Moon Theory (ABO)Ch62 - slowly, falling in

“I wasn’t able to take more supplies,” Noah says, leaning against his chair and crossing his arms. Unperturbed once again – how he can shift so quickly is commendable. “The Nordak bank has burned down, and now the only major cryobank nearby is in the Nexus – lest we traverse onto a different continent. Quite improbable unless you’re willing to risk air travel.”

“No.” Hyun also assumes back to business. “The radiation would cause irreparable mechanical failures. The difficulty of procuring a plane aside, we’d need countless safety gear. And no one is suicidal enough to ride a plane that may explode at any given moment—” GX97ye

“—I’ve done it,” Yang Rong cuts in. “I jumped down from several too and survived with a papercut.”

Noah ignores him entirely. “No matter. The Nexus cryobank is the only one we can… pilfer from, regardless. The problem is actually having access to it, considering I’ve… lost my ID—Shi Luo’s ID. I have no credentials to access the bank nor can I even go inside the city at this rate. The sensors will go off the moment I step in.”

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Hyun reaches into his pockets and pulls out a sleek white card. “Noah, I still have your civilian ID. Even if you cannot access the cryobanks, at least you can get into the city. You told me your card can turn off the sensors?”

“—Noah’s ID?” Yang Rong cuts in interestedly. “Let me see—” ndIVgT

“It can,” Noah answers as he takes the card and slips it into his pocket, fully ignoring Yang Rong who is trying to catch a glimpse. “That’s why I’ve given it to you just in case. However, it is really… inconvenient to use it. My information will be sent to the access database.”

Hyun nods slowly. “You’re still hiding?”

“…” Noah shakes his head. “My records show I am dead. It would be unnerving, lightly speaking, to see a dead person show up on the entry list.”

Hyun’s eyebrows raise up. “You’ve never told me this. I thought you were only hiding.”

“…No,” Noah sighs softly, brushing back a strand of his hair. “I use Shi Luo’s duplicate ID to get around places. My own ID is for emergency usage. Normally, they wouldn’t check but there is always a risk of being caught. Besides, I…”

He ponders for a moment before opening his mouth again. “Nevermind. The fact is we cannot get inside the city for a while. For any material we need to procure, we’d have to purchase it outside the border. Do we have enough—”

“—Noah,” Yang Rong cuts him off again. The man leans against him, sneaks an arm around his waist and says, “Noah, pay attention to me.”

“…” Noah glances at the man that’s hugging him tightly from the back, latching onto him like a deprived koala. Yang Rong’s jaw rests on his uninjured shoulder and it tickles – especially when Yang Rong hovers his lips close to the base of his neck. Noah says sharply, “Colonel Yang, if you have nothing of value to contribute, then don’t distract me.” YEMAtW

“I have many things to contribute,” the man answers, seemingly pleased by the nonresistance. “I want to add that I have a special ID as well.”

Noah blinks slowly. “That’s right… I had forgotten. Colonel Yang, it is lucky that someone of your status can have access to such things. Otherwise, I would’ve never been able to enter the cryobank.”

“Hm…” Yang Rong ponders for a while before saying, “Not correct. This is classified information, but there is not any special permit assigned to a soldier. The only exception is to those with an exceptional background, rank, and war merit—to my knowledge, there is only the current general. The only reason such a permit is granted to him is so he may skip the screening process when transporting hundreds of live anomalies at a time.”

Unbeknownst to Colonel Yang, there is elongated silence around him. Allaire and Hyun listens attentively while Noah… stiffens in place. Yang Rong continues, “You are lucky, little kitten, that you ended up meeting me. My military ID was modified by the general as an exception.” ys3Ja6

Suddenly, Noah feels a bit short of breath. His throat turns dry and his body is giving out slight tremors that would be unnoticeable if not for Yang Rong being this close.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“…” Rbjt mbwqbrfr tlwrfio. “Cc fzmfqalbc. Qts?”

