Chapter 369: 369 Gundam Seed 10
A few days later, Aria (Nicol) judged that simulations alone were no longer meaningful and began practicing mock battles with 2B and A2. Since the simulation seats happened to be empty, Lacus also decided to join the training, wanting to get some hands-on experience in case a similar situation arose in the future.
In the midst of this, Nana informed me that Kira had finally woken up. So I went to the infirmary.
"Wh-where is this... Oh? Jin?"
"This is Celestial Being’s base."
When I said that, Kira seemed very surprised.
"How did I end up here..."
"Another battle broke out, so I went to check, but the situation was already over. I searched for a while and found you."
Hearing my explanation, Kira finally shed tears and spoke.
"I... fought Athrun... I should have died. But even so..."
Unable to continue, Kira seemed to need more time. Without a word, I patted his shoulder and left him alone to have some time to himself. Later, at mealtime, I made some porridge that would be easy to eat and gave it to Kira. But after only a few spoonfuls, he said to me,
"I... killed Athrun’s comrade... and Athrun killed my friend... so I..."
"It can’t be helped. That’s what war is. It’s a place where even friends, parents, and siblings can become enemies. And you’re not the only one. Many people are suffering that kind of pain because of war."
At my words, Kira seemed deep in thought.
"Eat first and regain your strength. Let me know if you need anything."
"Alright. Thank you."
Perhaps because I had healed most of his injuries with Heal, Kira began to recover quickly. His expression improved a lot, as if he had sorted out his thoughts to some extent. Then Siegel came to me urgently with a request.
"I hear our ship has arrived nearby. I’d like you to guide the ship here."
"I see. Understood."
I immediately boarded the Double O Quanta Full Saber Gundam and headed to the location the AI had given me. There I saw the Eternal. Honestly, the design wasn’t bad, but I didn’t like the pink color.
—"There you are! We’ve been waiting. Nice to meet you, Shinigami of the battlefield. I believe they called you Jin?"
"Yes. Follow me."
I led the way, and the Eternal followed me, docking safely inside the base. The base was originally built to dock up to four large battleships, so even with one more, there was plenty of space. Once the Eternal was safely docked, the crew disembarked and looked around the base in admiration. There seemed to be quite a few people on board—around forty. For a normal battleship, that was a standard number to operate.
"Oh~ so this is Celestial Being’s base. It’s enormous! And there are two battleships..."
Andrew Waltfeld was busy looking around the hangar. He was the same as in the original—a rugged, masculine type with brown hair and a well-groomed mustache, having lost his left eye and left arm to Kira.
But the funny thing was that Athrun and Dearka were on board that ship. Also, some council members who seemed fairly high-ranking were there.
’Isn’t that Yzak Joule’s mother? I think her name was Ezaria Joule. She’s incredibly beautiful. If Yzak had been born a woman, would she have looked like that? But wasn’t she a hardliner?’
It seemed some people who shouldn’t be here were mixed in.
"Oh~ welcome. I thought my neck would stretch from waiting."
"Chairman, it’s been a while. I’m truly surprised. To think you had taken refuge with Celestial Being."
Siegel Clyne and Lacus Clyne hurried out to greet everyone as the Eternal arrived. Regardless, I gathered everyone.
"Everyone, gather around. I need to check for spies. I hope you understand that this is not ZAFT."
When I shouted, the people gathered before me. Andrew Waltfeld then said to me in a sly tone,
"Don’t be so stiff, Shinigami of the battlefield. We’re all in the same boat now."
"I understand that, but I have no choice. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. It won’t take long."
I placed my hand on each person’s head and read their memories. Of course, doing that directly would raise suspicion, so I pretended to scan them with a device I wore on my hand. There was no one particularly problematic. All those gathered here were people who believed there was a problem with the current hardline course.
Even Ezaria Joule, known as a hardliner, and Dearka’s father, Tad Elsman, acknowledged that the current situation was seriously wrong. It seemed Andrew Waltfeld had done a good job screening people.
’Ezaria Joule changed her stance and came here when she learned her son had been taken prisoner. She’s a mother who loves her son dearly... she should be trustworthy.’
Nana, 2B, A2, and Lacus handed out daily necessities and clothing to those who passed the screening and assigned them rooms. Only Athrun and Dearka remained. Unlike in the original, Athrun had no major injuries.
I read Athrun’s memories first. He was burdened with guilt, believing he had killed his friend Kira with his own hands. Moreover, he had received an order from his father to assassinate the moderates, particularly Siegel Clyne and Lacus Clyne—an order he found absolutely unacceptable. He refused the order, turned his back, helped the moderates escape, and thus ended up here.
Dearka’s situation was similar. His father had been purged for criticizing the current chairman’s overly extreme direction. After that, persuaded by Athrun, he came here with his father.
What I realized from reading their memories was that the conflict in the Gundam SEED world was not simply a problem of the racist Blue Cosmos. While they had certainly ignited the spark, the increasingly extreme Coordinators of PLANT were also creating other problems.
’Well, from my perspective, pilots have come to me on their own, so I suppose I should consider it a good thing.’
But Athrun, instead of going straight to his room after receiving his supplies, was talking with Lacus. I was curious, but I didn’t eavesdrop.
Anyway, everyone seemed tired from the journey and rested well. The next day, they gathered in the base’s gymnasium/auditorium to hold a meeting. I attended as well.
"This is absurd. Nuclear weapons? Patrick Zala must be insane!"
The people were greatly shocked by Siegel Clyne’s revelation that Mobile Suits using nuclear power were being built. Athrun and Dearka, apparently hearing this for the first time, were also shocked.
