Lu Mingfei had barely pushed open the dorm room door when a huge dark shape lunged at him.
"Confess! What kind of spell did you put on Zero?" Fingel slammed a hand against the door, his eyes as wide as saucers. "Did you use your winner's privileges from the Day of Freedom? You can't force love, little bro! She already had a bit of a thing for you. Why did you have to strong-arm her?"
"Wait, wait, wait." Lu Mingfei raised a hand to stop him. "What are you talking about?"
"Zero!" Fingel's face twisted with the frustration of someone unable to dislodge something stuck between his teeth, mixed with the jealousy of someone spotting an extra piece of meat in another person's bowl. "The Zero who never talks to anyone! The Zero who froze a senior in his tracks when he tried hitting on her on the first day of school! And what happened today? Cookies! She fed you cookies! She even wiped your mouth!"
"Did you use some kind of Word Spirit during the 3E exam? You could've taken it slow, started as friends, had meals together, gone to class together, let your feelings develop naturally..."
"I didn't."
"...But no, you went and forced things. Who cares if the fruit isn't sweet as long as it quenches your thirst, right?"
Fingel sounded urgent and heartbroken, his features scrunched together as he lost himself completely in his own jealousy-ridden version of events.
"I didn't. Stop making things up." Lu Mingfei pushed him aside and leaned wearily back in his chair. "She was way too pushy. It was uncomfortable. She was in control the whole time. I couldn't refuse to eat them even if I wanted to. Those cookies... Forget it."
Fingel suddenly fell silent.
"Were the cookies she made with love... good?"
"Yes."
Lu Mingfei regretted it the moment he said it.
"Aaaaah! I will never coexist with people who have a life!"
With a howl, Fingel sprang up and threw himself at Lu Mingfei. In an instant, the two were rolling around the dorm room. Fingel used wrestling holds, while Lu Mingfei countered with joint locks. Pillows and sheets went flying.
"Calm down!" Lu Mingfei planted a hand on Fingel's face and shoved him away.
"I can't!" Fingel flailed his limbs like a turtle flipped onto its back. "You booked a private hot spring in Hakone with a redheaded shrine maiden! You got fed by a beautiful Russian girl in the library! You even used the president and the society chairman as stepping stones on the Day of Freedom! You've done all this stuff that only guys with a life get to do, and you still put on that innocent face and say, 'I didn't do anything.' Do you know what people like you are called?"
"What?"
"Clueless bastards!" Fingel broke free of Lu Mingfei's hand. "Your greatest sin isn't having a life. It's not even realizing you have one!"
"I really don't," he said.
"See? See?" Fingel pointed at him. "Exactly that! You look so sincere when you say it that I want to beat you up again!"
They sat on the floor for a while without speaking.
Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened. With the dorm room lights off, the light grew soft and indistinct.
A long-lost sense of ease suddenly rose in Lu Mingfei's heart. The rustle of wind through the leaves outside sounded lovely, and life at Cassell over the past few days had been surprisingly comfortable. The students here were gossipy and thought in bizarre ways, but they were actually pretty easy to get along with.
He thought of Shinji Ikari.
He had only been working at NERV for a few months back then. One day after school, he went to Shinji's classroom so they could head back to NERV together. At the time, Shinji had become deeply withdrawn after Toji Suzuhara punched him in an open lot because Toji's little sister had been caught up in the destruction while Shinji was piloting Unit-01. Kensuke stood nearby, pulling at Toji's arm and saying, "Enough, enough."
Lu Mingfei walked up to Toji, throwing his weight around on the strength of being older and a working adult. "Why did you hit him?"
Toji glared at him. "What's it to you?"
"He's my friend," Lu Mingfei said. "If you hit him, it's my business."
He thought that would be the end of it.
But the next day, Shinji Ikari came to complain to him.
"Lu," he finally said, "could you... stop coming to my classroom?"
Lu Mingfei paused. "Why?"
"Because..." Shinji lowered his head. "Because now everyone thinks I have someone backing me up. Nobody talks to me anymore. Toji goes out of his way to avoid me whenever he sees me."
Lu Mingfei wanted to say, "I was only trying to help," but swallowed the words before they left his mouth.
Everyone in that world was lonely. Shinji was lonely, Ayanami was lonely, and Asuka was lonely. They were like four pebbles tossed into the same glass bottle, and Lu Mingfei had thought he could be the one to bring them together.
Instead, he had only made their collisions hurt more.
"Shinji," Lu Mingfei said, "I'm sorry. I won't come to your classroom anymore."
Shinji looked up, his eyes rimmed red. "That's not what I meant. I was saying..."
