White smoke curled around the crater at Ōwakudani, and the streets were full of tourists in yukata and wooden sandals. Wind chimes hung in the shops along the way, jangling in the breeze, lending everything the lazy ease of a peaceful world.
"Get up! The sun's already burning your butt!"
The paper door rattled as it was yanked roughly open. Nono kicked off her slippers, strode into the room, and tore the blanket off Lu Mingfei.
Nono wore a bright yellow outdoor jacket that day, her red hair tied in a neat high ponytail. Arms folded, she looked down at the corpse on the tatami, which seemed not to have regained its soul yet. Rather than waste words, she flung a clean T-shirt straight into Lu Mingfei's face.
"Wash up, get dressed, and meet me in the lobby in ten minutes. Today, I'll show you how to squander Cassell's funds." She turned to leave, then tossed another line over her shoulder at the door. "Say you're not going, and I'll strip you naked and hang you over the crater."
Half an hour later, they stood on the observation deck overlooking Ōwakudani's crater.
"Open up."
A badly peeled black egg was roughly shoved into Lu Mingfei's mouth.
"The locals say one egg adds seven years to your life. Looking at you, like you might drop dead any second, you'll need at least a basketful to make it worthwhile."
Lu Mingfei froze for a moment. The yolk caught in his throat and made his eyes roll, but a warmth he hadn't felt in a long time stirred inside him.
"Seven years?" Lu Mingfei mumbled around the boiled egg. "Do those seven years count toward my last life or this one?"
"You're talking nonsense." Nono rolled her eyes and stuffed the other half of the mangled egg into his mouth. "Less talking, more eating!"
That afternoon, they boarded a pirate ship for a cruise around Lake Ashi.
The sightseeing boat was extravagantly designed, its deck packed with tourists taking pictures. Children darted through the crowd, playing and chasing one another. Sunlight spilled across the broad, shimmering lake. The distant mountains were a lush green, and blue skies and white clouds reflected in the water, as beautiful as a postcard with the saturation turned up.
The enormous old-fashioned sailing ship cut through the waves on the deep blue lake, a breeze stirring Nono's dark red hair. She leaned against the wooden railing on the second deck, holding two cups of shaved ice slathered with thick strawberry jam, and pushed one into Lu Mingfei's hand.
"Well? Has the breeze blown any of the mold out of your brain?" Nono bumped his shoulder with hers, her smile bold and bright.
The sun was fierce, and the shaved ice melted fast.
Scarlet strawberry syrup ran over the rim of the plastic cup and dripped onto the back of Lu Mingfei's hand. Sticky, bright red, and cold.
Beside him, Nono's gaze shifted slightly. Her fingers, resting loosely on the railing, quietly tensed.
Lu Mingfei blinked, took a tissue from his pocket, and casually wiped the syrup off his hand. Then he picked up his spoon and scooped up a mouthful of red-coated ice.
"Too sweet, Nono," he complained, turning toward the blue lake.
He remembered a rare day off, when NERV had actually given the pilots a break. The research institute's ecological pavilion had recreated the ocean as it had been before the Second Impact. Asuka had splashed around in a showy red swimsuit, insisting everyone join her in a water fight. Shinji had scrambled to dodge the splashes, while he stood beside Ayanami in front of an enormous glass wall, watching schools of fish swim through the blue seawater.
"Once we've won the war," Asuka had announced loudly, swimming over, soaking wet, and clutching the edge of the pool, "I'll take you all to see the real ocean! One that hasn't been polluted!"
The sky was blue. The water was blue.
This was the ocean she had wanted to see. It was a lake, but close enough.
"Lu Mingfei."
Something cold suddenly pressed against his cheek.
Lu Mingfei came back to himself. Nono was holding her cup of iced oolong tea against his face. She tilted her head slightly, a trace of concern almost hidden in her expression. "What are you looking at? Your eyes have wandered miles away."
"The clouds." Lu Mingfei smiled, and this time his smile was much lighter. "Someone once told me a beautiful sunset was like orange soda."
Nono followed his gaze toward the fiery clouds on the horizon and remarked blithely, "Well, that says a lot about her taste."
Night fell over the Japanese hot spring inn halfway up the mountain.
After their lavish kaiseki dinner, the kimono-clad proprietress politely reminded them that the inn's rear courtyard had an outdoor bath fed by a natural volcanic spring, where they could soak away the day's fatigue.
"I'm not going."
Every time he sat in the cockpit, the LCL that filled the entry plug was this same temperature. He had had enough of that liquid enveloping his body and flooding his lungs.
"I'm going back to my room to play on my handheld." Lu Mingfei turned to leave.
"Stop."
