[Blue-hair mode!]
[Blue-haired Inori is amazing, okay!]
[prprpr, I'm simping to death!]
[Too bad it only appeared for a moment]
[Kira can enter SEED Mode, and it looks like Inori has a second phase too]
[Every single one of them is built different]
[But Kira probably won't let Inori pilot a Gundam by herself again]
[The moment she pilots one, she massacres everything. The moment she's done, she collapses]
[Strong]
[Blue hair is good stuff too]
[Could Kira's hair color change too?]
[Probably not. Kira isn't an AI]
[I feel like the principle should be the same as PS armor. Apply power and it changes color? Energy-Saving Mode is red, overclock mode is blue?]
The viewers noisily discussed the setting while Kira stayed beside Inori, watching over her.
Cagalli, meanwhile, went to the bathroom to shower.
"Wah, this feels great!"
While wearing the P.A.R.A. Protective Suit, Cagalli's body had not gotten dirty at all.
The suit was exceptionally well designed and could keep Cagalli's body clean.
But after breathing the same air as Athrun for so long, Cagalli felt as if she had somehow been "marinated" in his smell, so after returning she happily took a hot shower.
Comfortable.
After coming out of the shower, Cagalli changed back into her original clothes. But almost immediately, she started feeling prickly all over.
It was like wearing a wool sweater directly against bare skin, making her extremely uncomfortable.
"Ugh… I'd better wear the combat suit after all."
She put the protective suit on underneath and then threw her old jacket over it. Only then did she finally feel better.
After her shower, Cagalli headed over to the Officer's Room.
"Cagalli-san."
Murrue, Mu, and Natarle were all waiting there. They still had questions they needed to ask.
"Is Inori-san all right?" Cagalli asked.
"Kira said she fell asleep from exhaustion. She's next door, so you can go see her afterward," Murrue said. "We have a few questions we'd like to ask you."
"Mm. Ask whatever you need."
Cagalli pulled over a chair, sat down, and stretched her body.
"We've already started repairing that Gold Frame," Mu said. "There are some problems with the connection between its arm and torso. But it's fine. We have excellent mechanics, so we'll have it fixed soon."
"Mm-hm." Cagalli nodded.
"But how did you go out with a red machine and come back with a gold one?"
Mu found it extremely strange.
"The Red Frame was completely wrecked, so we disposed of it by self-destructing it on the way," Cagalli said. "As for this Gundam Astray Gold Frame, someone attacked us on the way, so we took it from them."
And its original owner?
Long dead.
Only then did Cagalli explain, "That ZAFT soldier and I drifted around the Debris Belt together for a long time, waiting for rescue. Unfortunately, communications were terrible out there, so we couldn't get in touch with rescue from either side. Then space pirates showed up. This Gold Frame wiped out the pirates and tried to kill us to silence us. That was when Inori-san suddenly appeared and killed that bastard."
When Cagalli said "bastard," she was practically grinding her teeth.
Because the moment Gina recognized her, his very first thought had actually been to kill her for good!
If he had been from ZAFT or the Earth Alliance, Cagalli would have had nothing to say.
But the bastard just had to be one of Orb's "own people."
That made Cagalli absolutely furious.
"That bastard was way too damn awful!"
After venting for a while, Cagalli asked, "By the way, was the fighting here really intense earlier? Why is there so much wreckage around?"
The Gold Frame and the Aegis had preserved only the bare minimum of energy, so when Inori accelerated toward the battlefield, the two of them had crawled along for ages before finally reaching the scene.
Murrue and Mu exchanged glances.
What they had seen earlier was still difficult to forget.
At that moment, the scene naturally shifted over to ZAFT.
"That's more or less what happened."
Le Creuset had just finished explaining the earlier battle to Athrun.
"That's terrifying. If a single machine can destroy a warship by itself, I can't even imagine what future battlefields will become."
Athrun was watching the recordings as well.
The Gundam Astray Blue Frame had made short work of the Laurasia-class ships.
And the sight of the Can Opener prying open cockpits before stabbing the people inside was just as frightening.
"Miguel…"
Athrun had already prepared himself mentally, but when he saw Miguel taken down with three precise shots, his heart still clenched.
Le Creuset and the others also learned from Athrun what had happened earlier.
"…That so-called Songstress of Orb—isn't she basically a damn mercenary?!"
After piecing everything together, Yzak realized the other side seemed more like a mercenary than anything else.
"That isn't what happened." Athrun was the first to object.
"A Coordinator, doing something like that! Aren't we compatriots?!"
All Yzak could do was rage helplessly.
"But we practically bankrupted Songstress-san too, didn't we…?" Nicol sat to the side, looking thoughtful.
"She's a Coordinator! If she had come to PLANT earlier, how could she possibly have suffered that property loss?!"
Yzak thought it was clearly her own fault.
"Oh, right." Athrun suddenly remembered something. "Captain Le Creuset, she said that after rescuing me, she'd send over an invoice for the rescue fee. Could you let me handle that myself…?"
Yzak had been furious, but after hearing that, his expression became extremely complicated.
He wanted to stay angry, but he also wanted to laugh at Athrun, while at the same time feeling that the entire situation was a complete farce.
Several emotions collided at once, making Yzak's expression quite a sight.
"If you want to laugh, just laugh." Athrun sighed.
"Hahahaha…" Dearka was the first to burst out laughing.
The deaths of their comrades and the destruction of their forces had made the atmosphere unbearably heavy, but this situation lightened the mood a little.
"By the way, Captain. How did you know the Blue Frame wouldn't attack us earlier?"
Yzak remembered what had happened before.
If Le Creuset had not ordered them all to disarm and stop fighting, every one of them might have died back then.
"It's simple. Don't look at that machine from a 'human' perspective. Judge it according to 'AI' logic," Le Creuset said.
"AI logic?" Athrun murmured.
"Athrun, you said it yourself. Songstress-san said she was 'assisting' with piloting the Strike. In other words, the person who was piloting the Strike may still have been inside it. That person was probably the one making the decisions as well. And this Inori-san is not a member of the Earth Alliance."
Le Creuset looked at the battlefield recording still playing. "In other words, perhaps… we still have a chance."