The supermarket's glass doors slid open, and a blast of air-conditioning hit Lu Mingfei in the face, along with the tacky strains of "Happy Days" blaring from the speakers. He picked up a red shopping basket, grabbed a carton of bagged milk with a yellow discount sticker from the refrigerated section, then bought half a pound of Cantonese sausage at the deli counter.
On his way to the checkout, he took a shortcut through the condiment aisle.
Everything was perfectly ordinary, until he passed through the aisle and his gaze swept over the row of red ketchup bottles.
The supermarket's fluorescent lights cast a reflective sheen over the plastic bottles. Just as Lu Mingfei glanced at them, one seemed to move. The red plastic casing bulged as if something inside were forcing it open, its edges beginning to melt, its color running down the shelves.
The smell of rust suddenly flooded his nostrils. Warm liquid surged toward him from every direction, and the dull sound of tearing metal hammered against his ears.
Clack.
The red shopping basket slipped from his hand and crashed to the floor, scattering bags of milk everywhere. Lu Mingfei stumbled half a step backward and slammed his back into the shelves opposite him, both hands instinctively reaching for control levers.
"Oh, young man! How can you not even hold on to a basket? Is your blood sugar low?"
A middle-aged stock clerk in a red vest poked her head around the corner, her booming voice hitting him like a bucket of cold water. Lu Mingfei drew a breath. The liquid vanished. The shelves were still shelves, the ketchup was still ketchup, and the red stayed safely inside the plastic bottles.
"N-no, I'm fine, ma'am." Lu Mingfei immediately hunched his shoulders. "Got up too fast. A little dizzy."
He hurriedly scooped the milk and sausage back into the basket and bolted for the checkout as if fleeing for his life.
As he passed the residential compound's gatehouse, the elderly guard called him over and handed him a large FedEx envelope, saying it was an international delivery from America.
He opened it to find a Nokia N96 and a letter, with an emblem of a World Tree, half withered and half flourishing, printed on the back.
"They rejected my original application and want me to go to Cassell?"
Holding the envelope, Lu Mingfei suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
He had seen a letter like this before.
In the previous world, the envelope he received had borne half a fig leaf. Beside it had sat a secure military terminal, as thick and heavy as a brick.
In that world, he had submitted his résumé to the Tokyo-3 Municipal Logistics Bureau, applying for a "basic service position." In plain terms, he would be sweeping floors and taking out trash in the underground city's passageways, or hauling compressed biscuits to the shelters.
But that special agency called NERV-a bunch of cyber lunatics who used humanoid weapons dozens of meters tall to grapple with monsters-had intercepted his résumé. The MAGI supercomputer, the supreme crystallization of human intelligence, had hummed away for the better part of a day, only to conclude: this loser had exceptional natural gifts, and recruiting him to serve tea and wait on the pilots would make him nothing less than a uniquely qualified specialist!
To recruit a janitor, the head of the agency had even sent a sweet, gentle young woman to escort him to work. It was as absurd as some third-rate soap opera.
Only later had he learned that they had been watching him from his very first day in that world.
Was it the same here?
Lu Mingfei turned on the phone. The battery was still more than half full, and its address book held a single contact: "Professor Guderian."
A distant air-raid siren sounded in his ears again. He instinctively looked up. The sky was clear, and birds flew freely overhead.
He shook his head, tucked the envelope inside his shirt, and carried the milk upstairs.
The moment he pushed open the security door, his aunt's full-throated barrage erupted right on cue. "I sent you out for milk-did you go all the way to Inner Mongolia to squeeze it fresh?! Get over here and trim the celery on the table!"
Lu Mingfei kept his head down and changed his shoes.
"Are you deaf?"
"...Yeah."
"Did you buy my Novel Painting?" Lu Mingze sprawled on the living room sofa in an oversized T-shirt, the flesh of his cheeks pressing down onto his chin, his mouth slightly open and his eyes fixed on the television.
Lu Mingfei walked over and held out the garishly decorated magazine.