Nono stood at the end of the hallway in a loose yukata, a towel in her hand, watching him with a half smile.
"You're even afraid to get in the water?" She looked Lu Mingfei up and down, her lips curling wickedly. "What, afraid I'll peek at you from the women's bath? You innocent little loser?"
The corner of Lu Mingfei's eye twitched sharply. Under that provocative stare, he sighed and reluctantly admitted defeat.
Fine. If I want to fit back into the normal world, I'll have to get past this sooner or later.
Only a bamboo fence, not particularly tall, separated the men's bath from the women's.
The spring water really was pleasant: clear, with a faint mineral scent. Water trickled from a bamboo pipe over an artificial rock formation.
Amid the rising steam, he couldn't help remembering their hot spring trip together.
Back then, Asuka had loudly mocked Shinji for being a coward from the other side of the wall, just like this. Misato had whooped and hollered over iced beer in the women's bath, and even Pen Pen the penguin had splashed up jets of water three feet high, drenching his head and face.
"Hey-Lu Mingfei!"
Nono's clear voice came from the women's bath beyond the tall bamboo fence, accompanied by the sound of splashing water.
Lu Mingfei tensed. "What?"
"Just say something. I'm worried you've drowned." Nono gave a little laugh on the other side. "They've got mystery picks of sake over here. My treat. Want some?"
Listening to the splashing next door, Lu Mingfei finally let all the tension leave his shoulders. He tilted his head back and looked at the bright stars in the night sky, a gentle smile tugging at his lips.
Yeah. It's too quiet.
If that noisy bunch were here, they'd probably already be fighting over the towels.
"...I'm just enjoying life, Nono." Lu Mingfei lowered half his face into the water, blew a string of bubbles, and answered her through the bamboo fence.
Nono's satisfied humming drifted over from the other side.
Late that night, the inn fell quiet. Only the bamboo deer scarer, filling with water, struck the stone with a crack, its hollow sound echoing through the darkness.
Lu Mingfei had changed into a clean yukata and sat on the wooden veranda outside his room, staring blankly at the dry landscape garden.
Light footsteps sounded at the end of the corridor.
Nono had also changed into a clean yukata, her hair pinned loosely behind her head and giving off a faint scent of shampoo. Carrying two cans of chilled oolong tea, she sat down beside him, leaving half a person's width between them.
With a click, she pulled a tab open and handed Lu Mingfei a can.
"Feeling any better?" Nono watched the moonlight in the courtyard rather than looking at him, her voice carrying the casual gentleness found only between friends.
Lu Mingfei looked down at the oolong tea in his hand, beads of condensation forming on the can.
"Nono, one day, the world ended. The sea turned orange-red, and everyone dissolved into orange juice." He sounded as though he were telling an absurd story. "Everyone I knew died."
Nono's fingers tightened slightly around her can.
"Then you open your eyes again, and old men are playing chess and supermarkets are having sales. Your head is full of air-raid sirens, but everywhere you look, it's peaceful as hell."
"You desperately try to find some ruins, or the name of someone who died, but you can't even find a gravestone. It's as if everything you went through was just a schizophrenic hallucination."
Lu Mingfei quietly recounted his past, like an old soldier who had been the sole survivor on a battlefield, hobbling on a cane through positions once awash with blood, only to find they had become an amusement park. Everyone smiled and told him, "War? There was never any war."
He had drifted through eighteen years in this world, accomplishing nothing. His experiences in the previous world had defined who he was now. Yet it was like waking from a nightmare, as though nothing had happened.
"It's good that you can't find them."
Nono turned and looked him straight in the eyes.
Lu Mingfei froze.
"If you can't find them," Nono said, "it means their fates have changed."
Lu Mingfei stared at her.
"Maybe in some parallel world you can't see, that girl who loved drinking orange soda and watching clouds is just an ordinary high school student worrying about her math exams every day. Maybe the person who loved arguing with you is thrilled because she managed to buy a limited-edition dress." Nono reached out and gently patted Lu Mingfei's head, as though soothing a stray cat. "Lu Mingfei, no news is the best news. It means they're living just fine in this world. They don't need you mourning them."
The deer scarer struck again with a crisp crack.
Lu Mingfei lowered his head and looked at his reflection in the water. Then, holding his can, he suddenly began to laugh.
He tipped his head back, took a long swig of oolong tea, and turned toward Nono.
"Nono, this Cassell College of yours..." At last, a little light returned to Lu Mingfei's eyes. "What's the food like?"
Nono's eyes instantly curved into two triumphant crescents, and she slapped him on the back.
"All you can eat! Charcoal-roasted German pork knuckles until you're sick of them!"
"All right." Lu Mingfei smiled. "I'm in."