nono isn't someone who's willing to admit she cares about something, but she really did care about those few minutes in the hallway.
That feeling made her very uncomfortable.
"Who did you say I looked like yesterday?" Nono leaned back in her chair. "What, that girl dumped you? So you came to Japan to try and kill yourself?"
"There's no one here." Lu Mingfei looked out the porthole. "I can't find her either."
"Did you transfer schools or run away with someone?" Nono sneered provocatively.
"no."
"So she's dead?" Nono pressed on.
"She's not dead."
Lu Mingfei's answer was too quick and too soft, yet it was like an ice spike that unexpectedly pierced Nuonuo's intuition.
Nono was choked by the sudden chill. She angrily pulled on her seatbelt and fastened it tightly: "We've landed! Stop looking like you're about to swallow shit!"
Narita Airport was bustling with activity, and sweet Japanese announcements were playing over the loudspeakers.
"The traveler's knowledge is the same..."
Lu Mingfei understood it perfectly. The next sentence on the broadcast should have been a piercing alarm, followed by a cold, mechanical female voice:
"Emergency Situation. Angels Attack. Armor plates one through eight are being locked. All non-combat personnel, proceed to the shelter immediately."
But no. The announcement only reminded a passenger named Yuan to go to the boarding gate.
The Kassel College Japan branch had already arranged a car. A black Lexus sedan was parked on the side of the road, and the driver, dressed in a black suit, respectfully opened the car door.
Lu Mingfei and Nuonuo got into the back seat, and the car smoothly drove out of the airport and merged into the traffic in Tokyo.
Neon signs lit up one after another on both sides of the street, their colorful lights shimmering on car windows. Under the overpass, groups of high school students walked by, chatting and laughing. Red lanterns hung outside izakayas, and the aroma of grilled meat wafted out.
Lu Mingfei lowered the car window slightly, and the summer night breeze ruffled his hair.
This is real.
But it's real there too.
In his memory, the city was long gone. It had been reduced to scorched earth in the war triggered by the Second Impact. Later, people rebuilt the Second and Third Neo-Tokyo cities to the west of the ruins; they were pure war fortresses. Skyscrapers could be sunk underground, missile silos were hidden beneath asphalt roads, and massive cables stretched like veins across every corner of the city.
He looked at a tall office building by the roadside, where an LED sign showed a popular female idol holding a perfume bottle and smiling brightly.
In a daze, the building suddenly lost power. Large sections of glass on the exterior walls detached, and thick bolts sprang out from both sides, firmly wedging the building in place. Then, amidst a piercing mechanical screeching sound, the entire building began to slowly sink into the ground, creating a battlefield large enough for giant monsters to fight each other.
Lu Mingfei suddenly closed his eyes.
When I opened my eyes again, the building was still the same one, and the female star on the big screen was holding up a perfume bottle and winking at me.
Before he left, that world was already rotten. Did that good-for-nothing Shinji ultimately hold on? Was Unit-01 still hanging in the sky? He had no idea.
After driving through Tokyo for a while, the car entered the Tomei Expressway.
The city lights gradually faded into the distance, leaving behind a continuous stretch of dark mountains.
"We're going straight to Hakone." Nono looked at the route on the GPS. "The branch office has booked a hotel halfway up the mountain. It'll be about an hour from now."
Lu Mingfei nodded, his gaze fixed on the darkness outside the window.
Hakone, Lake Ashi.
A scenic tourist destination with famous hot springs, a lake with a view of Mount Fuji, ancient shrines, and throngs of tourists.
But on Lu Mingfei's map, it has another name.
Third New Tokyo City. NERV Headquarters. Underground City.
"Once we get there, how do you plan to find it?" Nono suddenly asked.
"How do I find it?"
"You can fool Guderian, but you can't fool me." Nono turned her head and looked at him in the dim light. "You're not here for sightseeing; you're looking for something."
Lu Mingfei remained silent for a while.
"I'm not looking for anything." He looked at the mountain peaks gradually taking shape ahead. "I'm just going to enjoy the scenery."
"Do we need the branch's cooperation?" Nono asked. "If you want to go into the mountains and forests, it's best to have the branch send a local to guide you."
"No need," Lu Mingfei refused outright.
The mountain road winds and twists, and after passing the last sharp bend, the view suddenly opens up.
Nestled amidst towering mountains, a vast lake lies silently in the night. Its surface, like a black mirror, reflects scattered starlight.
That is Lake Ashi.
"Stop the car," Lu Mingfei suddenly said.
The driver was taken aback, stepped on the brakes, and stopped the car at the edge of the viewing platform.
Lu Mingfei got out of the car and walked straight to the railing, looking down at the vast lake below.
"Is this the place you insisted on coming to?" Nono walked to his side, her long, dark red hair dancing wildly in the wind. "The scenery is indeed beautiful, perfect for hanging yourself or jumping into the lake."
Nono looked at his profile and sensed that he was hesitating.
Lu Mingfei stood there, not afraid of what was inside.
He was afraid there was nothing inside.
"Yes," he murmured softly, his voice carried away by the wind.