"It’s true. That’s why we stole those machines. We’re trying to buy time, somehow. But I don’t know how much time we can buy. Besides those two machines, they may be building more that we don’t know about."
"Ha... This is serious. A nuclear war will break out. The Bloody Valentine might seem like a small incident in comparison."
"Probably..."
"We can’t even let the PLANTs know about this for fear of the Earth Alliance finding out... Do you have any plan in mind?"
"To be honest, I don’t have any good solution. The only thing I can think of is to support Celestial Being to preemptively destroy the nuclear-engine Mobile Suits or production plants. The problem is that they won’t easily give us information. The moderates have already been almost completely purged."
"I-I see."
"If anyone has any good ideas, please speak up."
As Siegel Clyne looked around and said that, everyone fell silent as if struck dumb. They didn’t seem to have any particular solution either. Then Dearka raised his hand and said,
"Excuse me, but Celestial Being is here. Why don’t we just overthrow the ZAFT leadership? With us joining in, I don’t think it would be that difficult."
"Impossible. First, given that they’re even using nuclear power, we don’t know what preparations they’ve made. Second, there’s the support of the people and the military. The majority of the people, unaware of the situation, already support the Council’s hardline course. But we can’t just reveal that the hardliners are building nuclear weapons, can we?"
"R-right. If we do it wrong, we could be branded as a coup force and face a counterattack from the military, or PLANT itself could split into multiple factions."
"Correct. And if things go that way, in the worst case, PLANT itself could be destroyed by an Earth Alliance attack."
At those words, everyone began murmuring. Then Lacus, who had been listening, stood up and said,
"I think it’s best to start with what we can do now. As Father said, we can ask for cooperation from remaining allies inside PLANT to gather information, suppress conflicts as much as possible, and secure information on nuclear-related machines or facilities. Then preemptive strikes would become the top priority."
Everyone’s expressions were dark. They too knew that the situation was far from good.
After the meeting ended, mealtime came, and everyone gathered in the dining hall. Since there were also cooks from the Eternal, there was no major problem preparing meals for so many people.
Suddenly, a loud voice came from one side of the dining hall.
"Nicol!!! It’s Nicol, isn’t it??? You were alive!!!"
There, Athrun was crying and hugging Aria (Nicol) tightly. But Aria, not recognizing Athrun, was flustered. I thought, ’Oh no.’
’Damn, the mask...’
The truth was, I had been busy with many things and didn’t have a good excuse to put a mask on her. So I kept putting it off. While I was hesitating, I missed the right timing, and then Athrun showed up here without warning, leaving me no time to prepare.
’I wanted to make her Neo Roanoke, but that’s a shame. I guess it doesn’t matter now?’
While I was thinking this, Athrun stood frozen, hugging Aria tightly.
"...Huh?"
He seemed to feel something strange.
"Hmm? Nicol, did you gain weight? What is this squishy feeling..."
With a serious expression, Athrun began grabbing and groping Aria’s breast with his hand, as if needing to confirm.
Squish, squish...
"No, this is definitely... that can’t be..."
As Athrun muttered to himself and groped the breast over and over to confirm the sensation, Aria’s expression slowly hardened.
WHAP!!
"Gah!!"
Finally, Aria exploded and punched Athrun right in the face. Athrun fell flat on the dining hall floor.
"What do you think you’re doing!!! Groping someone’s breast like that!!!"
"No, that’s not it... Was Nicol originally a woman? No... We definitely showered together before..."
Holding his punched cheek with one hand, Athrun muttered blankly, as if he still couldn’t believe what was happening before his eyes. His face showed clear bewilderment, and his mind was completely confused.
Aria, fuming, got her meal and went back to her room. Athrun just watched her go from the dining hall floor. Then the ’Desert Tiger’ Andrew picked Athrun up and said,
"Even if you were in a hurry, you don’t grope a woman’s breast like that in front of people."
"Huh? Woman... did I mistake the person?"
Then Dearka, who had been watching from the side, said in disbelief,
"I thought it was Nicol too... What the hell is going on..."
"You guys, I understand you’re at a passionate age, but show some restraint."
As people’s gazes grew increasingly strange, they had no choice but to quietly get their meals, sit at a table, eat quickly, and leave. I had a hard time holding back my laughter. It was a shame I hadn’t put a mask on her, but it was quite entertaining to watch.
After the meal, I called Andrew.
"Why did you call me? I need to go get coffee."
"Tell me what supplies the Eternal is lacking. And about your left eye and arm—I think we can replace them with artificial limbs. Are you interested? They’d be made with Celestial Being’s technology, so you might be able to move as well as before."
The reason I offered Andrew Waltfeld an artificial arm was because, given the shortage of pilots, I couldn’t just leave a skilled pilot like him as he was. He had even managed to push Kira into a corner with just his customized Baku (LaGOWE).
"Oh~ that’s good news? How long will recovery take?"
"Well... I’d need to examine you to know for sure, but I think it would take about a week to ten days."
"Hmm... that’s too long. As you know, we don’t have that kind of time."
"You’re the captain, so you can just command, right? Both your legs are fine. You can command while recovering from surgery."
"Really? That’s possible?"
"Of course. But you shouldn’t push yourself during recovery."
Although the Cyberpunk universe advanced into space later than the Gundam universe, thanks to human desire, their implant technology was far superior. You could get the procedure and be active the next day. V himself was able to move without any problem on the same day after getting the Kiroshi eye implant.
"Then I suppose it’s fine."
With that decided, I took Andrew Waltfeld to the infirmary for examination. There, Kira, who had finished the meal Nana brought and was resting in the infirmary watching TV, saw Andrew and was greatly shocked.
"Y-you are!!!"
"Gah! Kid!!!"
