Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from EVA

080 Moonlight

"This is a Bugatti Veyron, produced by Volkswagen's factory in Molshem, France, a 16-cylinder quad-turbocharged engine..." Nono glanced at Lu Mingfei sideways.

"1001 horsepower, top speed of 407 km/h, and acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.5 seconds," Lu Mingfei exclaimed. "I saw it in a magazine!"

"Then why are you driving so slowly!" Nuonuo yelled, pounced on Lu Mingfei, and shook his shoulders frantically.

"Wow! You're crazy, let go, let go!" Lu Mingfei freed his right hand and started fighting with Nuonuo, the silver-gray sports car swaying left and right on the winding mountain road.

"Step on the gas!"

"Okay, okay, okay! I'll speed up if you let go!"

Lu Mingfei gripped the steering wheel and turned a corner. Nuonuo, propelled by inertia, tumbled back into the passenger seat. She giggled, took off the silver hairpin that held her hair in her mouth, and undid her long hair.

This girl never plays by the rules, making it impossible to understand what's going on in her head.

"Interfering with driving, and not wearing a seatbelt. No wonder this car kept beeping," Lu Mingfei complained. "I thought Caesar hadn't driven this car and it had broken down."

Nono snorted, resting one arm on the car window, her fingers opening and closing in the wind.

"What are you humming about? Buckle up!"

Nono turned her head to look at Lu Mingfei, whose eyes were focused on the road ahead. The Bugatti wasn't suited for mountain driving, but Lu Mingfei kept the car in the middle of the road, leaving ample space for braking and turning.

"Although this campus is called the Mountain Top Campus, it's not actually on the mountaintop. It's halfway up the mountain. Below us are the train station and the Valley Campus," Nono said, fastening her seatbelt. "Let's go up to the mountaintop."

"What's on the mountaintop?"

"Star."

This was Lu Mingfei's first time seeing the campus from the outside, and he realized that it was located halfway up a mountain. A mountain road passed in front of the gate, and looking into the distance, the layers of coniferous forests in the valley undulated in the wind like black waves.

Looking down from the hill, the lights of Kassel College spread out in the night, with Amber Hall being the brightest, next to which was the outline of the clock tower, and further away was the school's artificial lake, where the moonlight shimmered.

Wait, moonlight?

"Hey, there's such a big moon hanging overhead, where are the stars coming from?" Lu Mingfei complained. "What if we get to the top of the mountain and realize we can't see any stars? Do you want me to pick them for you?"

"How could I dare to ask the esteemed S-rank lord to pluck stars for me? I am truly terrified," Nono said in a high-pitched voice.

"But..." Nono said, "there were indeed stars that day."

"Which day?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"Let's listen to some music, the sound system in this car is really good." Nono reached out and turned on the sound system, which played Megumi Hayashibara's cover of "Fly Me To The Moon".

Fly me to the moon~

Lu Mingfei suddenly released the accelerator, the sound of the Bugatti Veyron's engine gradually faded away, the car slowly drove off, and beautiful singing filled the cabin.

Let me frolic among the stars

Let me see what spring looks like on Jupiter and Mars.

In other words, hold my hand

In other words, darling, kiss me.

Let the song fill my heart

Let me sing forever

You are the object of my heart's desire, the object of all my worship and love.

In other words, please be sincere with me.

In other words, I love you

"This song..." Lu Mingfei said slowly, "is very familiar."

"Fly Me to the Moon, that took me to the moon. The first human song played on the moon," Nono said, looking at Lu Mingfei's profile. "It also has another name, In Other Words, in other words..."

"Great, this song is great!" Lu Mingfei suddenly became happy. "I declare this my favorite song! And this singer! I absolutely have to get her autograph!"

Lu Mingfei couldn't help but fantasize that if there were a world without EVA, Rei Ayanami might be a singer. Her voice was very similar to that singer's, and she would definitely have many fans.

He turned his head, and Nono was silently watching him.

Rei Ayanami is Rei Ayanami, and Asuka Langley Soryu is Asuka Langley Soryu. They're still in that world, that world...

After he left, that world must have restarted. It must have been me who held everyone back in that world and ruined the perfectly good Unit 3.

If it weren't for him, perhaps Kensuke would have piloted Unit-03; he always wanted to pilot an EVA.

Without him, in the next reboot, everyone will definitely be able to eliminate EVA's existence, and they will all have their own lives.

I'm sorry, it's all my fault for being so useless.

Lu Mingfei accelerated again, the roar of the engine filling the silence between the two.

"Watch where you're going, turn ahead," Nono said casually.

The moment the yellow traffic sign flashed before Lu Mingfei's eyes, he broke out in a cold sweat and jerked the steering wheel. Fortunately, the Bugatti's chassis was superb, smoothly navigating a 90-degree bend. Had they been even two seconds later, they would have been hurtling off the cliff, and Nuonuo hadn't even blinked.

"Sorry, I was spacing out just now."

The car drove all the way to the end of the winding mountain road, where Lu Mingfei parked it in front of a stone monument blocking the way.

The mountaintop is flat and bare of trees, covered in grass. A spring gushes out from under the rocks, forming a small mountaintop lake. The lake overflows its edge and cascades down the mountain in a snow-white waterfall, the sound of which faintly echoes from the bottom of the cliff.

Nono pushed open the car door and jumped out, kicking off her flat shoes and stepping barefoot onto the stone with a hiss.

"Come with me." Nono walked towards the spring.

Lu Mingfei followed, and the two sat down by the spring, dipping their feet into the water together. A chill crept up from their feet, running down their calves to their knees. Lu Mingfei flinched, and Nuonuo flinched too, glancing at each other simultaneously.

"You're just putting on a brave face." They both pointed at each other and burst into laughter, laughing without restraint.

"Ye Sheng looked so stupid tonight," Nuonuo said, "it made my teeth itch."

Looking at the lights below the mountain, Lu Mingfei saw that the light of the Amber Pavilion was like a warm-colored amber in the night, and Ye Sheng and Aki's happiness was inside it.

"Why?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"What do you think will happen to them in the future?" Nono asked in return.

"We'll go to the farmers' market and learn to cook seafood," Lu Mingfei said. "Yaji will learn to cook, and Ye Sheng will be our swimming coach."

How did you know?

"They said it themselves."

Nono gave an "oh," placed her hands on the rocks behind her, and looked up at the sky.

The moon was very big, and the moonlight was beautiful.

"Lu Mingfei".

"Um?"

Have you thought about the future?

"I haven't thought about it much," he said.

Nono turned to look at him.

Not even a little?

"I've thought about living," Lu Mingfei said, "and I've thought about not dying."

The wind blew up from the valley, and Nono's red hair brushed against her cheek. She raised her hand and tucked it behind her ear.

"What about zero?"

Lu Mingfei tapped his finger on the water's surface, and ripples spread out.

"Zero doesn't care about that," he said.

"You two," Nono sighed, "one a rock, the other ice, so hard you don't even feel the pain when you bump into each other."

"Maybe."

Nono's heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly asked, "Do you like Ling Yao?"

"I like her, why would I let her control me if I didn't?" Lu Mingfei pouted.