In a daze, Kira raised her head.
Standing before her was a girl with pink hair and a white dress.
"Kira, you're such a gentle, good girl."
Lacus's innocent face was right in front of her.
Her eyes blinked softly, as if asking a silent question.
Noticing the tears at the corners of Kira's eyes, she reached out again, her snow-white fingers seemingly about to touch Kira's face.
Just like last time.
But this time, Kira instinctively backed away a little and avoided Lacus's hand.
This older girl from PLANT seemed to have a habit of suddenly appearing out of nowhere without even meaning to.
—No, that was not the problem.
"W-What are you doing?! Why are you here?!"
She had left the Officer's Room again.
"I heard Inori came back, so I wanted to go see her. There are some questions I'd like to get cleared up too."
Lacus answered with a smile.
"You can't. If you wander around on your own like this and someone mistakes you for a spy…"
"But Pink Haro really likes going for walks…"
She lifted the little pink Haro robot in her hands.
"So whenever a door is locked, it always opens it for me."
Kira could not help rubbing her forehead.
No wonder Lacus was always able to get out. It turned out this Haro robot… was a lock-picking robot.
"Kira, it absolutely isn't your fault," Lacus said with a smile.
"…What?"
Kira stared at Lacus blankly.
"I was on the bridge at the time. I saw everything you did, Kira." Lacus smiled.
"No, wait. Why were you on the bridge?!"
Kira was completely baffled.
She was from PLANT, yet somehow she seemed capable of appearing anywhere at any time.
"It's complicated." Lacus did not mention Flay.
Kira fell silent for a moment.
"Inori… after what she did to ZAFT… don't you hate her?"
On the surface, Kira was talking about Inori.
But Kira herself was Inori's master.
Her question was also referring to herself.
Lacus gently closed her eyes.
"It's true. This was the first time I had ever seen a real battlefield. I never knew war could be so cruel. Nothing meaningful is born from war like this."
Lacus lightly kicked off the floor and floated upward.
The Observation Deck at the rear of the warship was a zero-gravity area.
She floated over to the window and looked outside.
"But I don't hate anyone. I don't have the right to." Lacus looked seriously at Kira. "They entered the battlefield knowing what it meant."
In a certain sense, Lacus and Kira were very similar people.
They themselves treated others gently, but they did not demand that everyone else do the same.
Kira would dismember enemy machines without killing the pilots, but she would never demand that others fight that way.
In the original SEED DESTINY, if Gilbert Dullindal had not insisted on sneak-attacking and provoking Lacus, blowing up her seaside home, she might still have been watching the ocean with Kira.
How did that saying go again—"Why the hell did you have to go mess with her?!"
They had their own principles, and they also possessed strong wills.
They might lose their way at times, but both were exceptionally good at working through their own doubts.
"Inori isn't someone who likes war. I can feel that," Lacus said. "I will mourn the people who died on the battlefield, but I can't dishonor their deaths."
[I don't get it]
[Lacus means those soldiers entered battle prepared to die and accepted that outcome. If she hated Inori for it, she'd be dishonoring their deaths]
[You really are the Coordinator among Coordinators. That reading comprehension is insane]
[I think she means the battlefield is simply that kind of place, and hating other people because of what happens on a battlefield is wrong]
[You guys should hurry up and write reading-comprehension questions for the gaokao. Full marks guaranteed]
[Absurd. So absurd it's ridiculous, so ridiculous it's absurd]
"Lacus…"
Kira looked at Lacus.
Lacus looked back at Kira.
Lacus smiled. "The battle is over now, isn't it?"
"Ah… yeah."
"But you look so sad."
Kira looked at Lacus.
Lacus was gazing at her with a warm, understanding smile.
"…Actually, I… don't want to fight… Inori… did it because of me…"
Kira did not know why, but the words in her heart nearly spilled out on their own.
Under that smile, it was as though all her emotional defenses had disappeared.
"Mm."
Lacus listened quietly.
From the very beginning, Kira had fought to protect the classmates and friends who mattered to her.
Even though she was a Coordinator, Sai, Tolle, Miriallia, and even Kuzzey had never looked down on her for it.
When other people discriminated against her, Tolle would stand up for her. When she was too busy to handle everything, Miriallia would take care of her. When she ran into trouble, Sai would come help. Even Kuzzey would lend a hand.
And yet, just moments ago, she had actually thought, "Maybe I should just abandon them."
All because that ugly emotion had appeared in her heart.
But this felt good.
She spoke aloud all the thoughts she had buried in her heart for so long. This time she stopped suppressing herself and poured everything out to this girl she barely knew, connected to her only by being one of her own kind.
Precisely because Lacus was a stranger, Kira could say it.
Precisely because Lacus was a stranger, Kira could cry.
"Kira, you're almost like a little sister."
"Eh?"
Kira tilted her head.
It felt as though someone had said something like that to her before.
By then, Lacus had already drawn close to Kira, her soft, slender palm wrapping around Kira's hand.
"I see now. Kira, you've done very well…"
Just those softly spoken words melted thoughts that had been frozen in Kira's heart for a very long time.
And yet this time, Kira did not cry.
Instead, she felt an extraordinary calm inside.
That peaceful, comfortable feeling surrounded her entire body.
Kira had never realized before just how desperately she longed for someone else's affirmation.
Lacus did not pull Kira into an embrace. She simply continued holding Kira's hand.
[Someone's stealing home base!]
[Inori, stop sleeping! Wake up already!]
[Wait, isn't Lacus also kind of an Inori fangirl?]
[So did Lacus NTR Kira away, or did Kira NTR Lacus away?]
[Either way, Inori is the one getting NTR'd]
"Kira."
Just as the danmaku flooded the screen, a voice came from behind them.
It was Inori.
"Ah, Inori, you're awake?"
Kira raised her head.
Now that Inori was awake, Kira felt much more at ease as well.
And yet, for no apparent reason, Kira also felt a subtle sense of unease.
"Inori!" Lacus walked over too. She grabbed Kira with one hand and Inori with the other.
[Wait, is she actually the true male lead?]
[Inori: Perhaps I came at a bad time]
[Lacus: No, you came at exactly the right time!]
[There's an even bigger player here?!]
[At first I thought Kira occupied the male-lead position. Then I started thinking it was Inori. And now you're telling me it was actually Lacus all along?]
Inori simply went along as Lacus pulled her over.
At that moment, both the danmaku and the Popularity Points began shooting upward.
The Popularity Points that had been completely drained by upgrading the Lacia Heritage Card to LV7 were now rapidly climbing again.
It had to be said, the viewers absolutely ate this stuff up.
But whether the medicine was real or fake, if it brought Popularity, it was good medicine!