Gundam: A Gundam Enthusiast's Journey with a Mecha Girl

"However, after parting ways with Copernicus, I met Aslan again on the battlefield, and later we even used mobile suits to fight each other."

“I think Athrun must be just as sad as Mr. Kira after this happened.”

Lacus's tone was as gentle as her appearance, soothing Kira's tense heart. On the Archangel, Kira, like Raven, had helped her in various ways.

Lacus's voice eased Kira's tension, but as Lacus talked about Athrun, Kira became curious about her relationship with Athrun.

"Are Miss Lux and Athrun very familiar with each other?"

"Yes, on the surface we're engaged."

"Huh? Engaged couple?"

The shocking truth left Kira momentarily speechless, unable to process what he had just heard.

"Although it's just the result of adjusting the marriage law, in private we can only be considered childhood sweethearts with a very good relationship."

Upon hearing about his best friend's situation in an unexpected place, Kira's feelings suddenly became somewhat complicated.

If it weren't for this war, wouldn't he have been able to attend Aslan's wedding?

For no apparent reason, this thought suddenly popped into Kira's mind.

Just then, an urgent warning sound came from the cockpit.

The crimson holy shield ripped through the dark void and stopped precisely in front of the Strike.

"Is it... Aslan?"

Kira asked cautiously.

"Correct."

During the communication, Kira heard the same tension in Athrun's voice.

The two hostile mobile suits pointed their beam rifles at each other's cockpits, but simultaneously opened their hatches at the same time.

Across the void, Kira finally saw that familiar figure again.

"Long time no see, Aslan."

Lux's voice came through the communicator, and Athrun confirmed that the person standing next to Kira was his long-lost fiancée.

"Thank you for your care these past few days. Please also convey my gratitude to everyone on the Archangel for me."

Lux held the sealed bag containing clothes, Haro, and soldier ants in her arms, then pushed off with her toes against the outer edge of the Assault cockpit and floated out, passing through the vacuum of space and approaching the Aegis.

Aslan caught her steadily, helping Lux regain her balance.

"Kira, you come too! You have no reason to stay with the Earth Alliance!"

At the hatch of the Aegis, Athrun also reached out his hand to Kira.

Although he made a promise to Kruze, deep down he still didn't want to fight Kira.

Copernicus's fond memories flooded back, while Kira's image filled Athrun with immense anxiety.

"I'm sorry, Aslan. There are people I want to protect on that ship."

"Kira, you really are..."

Kira's answer was exactly as Aslan had expected.

Just like Kira in Athrun's memories, he is still so gentle, which makes Athrun feel both gratified and pained.

"If there's a next time, I'll fight you seriously!"

Aslan said this in a fit of pique, but Kira gave him a somewhat troubled smile.

"This is not good. I really don't want to fight you."

Aslan froze. He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. After a moment, he angrily uttered a sentence.

"Then don't show your face in front of me!"

Seeing the Aegis's hatch close, Kira had no choice but to return to the Strike's cockpit.

But the next moment, a private communication came in.

"Captain Kruse doesn't intend to keep his promise to you, be careful..."

Before he could finish speaking, two beams of high-temperature particles attacked from behind the Holy Shield.

As the Strike flipped over, the particle beam grazed past its cockpit. Kira, sweating profusely, saw three mobile suits attacking from behind the Aegis.

The enemy is here!

Chapter 25 The Battle That Was Suddenly Interrupted

"It was dodged?"

Seeing that his sneak attack had failed, Kruze quickly commanded the Duel and Storm to spread out to the flanks, preparing to take down the Assault before Dagger's reinforcements arrived.

But the next moment, Kruse's senses accurately detected the oppressive feeling coming from afar.

Three beams shot from the direction of the Archangel. Kruze immediately piloted the Segway to dodge, but one of the beams still destroyed the heavy particle cannon in his hand.

[Hit! The accuracy was even higher than my shooting prediction.]

"However, the enemy has not yet been shot down."

The oppressive feeling he had been experiencing had not dissipated, so Raven dared not be careless and turned the thrusters to maximum power to quickly close the distance between them.

"Kira, our objective is to hold them off. Be careful not to get shot down! We have ten minutes left before we can rejoin the main force."

Dagger raised his hand and fired two shots, forcing Storm, who had circled behind the Assault, to retreat, but was then forced to retreat by a hail of bullets fired by Higu.

"You really came, the pilot of the short sword."

"Kruse? I have nothing to say to you!"

Kruze's control was so precise that it extended to every single posture and nozzle, which made Shigu's movements exceptionally agile, allowing him to dodge the short sword beam rifle's shots with nimble footwork.

"I'd love to see you! Tell me, who are you? Is there some surviving member of the Vlada family that I don't know about?"

After using the Gatling gun on his shield to unleash a barrage of bullets, forcing the short sword to dodge, Shigu seized the opportunity to draw his heavy slashing sword and strike at the short sword.

Raven quickly raised his shield to block the attack, but then the heavy, oppressive aura unique to Kruze hit him, making Raven's face contort in a grimace.

"Who I am is none of your business. Don't drag irrelevant people into your pointless revenge!"

With the short sword unleashed at full power, he used the shield to forcefully deflect Xigu's slash, while simultaneously firing his head-mounted Vulcan cannon at Xigu's monitor.

"No, this is not revenge, but judgment! Humanity will one day pay the price for its sins, and I am the messenger who will bring judgment upon humanity!"

"As a human being, what right do you have to judge humanity?"

"I am qualified!"

Shigu hung the heavy-duty sword back on his waist, drew the machine gun from the rack behind his waist, and fired bullets at the short sword. At the same time, Xunlei, who had quietly arrived behind the short sword using the Mirage System, also removed his disguise and pointed the Three-Horned Shield System at the short sword.