"I know." Lu Mingfei patted his shoulder. "You didn't do anything wrong. I did. I thought I was helping you, but really, I was just looking for a way to feel useful."
"But Shinji," Lu Mingfei said, looking at him, "the next time someone hits you, you still have to hit back. Because you don't owe anyone anything."
Shinji lowered his head without a word.
"Fingel."
"Hmm?"
"You don't owe anyone anything."
"Why are you suddenly saying something so weird? It's kind of creepy."
"Nothing. I just remembered a friend."
"Anyway, down to business." Fingel slipped back into his usual flippant tone. "I came to see you about something important, not to flirt with you."
"Who's flirting with you?"
"Shut up." Fingel took a sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. "The Student Union and the Lionheart Society are holding a joint exercise."
"An exercise?"
"Yep. Code name: Operation Bedrock." Fingel spread the paper on the desk and tapped the words with a finger. "You're the one who provoked this."
"Me?"
"You took down Caesar and Chu Zihang single-handedly on the Day of Freedom. Do you have any idea how hard that hit them?" Fingel's tone turned serious.
"Chu Zihang and Caesar went to the principal's office together and talked for an hour," Fingel said. "Then the principal gave this exercise special approval. Do you know what that means?"
"What?"
"It means those two sworn enemies have joined forces for the first time."
Lu Mingfei looked at the paper. "Operation Bedrock" was written across it in large letters, with a smaller line beneath: "Student Union Executive Department × Lionheart Society Joint Task Force."
Fingel turned the sheet over. A more detailed proposal was attached to the back.
"They've invited you to observe phase three tomorrow," Fingel said. "Site reconnaissance and coordination drills."
Lu Mingfei took the paper and began reading by the last bit of light from the window.
The proposal was extremely detailed, covering everything from background and motivation to organizational structure, battle plans, and tabletop simulations.
"The King of Earth and Mountains?" Lu Mingfei read out the hypothetical target.
"Right. They call it the King of Earth and Mountains, but at most they're really simulating a Third-Generation Dragon." Fingel leaned closer. "Storm-type Dragon Kings need simulated weather changes, which cost a fortune. Deep-sea Dragon Kings need an aquatic environment, and we don't have the facilities. Fire-type Dragon Kings set off the fire alarms. Manstein nearly tore them a new one last time. The King of Earth and Mountains' lineage is the easiest to manage."
Lu Mingfei read on.
"It's being held under the academy's Word Spirit suppression, so no Word Spirits?"
"One of the core training objectives." Fingel pointed to a line. "When your Word Spirit fails, what do you have left?"
Lu Mingfei's gaze stopped on the section labeled "Participating Unit Composition."
"Twelve people to simulate a Dragon King?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"Three play the Dragon King itself, and nine play aftershocks, falling rocks, and Word Spirit spillover effects," Fingel explained. "The rule is that three people have to hit the core team simultaneously for it to count as one successful hit. Members of the crustal response team withdraw when they're hit, but one is automatically replenished every three minutes to simulate 'terrain regeneration.'"
Lu Mingfei flipped through the tabletop simulation records that followed.
Round one: collapse after fifteen minutes. The pincer teams failed to coordinate their attacks, and the assault team charged straight into an area dense with crustal responses. Total team wipeout.
Round two: slight improvement, but identifying openings remained chaotic. The Lionheart Society member playing the Dragon King commented, "Every time you charge in, it's when I'm least worried."
Round three: adversarial simulation. The Lionheart Society went off-script, and the formation disintegrated in eight minutes.
During the debrief, the Executive Department said it was unfair.
The Lionheart Society replied: a Dragon King wouldn't follow their script either.
The arrangements for phase three were simple: site reconnaissance and coordination drills on the field east of the academy. Participants were to familiarize themselves with the terrain, test communications equipment, and practice basic formation changes.
"I'll go take a look tomorrow." Lu Mingfei handed the paper back to Fingel.
"I knew you'd say yes." Fingel gave him a meaningful smile. "Oh, and I have some good news for you."
"What?"
"Zero will be there tomorrow too."
"What's she going for?"
"She's the medic for the withdrawal support team." Fingel winked. "Meaning she'll be standing by on-site tomorrow in a medic's uniform, carrying a first-aid kit. Do you know what a medic's uniform looks like? A short white skirt, a red cross-"
"I didn't ask you that!" Lu Mingfei cut him off.
"That's not what your expression just said."
"My expression didn't say anything."
"Your expression said, 'Yes.'" Fingel imitated his earlier tone and burst out laughing.