Tjcu Ebcu, bnfgis qfgmfqalnf, ogbkcr ja Rbjt’r bynlber rlucr bo vlragfrr. Lf ralii jcrkfgr, tbkfnfg. “Xfcfgji Wlf lr atf bcf ktb gjlrfv wf veglcu mtlivtbbv. Lf xcbkr bo ws mbcvlalbc.”

“…” A surge of emotions flit through his face – hesitance, anger, sorrow, fear. It is good that the colonel cannot see clearly from this angle. Noah only says, as calmly as he can, “I see.” dU3pc9

“—Rbjt,” Ciijlgf mear lc ja atlr wbwfca. Ktf sbecu kbwjc rilvfr j meq bo kjafg ab tlw, j rlifca ufraegf obg tlw ab mjiw vbkc. Vtf ibbxr ab tlw jcv rjsr, “Ktf abqlm P kjcafv ab ajix ab sbe jybea lr qfgajlclcu Xfcfgji Wlf. Lf mjwf ab atf rtbq ab vb j yeix qegmtjrf j ofk kffxr qglbg. Pa kjr ecereji obg tlw ab mbwf—kf’v boafc ufa rwjiifg wlilajgs eclar, yea obg atf ufcfgji tlwrfio ab rtbk eq… Pa kjr j regqglrf obg regf. Ufgtjqr tf’r bc j wlrrlbc lc atf jgfj bg qfgtjqr… bc j kbgra-mjrf rmfcjglb, Jbwwjcv tjr ubaafc jtbiv bo rbwf gewbgr atja kf rtfiafg atf lcofmafv.”

Hyun chimes in, “The man has abnormally keen senses and our small hideout has only gotten more populated recently. We’ll no longer be able to lay low.”

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“The night you came, Hyun sighted several military men. They had come to exterminate and capture the increasingly violent creatures in the area.”

“There was a whole group by the forest,” Hyun continues to say. His words are muted to Noah’s ears. “I couldn’t spot General Xie, but I recognize one of the men who had previously came here.” csA02e

They speak nonstop but Noah registers close to nothing. His heartrate is uneven in between his chest and his breathing is strained. Where Colonel Yang’s forearm hugs him tightly on the waist, Noah feels sudden tingling that won’t go away. The trembles turn into harsh tremors that crawl up his chest, scrape through the scars on his body, send rough palpitations to his heart.

Anxiety overwhelms him just as quickly as he rips the colonel’s arm away and stands up so abruptly the chair clatters behind. To the concerned gazes of the three around him, Noah merely sweeps back his bangs, wipes away a sheen of sweat on his temple, and says, “I will be gone for a bit.”

He leaves the canteen area, the voices behind him falling on deaf ears.

He doesn’t stop walking, heading past the adjoining hallway and making convoluted turns in the maze-like shelter. Noah’s steps are unhesitant and practiced – he has mapped out the place, has been here many times before, and the direction he’s going in is the one he’s most familiar with. uBGU2o

Noah reaches a small isolated room. Unlit. The place is barely twenty square meters and doesn’t even have a door. There is zero furniture, nothing that decorates the plain walls and the equally as plain floor tiles sans a spinet piano.

The antique instrument is made of brittle oakwood, enamel and some compound mixes of the late eighteenth century – extremely flimsy and barebones. The harpsichord seems to have been picked up from some dumpster long ago gauging from how many scratches there are on its surface. It is also incredibly worn out, indicated by not just the old wood, but by the heavily pressed keys.

The center of them is almost scrubbed off from overuse, the enamel chipped to a pathetic state. Noah sits on the chair in front and traces his fingers over the keys, gently pressing them to test the sound. A wavering, crude note. The instrument is expectedly out of tune – he hadn’t readjusted it for months.

