When Kira saw the black-clad figure blocking the doorway, he swung his backpack toward the man's face.
The figure sidestepped and caught the backpack by its strap.
Simultaneously, Kira leaped up and kicked the door.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
He spun around and rushed into the room, opening his mouth to shout.
Suddenly, the living room lights flashed on, forcing Kira to turn away and shield his eyes. Squinting, he struggled to see ahead.
A dark shadow lunged toward him.
He bent his right knee, ready to spring up.
"Kira!"
A familiar voice reached his ears, making him pause.
The next second, he was caught in a tight embrace.
As his violet eyes adjusted to the light, he broke into a smile and returned the hug.
"Athrun!"
A small emerald mechanical bird flew over and landed on Kira's head. "Tori~"
The two separated from their embrace and shared a smile.
Looking past Athrun, Kira scanned the room. Sitting on the sofa were Aunt Lenore, his mother, and an unfamiliar girl.
His mind flashed back to the black-clad figure.
"Was Tian Ming the one following me?"
Athrun curled his lip. "Just call him Zhou Tianming. It was his idea to scare you. I refused! But I was outvoted." Kira stared expressionlessly, his gaze full of disdain.
Behind them, the door opened. Zhou Tianming removed his disguise and grinned. "So? Were you surprised?"
Kira turned away with a sigh, ignoring him.
As the group gathered, Zhou Tianming introduced Lacus to Kira, who nodded politely.
To observe how the three youngsters would interact, Zhou Tianming volunteered to cook. When Caridad offered to help, he sent her to look after Lenore instead. While cooking, he secretly peeked out to watch.
Athrun kept talking to Kira, completely ignoring Lacus.
Lacus sat quietly with a gentle smile, saying nothing.
Caught in the middle, Kira kept responding to Athrun's questions while occasionally turning to Lacus, trying to include her in the conversation. But the two simply couldn't find common ground.
Instead, Lacus seemed perfectly content playing with Tori on her own.
Zhou Tianming watched with disappointment.
These three had zero chemistry.
He had hoped for some dramatic tension, but Kira and Athrun were getting along perfectly, while Lacus might as well have been invisible.
They were clearly still too young and clueless.
What a shame.
Noticing Zhou Tianming's gaze, Lacus looked over in confusion.
Zhou Tianming quickly ducked back into the kitchen.
Lacus thought for a moment, then glanced at Kira and Athrun.
Kira immediately noticed her gaze and turned with a warm smile. Lacus smiled back.
As for Athrun...
Clueless as a brick.
"Kira!"
Zhou Tianming quietly peeked out again...
When Haruma-Yamato returned home, he thought he had entered the wrong house. Sitting down to eat in a daze, he hadn't snapped out of it even after finishing the meal.
Small groups sat scattered around, chatting among themselves.
Caridad and Lenore adored Lacus, holding her hands and chatting incessantly.
Athrun naturally stuck with Kira, and the two retreated to a room to play.
Zhou Tianming seized the opportunity to discuss Psycommu Alloy with Chun Jian.
After the completion of the Black Tortoise and Gundam Frame, his demand for Psycommu Alloy had plummeted. Yet, as a strategic resource, it couldn't be sold indiscriminately.
Apart from keeping a portion for himself, he had sold the surplus to East Asia at a markup. Though no significant projects were visible, the bulk purchases made Zhou Tianming sigh at the wealth of major nations.
His collaboration with Chun Jian had been smooth—sharing the benefits ensured lasting cooperation.
After discussion, they amended the contract: Zhou Tianming permitted Chun Jian to accept Psycommu Alloy orders from East Asia, retaining only priority supply rights under special circumstances.
He also issued a new commission, tasking Chun Jian's research team with adjusting metal ratios to develop alloys with unique properties.
Chun Jian profited handsomely from this and grew even more animated in conversation with Zhou Tianming.
They talked about everything under the sun—political situations, culture, history, women...
Then suddenly—
Caridad: "Haruma-Yamato, you're quite the expert..."
Lenore: "Zhou Tianming, please set a good example for Athrun and Kira. If you lead them astray..."
Lacus: "Brother Tianming, your girlfriend would surely love to know what you usually think about."
When Kira and Athrun emerged from their room, they found two men kneeling on washboards.
Both looked utterly confused.
Zhou Tianming was equally puzzled.
