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After receiving instruction from both Mu and Kira, Xiao Ran sorted through the piloting skills that had existed only in his memories and instincts, gradually mastering them until they truly became his own.
Afterward, Xiao Ran eagerly invited Mu to another match. In the end, Xiao Ran struggled desperately and relied on the Strike Gundam's superior performance to destroy all four of Moebius Zero's wire-guided pods, only to lose the match again when his machine ran out of energy.
Kira, who had been watching the two fight from the side, finally noticed a crucial problem. "Teacher, the commands you give while operating an MS aren't accurate or fast enough. Your reactions during targeting aren't quick enough, your effective prediction rate is less than ten percent, and you aren't proactive enough. Not to mention your Accuracy Rate—you can't bring out the Strike Gundam's full performance at all."
Xiao Ran nodded lightly and smiled without the slightest concern. "There's nothing I can do about that. Industrial MS aren't nearly as complicated to operate as combat machines. I think being able to handle the Strike Gundam this well already makes me pretty gifted, doesn't it? Of course, compared to you, I'm still far behind."
"Not at all..." Hearing Xiao Ran's praise, Kira awkwardly scratched his head. "I'm a Coordinator, after all. There's nothing to compare between me and a Natural like you, Teacher."
"Speaking of Coordinators..." Mu walked over to the two of them and looked at Xiao Ran curiously. "How are you able to operate an OS that only Coordinators should be able to use?"
"Hm?" Kira froze.
"I'm not too sure about that either." Xiao Ran shook his head and smiled. "Maybe it's because of what I said before. Perhaps I'm just gifted, haha."
Although Xiao Ran said he did not know, he was already certain it was because of the D-Class General Mecha Piloting Skill. It allowed him to ignore the differences in OS between Coordinators and Naturals, provided that the OS itself functioned normally. The key lay in the word "general."
However, even though it was general-purpose, it had not been written specifically for Xiao Ran. He had too little piloting experience, and his skills were not enough to overlook certain subtle discrepancies. Small mistakes naturally occurred during operation—for instance, advancing a few meters too far or backing up a little too short.
That meant that although Xiao Ran could use Space Combat Proficiency to make up for some of those shortcomings in space combat, if he encountered an elite-level enemy, his flaws would be magnified without limit. The enemy could seize an opening at any moment and deliver a fatal blow.
"Strange, truly strange." Mu shook his head in confusion. Unable to figure it out, he gave up thinking about it, patted Xiao Ran on the shoulder, and said to both Xiao Ran and Kira, "All right, I've wasted enough time here. I need to hurry up and adjust Moebius Zero's new equipment."
"Mm." Xiao Ran nodded. After Mu left, he and Kira left the hangar together.
On the way back to their rooms, Xiao Ran saw Kira hesitate several times as though he wanted to speak but could not bring himself to do so. Xiao Ran found it strange. "What's wrong, Kira? If you have something to say, just say it."
"Teacher..." Kira looked up at Xiao Ran, who was a head taller than him, and asked hesitantly, "Why can you pilot an MS?"
"Why?" Xiao Ran raised an eyebrow. He knew Kira had begun to suspect him. There was no reason for Xiao Ran to be capable of piloting an MS yet let his student stand at the front lines. So he said, "That's a strange question. I originally thought I couldn't pilot a combat MS either. I may have experience piloting industrial MS, but you should understand that combat and industrial models are completely different concepts."
Kira nodded softly. "Mm."
Xiao Ran slightly raised his head, seemingly reminiscing as he spoke, though he was actually thinking about how he should explain it. "A few days ago, I found the virtual training machine in the hangar, and it piqued my interest. I wanted to see whether I had the ability to pilot an MS. Over the past few days, I've been conducting virtual battles in the hangar every day. Maybe I really do have some talent as a Natural. With my past experience piloting industrial MS, I got the hang of it quickly."
After saying that, Xiao Ran turned to look at Kira beside him. "What do you think of my piloting skill?"
Kira turned toward Xiao Ran, his expression troubled.
Xiao Ran smiled and said without concern, "Go ahead."
"It's very poor." Kira lowered his head, his voice quiet as he spoke honestly. "Teacher, your Piloting Skill is probably not much different from that of an ordinary ZAFT green uniform. But compared to the pilots of the red uniforms—especially the pilots of the Aegis Gundam, Buster Gundam, Duel, and Blitz Gundam—you're still far inferior. Against any one of them, all you could do would be protect yourself."