But the instant the fat boy reached for it, Lu Mingfei did not let go. He simply held on to his end of the magazine and stared down at his younger cousin.
Lu Mingze.
He silently rolled the name around in the back of his throat.
He could not make the pieces fit.
The face before him and the little boy in his memories, with golden eyes and an impeccably tailored black suit, clearly belonged to two different people.
"..."
"Have you gone stupid?" Unnerved by his unwavering stare, Lu Mingze yanked the magazine away. "Why do you look like you're about to ask me for money?"
His hand abruptly emptied, and Lu Mingfei came back to himself.
"No." Lu Mingfei slipped his hand back into his trouser pocket. "I just thought you looked thinner lately. You've even got a jawline now."
"Seriously?!" Delighted, Lu Mingze immediately straightened his back and sucked in his stomach. "I thought all that basketball I've been playing was paying off! Right?"
Lu Mingfei said nothing more and carried the bag into the kitchen.
Night fell.
Lu Mingfei sat on the little balcony outside the bedroom, the sliding door left slightly ajar behind him. The summer night breeze drifted over the city, carrying the lingering warmth of asphalt and the smell of mosquito coils.
In Tokyo-3, there were no sounds after dark.
As soon as the last light of dusk faded, special armor plates dozens of meters thick would descend with a thunderous rumble, locking the entire city inside an underground fortress. The nights there were silent, save for the ventilation system pumping air around the clock, like the labored breathing of a dying behemoth.
Lu Mingfei rested his chin on his knees and listened to the wind, but his ears were still waiting.
Waiting for the shrill, piercing wail of an air-raid siren.
Waiting for glaring red light to slash through the night, for the cold, mechanical female voice over the loudspeakers to announce without emotion, "A special state of emergency has been declared," for the earth beneath his feet to crumble under an Angel's ponderous footsteps.
The wind threaded through the gaps between buildings and stirred the curtains. A truck passed in the distance, its engine noise rolling toward him and then away. The convenience store downstairs was still lit. Someone smoked by the entrance, the red tip of the cigarette brightening and dimming.
Fifteen minutes passed. Then half an hour.
The wicker chair's armrests creaked under his grip.
Nothing unusual happened.
A mosquito with mottled legs buzzed down onto his calf. Golden light flickered, and an invisible force field pinned the mosquito to the wall, leaving a smear of blood.
Attachment: [Confidential / Designated readers only]
From: Personnel Bureau / Tactical Operations Department, NERV Headquarters, Special Agency Directly Subordinate to the United Nations
To: Mr. Lu Mingfei (Designated residential zone identification code: T3-8092)
Regarding your application for a [basic service position] submitted to the Tokyo-3 Municipal Logistics Bureau, the Joint Review Committee has issued its final ruling. On the grounds of "incompatible overall aptitude," the bureau has declined your application.
However, pursuant to Article 7 of the "United Nations Act on the Coordination of Defense Personnel under Special Circumstances," your baseline physiological data and background records have been placed under the full authority of the special agency NERV (a special defense organization directly subordinate to the United Nations) and transferred to its custody.
Cross-referencing and aptitude calculations conducted by this headquarters' MAGI system have confirmed that you meet our exceptional recruitment criteria for the position of [Special Logistics Officer (Qualified Personnel Living Assistance Section)]. Accordingly, this agency hereby formally issues you an exceptional recruitment authorization.
Pursuant to special regulations of the Tactical Operations Department, should you elect to accept this recruitment, please activate the dedicated communications terminal enclosed with this letter within twenty-four hours of reading this notice, and contact Second Lieutenant Maya Ibuki of the Technical Bureau's Intelligence Analysis Section directly. Second Lieutenant Ibuki is currently conducting a special inspection in the surface special district and will assume full responsibility for arranging your final interview.
Please also direct any questions concerning the handover of duties to Second Lieutenant Ibuki.
We sincerely look forward to your assumption of duties.
Respectfully.
General Affairs Bureau, NERV Headquarters