Why am I kneeling?
Natarle isn't even here!
I'm free!
As soon as he moved, the gazes of three women pinned him down.
Zhou Tianming obediently knelt back down.
A real man doesn't fight with women!
Since Kira and Athrun were reluctant to part, and the external situation showed no signs of improvement—with Zhou Hanxiang and Ogsha still having no breakthroughs in medication—the now-free Zhou Tianming simply bought a house next to Caridad's and settled in.
He temporarily transferred Athrun to Kira's school so they could attend together.
Patrick naturally objected, but his protests were overruled by Lenore without mercy.
After consulting with Siegel, Lacus was also sent to a nearby girls' school to experience life.
Carefree, Zhou Tianming insured his new house with every possible policy, causing the insurance company to repeatedly send inspectors to determine if Heliopolis had any hidden safety hazards or explosion risks. After a month of delays, they finally accepted the application.
During this period, Zhou Tianming made a trip back to East Asia and uploaded the Pilot Suit data to the technology database.
The described effects caught the military's attention, and soon batches were produced for flight units in different regions for testing.
In March CE 69, Siegel secretly gathered experts in agriculture, environment, AI, and related fields to transform Junius into an agricultural Satellite. By mid-May, the Atlantic Federation and Eurasia—who had been closely monitoring PLANT—detected abnormal fluctuations in grain trade. Tracing the source, they discovered the situation at Junius and were furious.
They issued a stern international warning to PLANT.
Zhou Tianming and the others saw the news on television.
The external situation shifted abruptly, signaling impending turmoil.
In early July, the Space Forces of the Atlantic Federation, Eurasia, and East Asia moved closer to PLANT.
The Ginn MS made its debut, with ZAFT's overwhelming combat power crushing the Council of Nations' Space Force.
The Atlantic and Eurasia forces suffered heavy losses with virtually no ability to resist.
Only the East Asian front showed some unexpected developments.
East Asia had recently been testing performance data of the [Spirit Resistance Suit].
Given the Mistral MA's sluggish speed and lack of testing capability, all test units were replaced with uniform new-model fighters to facilitate comparisons with Earth-side data.
When suddenly attacked by Ginn MS units, all MAs except the test squadrons were shot down. However, the test aircraft achieved remarkable results in this battle. Equipped with the [Spirit Resistance Suit], pilots completely ignored G-force effects and performed superhuman maneuvers.
While the Ginn was more agile than the Mistral MA, it couldn't match the specialized fighter's speed.
Throughout the engagement, East Asian fighters never reduced speed.
They circled the Ginn units delivering relentless attacks, while the Ginns couldn't keep up with the fighters' velocity.
After several Ginns were successively shot down by missiles, the Coordinators abandoned their initial arrogant offensive and adopted cautious defensive postures.
A stalemate developed, though the Ginn pilots remained confident—daring the fighters to maintain their speed indefinitely while waiting for human limitations to surface.
Then the East Asian fighters made them question reality—were these pilots made of iron? How could they withstand such conditions?
But against the alert Ginns, the fighters' weaknesses became apparent.
Their flight paths became predictable, they struggled to maintain sustained fire against stationary targets, and fell into constant evasive maneuvers with repeated course changes.
After prolonged engagements, when the suits' alarm signaled energy depletion, East Asian pilots reluctantly withdrew.
This incident quickly came to the attention of Atlantic, Eurasia, and ZAFT.
First came accusations from Atlantic and Eurasia, immediately labeling it treason before conducting leisurely interrogations.
ZAFT spies secretly infiltrated among the Atlantic and Eurasian delegations.
East Asia stubbornly maintained that their pilots' transcendent willpower had overcome physical limitations to achieve such results.
The Atlantic forces naturally disbelieved this, even bringing out lie detectors.
The test results astonished everyone—it truly was willpower transcending physical constraints!
This was actually true...
All parties found this baffling—how could it be possible?
Where could anyone match the fanatical willpower of our [Blue Cosmos] madmen?
This made no sense!
However, East Asia's secrecy wasn't impenetrable. Investigators soon discovered they had been testing something before the battle.
With this direction, spies employed every method to uncover that test pilots had collectively changed pilot suits outside normal supply procurement periods. Suddenly, theft cases of East Asian pilot suits increased exponentially.
To be thorough, they didn't even spare the pilots' underwear...