He doesn’t bother, however, to retune it as he plays several low notes, his slender fingers tapping on the contrasting dull oak. His mind is blank when he plays more for catharsis than anything else. Noah remains deadpan, his eyes half-lidded and his expression undecipherable. 1h97cv

Soon, a low melody resounds from the room down to the halls. Surprisingly, the sound can be considered pleasant to hear despite the off notes. Noah enhances the quality of it, his fingers flitting across in rapid, elegant movements, entirety trained to play. He isn’t playing anything in particular – just soft beats, low strums, a completely improvised performance for himself alone.

It’s unknown how long he plays for – an hour, two hours, maybe three – but Noah only remains in the same sitting posture, tapping away in blankness. He can probably go on for a whole day, a whole week, perhaps, with how robotic his tempo is. Never a long pause between keys, the enamel coating chipping off more and more with each press.

It is not until he hears his name being called (five times) that he shifts his eyes away from oakwood, turning to the person who has entered.

“Noah.” Yang Rong stands against the empty doorframe, watching him pensively. His back is lit by slivers of white from outside the halls, contrasting with the dim room. Dark green eyes are fixed to Noah’s upright posture and Noah’s calm, empty expression. The colonel holds out an arm and taps at his wrist, a gesture to show time. “Take a rest.” uRSbVB

“In a bit.”

He replies simply, emotionlessly.

He turns back and resumes sliding his fingers across the keys, elegant and graceful as he always is. Noah ignores the additional presence in the room and just continues to play – a trained reaction, because he copes by dissociation. He is desperate to stop thinking.

Then, he feels warmth when Yang Rong slides onto the seat next to him and presses a key on the bass clef. The note is incongruous with the melody’s flow, and Noah blinks himself back to awareness. He takes a glance at Yang Rong. 9BrDXm

“…?”

“I just wanted your attention,” Yang Rong says as he presses another key, prompting Noah to stop. “I want to speak to you about earlier.”

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Noah hums. “What about earlier?”

“I’ve come to apologize for being too forward.” The man looks at him and says quietly, “I have scared you away again.” Tam10S

Noah glances at him and is taken aback from how actually apologetic he looks. Pure undisguised sincerity not masked by anything else. Noah sighs softly.

“When you act like this, I really do not know how to respond.” He waves his fingers in dismissal and says, “It is fine. This doesn’t pertain to you.”

“If it doesn’t, then I’d like to know why you ran away.” Colonel Yang taps gently against oakwood and continues, his voice softened to match, “Although, I may already have a hunch.”

“Your hunch?” 5rcWSQ

Yang Rong stays silent for a moment before answering, weighing each individual syllable of his words. “General Xie’s son was written off as dead twelve years ago during the border breach.”

A flash of surprise – mixed with alarm then sorrow. An eerily quick flip of emotions later and Noah lets out a sudden chuckle, his lips curving into a small smirk. “General Xie himself has considered his son dead for twenty-one years.”

There is probably a multitude of sentences hanging on the tip of the colonel’s tongue, but instead of questioning him, Yang Rong replies, “I see.”

Noah only goes back into pressing the piano keys, stretching his hand to hit the bass clef, allowing Yang Rong to compromise most of his left side. The man watches him silently as he plays. It is rather mesmerizing to see Noah like this – downcast lids, soft pink lips complemented by softer silver hair, his appearance prettier than the music played by the tips of his slender fingers. dskz4Q

The old spinet piano really doesn’t match his pristine features. But again, none of the things in the slums match him regardless. Even the big shelter here, no matter how catered the furniture is to him, is only a grimy underground hole that Noah shouldn’t be contained in. There is no place that really suits him, after all, when he’s so much of a runaway, an exile, that he has nowhere to be.

Five minutes later, when the melody softens into a light strum, Noah rests his hands on brittle oakwood and says, “I’ve often played the piano when I was young. I’m not so well-versed anymore, so it may be hard to hear. Have I bothered you?”

“Not at all,” Yang Rong replies as he props his elbow on top of the piano frame. “Whatever you play, little kitten, it’ll sound good. I only worry you’ve turned into a robot.”