"Such a low-class trick!"

Raven had sensed the faint killing intent emanating from Thunder's cockpit from the very beginning. The moment Thunder deactivated the Mirage system, Dagger used his left arm as a shield to protect his front from Higu's shots, while his right beam rifle extended from under his left arm and fired at Thunder's cockpit.

Nicol was completely unaware that Raven had discovered his presence. He only began to dodge the moment the beam rifle's muzzle flashed, but it was too late.

"We've been discovered? How could that be!"

Although Swift, piloted by Nicol, avoided having its cockpit pierced, its right arm was destroyed by the beam.

This made Nicol's face turn ugly immediately. Almost all of the Thunder Gundam's weapons were integrated into the three-horn attack shield system on its right arm. The destruction of the right arm meant that the Thunder Gundam lost its combat capability.

However, while Raven was distracted by the Thunder, Kruse took the opportunity to drive the Seg to close in on the Dagger. His right-hand machine gun kept firing, forcing the Dagger to keep its shield in front of it, while his other hand used the Gatling gun to attack the shield, and all the bullets were directed at the Dagger's main monitor at point-blank range.

"The main monitor has been compromised?!"

The screen in the Dagger cockpit suddenly went dark, but El could still sense the external situation through the cameras all over the MS. He controlled the Dagger to kick Xigu in the waist, disrupting Xigu's posture, and then adjusted the thrusters to deliver another spinning kick to Xigu's chest.

This full-power kick propelled Xigu's body forward. Raven immediately followed his senses and fired in Xigu's direction. Kruze sensed Raven's killing intent immediately, but Xigu's reaction speed couldn't keep up with Kruze's actions. The thrusters were a beat slow to activate, and in that brief pause, the beam of light fired from the short sword pierced through Xigu's leg.

At that moment, the cockpit of the short sword regained its display, and Raven saw that Xigu was missing a leg, and clicked his tongue in dismay.

"Tsk, he managed to dodge it. What a troublesome guy."

【careful!】

El suddenly issued a warning, and she immediately turned around, manipulating her short sword to shield her chest with her shield.

From the other side of the battlefield where the assault and the storm were dueling, a cannonball that the assault had dodged came flying and struck the shield that the short sword had just raised.

The stray bullet contained no killing intent whatsoever, and Raven didn't even notice it. If it weren't for El, the short sword might have already been reduced to scrap metal by this bullet.

Cold sweat quickly spread across Raven's entire back, but there was no time for him to savor the feeling of having just been on the verge of death.

[Raven, Shig is coming at us head-on.]

Kruze showed no sign of backing down, and Shigu once again wielded his heavy slashing sword and entangled him.

"Tch, what a hassle!"

Although Raven could sense Kruse's mental state, engaging in mid-range firefights was not a good option after losing a large number of sensors on the main monitor. Raven lacked the confidence to deal with Kruse's fierce attacks while simultaneously manually aiming at a fast-moving enemy aircraft.

So Raven simply put away his gun and switched to a knife, preparing to deal with Kruze's new attack.

But at that moment, the Aegis Gundam, which had previously left, returned to the battlefield at some point, and then Lacus's voice appeared on the public channel.

This time, however, her voice lacked its usual sweetness and instead carried a sense of sternness.

"Captain Rau Le Creuset, please honor your agreement and cease operations immediately. Are you going to turn this place, where I, a representative of the memorial service, am located, into a battlefield?"

However, Kruze, already engrossed in the battle, showed no sign of stopping.

However, the next moment, Shigu received a private communication from Aegis.

"For Captain Kruze, rescuing me from the Allied Forces is enough, isn't it? If we stop now, I won't tell anyone that you launched the attack without authorization, Captain."

Lux's words brought Kruze back from his near-frenzied state. Although he was somewhat unwilling to settle the score with the short sword, as Lux said, it was time to stop now.

"So, we've... made it through?"

Seeing Shigu retreating with several Gundams, Kira, who had exited SEED mode, asked, panting heavily.

"At least for now, we are safe."

Yes, thank you for your hard work, Raven.

The Dagger and the Strike returned side by side towards the Archangel's location, while behind the Archangel, flashes of light appeared one after another in the dark universe.

That was the gleam of the Eighth Fleet's warships.

Chapter 26 Convergence

The Aegis Gundam was the last to return to the ship.

Although Aslan did not directly participate in the battle against Dagger and Assault, the scene from the battlefield remained vivid in his mind.

Both Kira and that short sword have become stronger.

Aslan still remembers the feeling of fighting Shortsword and Strike in the Heliopolis region of space.

Although short swords were already difficult to deal with back then, their combat rhythm was far less refined than it is now.

Kira's Strike was completely like a rookie at that time, relying entirely on the machine's performance and the pilot's reaction to deal with the battle. But just now, the Strike was able to fight with ease in the midst of the attack from both Duel and Storm.

'Kira wasn't exactly a fighter in the past. How did he become so strong?'

Aslan's mind flashed back to Kira saying goodbye to him.

'She was such a crybaby, yet she was so strong back then.'

"What's wrong, Aslan? Why are you sitting still? Are you feeling unwell?"

Lux, who was about to leave the cockpit, turned around and found Athrun still sitting in the driver's seat, so she couldn't help but ask him with concern.

Looking at Lux's concerned expression, Athrun recalled how she had stopped the fight just now.

That dignified demeanor, so different from his usual self, was something he had never seen before.

Aslan suddenly felt a sense of loneliness, as if he had been left behind by those around him.

"It's nothing, I was just a little distracted."

Athrun's thoughts returned to reality. He unbuckled his seatbelt and led Lux ​​out of the cockpit.

Am I the only one standing still?

With a hint of melancholy, Aslan touched the hatch with his toes and floated toward the changing room next door.