“I used to live in the inner city.” Noah stretches his legs on the instrument pedals. “We had a grand piano, not an old spinet like this. The place I resided in was probably a hundred times larger than this room. It was so big and the layout of it so vast it’d take a year for the common person to grow familiar with it. I was in there long enough that even now, I can chart the entire floorplan with my eyes closed.” Hag2yM

Yang Rong hums. “You are good at that – finding your way around places, I mean. A trained skill. The first thing anyone does when they enter a foreign place is to explore the vicinity, look around here and there. But you, Noah, measure the length of the walls, test the hollowness of them, scrutinize every route and every end, break down the architecture piece by piece.”

Noah blinks at him. “…You pay attention to such trivial things.”

“Naturally,” the man answers with a wink. “If you tell me more about yourself, Rong-ge will embed it into memory.”

Noah doesn’t know why he’s compelled to talk more – it may be that Yang Rong, with his unimposing soft tee and casual trousers, dimly lit by streaks of white coming from the entranceway, looks less a colonel than an ordinary person. He doesn’t have the firearms slung over his shoulders nor does he have the black dagger strapped to his belt. At this proximity, there is certain poignancy that Noah is pressed to answer. aem1N

“…I’d lived there for roughly nine years,” he says quietly. “From birth. It wasn’t often that I stepped outside, else I’d get strange looks and unwelcomed questions. I used to dye my hair a lot, but my eyelashes and brows may give it away if examined closely. My mother used to apply kohl to cover my features but eventually, she became too… irrational after the mutation consumed her.”

Yang Rong stares at him with a soft frown. “The mutation? Your mother was infected?”

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“When she was pregnant. She may have been the first of humans to survive the infection for so long. The changes were very subtle, but eventually she’d morphed into an aggressive hybrid.”

Noah speaks very objectively, not letting out an ounce of emotion in his words. It is a slight curl of his fingers that indicates repressed emotion – Yang Rong, of course, is preternaturally perceptive. When Noah continues, he assumes the same monotonous, businesslike tone. “When the radiation changed the environmental landscape over three decades ago, Earth’s terrestrial creatures evolved to survive. Herbivores had gone extinct along with withered flora and eventually, nearly every animal began feeding on anything of sustenance. Human hybrids reflect this diet as well – able to feed on sea anomalies to ground animals to other vertebrates, including humans.” wM7bES

Colonel Yang furrows his brows, perplexed by the strange change in topic. He doesn’t say anything, however, merely staring as Noah taps his nails lightly against the piano. Light taps turn more insistent. Noah seldom shows any fidgety habits. He must’ve been too distracted to notice when he’d begun tapping the keys hard enough for them to make sounds. He pauses and then purses his lips.

“My mother was of good moral character,” Noah says. “It is only on sporadic occasions that she would morph out of control. Some instances… well, I’ve forgotten now. It has been too long ago.”

“You’ve forgotten,” the colonel repeats. “Then Noah, why are you trembling like this?”

He vaguely realizes it’s not only his fingers that are quivering, but his entire body is as well. He’s racked with mini shivers that crawl up his limbs – the same as before, though this time, his scars feel split apart. Dull aches turn into sudden sharp pains that render him paralyzed, and really, he can’t move, can’t even make a sound until Yang Rong wraps him into a firm embrace. DobTlY

The colonel’s arms aren’t gentle nor soft. Those battle-hardened hands aren’t meant to comfort him gently nor are they meant to knead him slowly. Yang Rong’s ironlike torso is enough to knock his breath away and Yang Rong’s entire frame, probably more than twice of his in muscle mass, can break him easily.

Yet, Noah thinks the colonel is sturdy enough to keep him from falling out.

“Noah,” Yang Rong murmurs close his ears. Firm arms hold him tightly and Yang Rong says again, “I’m sorry, Noah.”

“Yang Rong,” Noah whispers so quietly, the words only audible in such a confined space, “why are you apologizing?” AdIxBv

“I don’t know,” the man replies. “All I know is that you are hurt.”