"So I'm still just cannon fodder, huh? Hahaha." Xiao Ran laughed heartily without caring in the least, then reached out and ruffled Kira's hair. "You brat are my goal now. Just wait. You may be a Coordinator, but I'm not so simple either. Maybe one day I'll catch up to you."
Just as he finished speaking, the Archangel's broadcast system came alive. "All bridge personnel, Second Lieutenant Kira, and Captain Mu, report to the bridge. I repeat, all bridge personnel, Second Lieutenant Kira, and Captain Mu, report to the bridge."
Xiao Ran and Kira exchanged a glance and immediately broke into a jog. A few minutes later, they reached the bridge. By then, aside from Captain Mu, every member of the bridge crew had already assembled, including Miriallia and the other student soldiers. Not long afterward, Mu hurried in as well.
Standing on the bridge, Xiao Ran gazed through the transparent reinforced glass at space ahead. There, a long stretch of Debris Belt seemed to loom faintly before his eyes, and his thoughts drifted far away. It was not until Mu patted him strangely that he came back to himself. By then, aside from the Archangel's three highest-ranking officers—Mu, Bargyll, and Mwu—everyone else had left the bridge at some point.
"What are you thinking about?" Mu asked. Mwu and Bargyll also looked at Xiao Ran in confusion.
"The wronged souls of over two hundred thousand people in that Debris Belt." Xiao Ran gently shook his head and smiled faintly. "Tragic. Just one nuclear missile. I wonder how the person who fired it feels now. More than two hundred thousand people died because of him. Heh. I don't know why, but I suddenly feel like crying. I also don't know what kind of will you real soldiers take pride in. Slaughtering the innocent? Hehehe."
After saying that, Xiao Ran turned and left, leaving the three of them staring at one another as their minds roared. For a long while, none of them could say a word.
Xiao Ran returned to his room. Half of what he had said on the bridge had been to conceal his real thoughts, while the other half had been sincere emotion. Thinking about Lacus meeting Kira, Xiao Ran found it very interesting. But he was in this world now. Being so close to Junius 7, so close to the bodies of those two hundred thousand dead, still left him shaken.
Xiao Ran rested in his room without being disturbed by anyone. He did not leave until Kira and the others returned from their first resupply run through the sunken warships in the Debris Belt, after which Mwu summoned him to the bridge, where an argument was underway.
When Xiao Ran entered, he said only one sentence, yet it calmed the agitated students and made them agree to head to a fragment of Junius 7 to replenish their most important resource—water—as well as other lacking supplies.
"Those people are already dead, but we are still alive. We should indeed show the dead a certain degree of respect, but what about the living? Should we die of thirst in space for the sake of that respect? I don't want to disturb their rest, but if we want to survive, some things must be done. Death itself is not terrifying. What is terrifying is being unable to face death. If you don't want to go, then I'll go. I'll complete this resupply mission with the respect and silence it deserves."
The student soldiers had no grounds left to refute Xiao Ran. Mwu did not force everyone to immediately head to Junius 7 for supplies either. More than an hour later, Xiao Ran piloted a work boat to Junius 7 with Miriallia, who held an armful of folded-paper lilies, and they mourned the wrongfully dead souls.
Looking at the continent beneath his feet, Xiao Ran could only endure for a minute before he could not help closing his eyes. What he saw was far more horrifying than anything in the anime. Although they were not everywhere, as long as one looked carefully, all kinds of horribly twisted corpses could be found on Junius 7. Some had even burst open, their intestines and eyes protruding in a ghastly sight. The seemingly intact bodies shown in the anime were almost nonexistent. Their savage faces seemed to tell the world of the injustice done to them.
Immersed in that atmosphere of mourning and horror, Xiao Ran could not help developing an intense disgust toward the Earth Force. He had already disliked many of the Earth Force's actions when watching the anime, but that feeling was nowhere near the powerful disgust and rage he felt now.
After the memorial ended, Xiao Ran began working. Knowing the plot, he kept his attention on other things while he worked, repeatedly scanning the work boat's small radar and display. But the interference here was too severe; the radar was even less useful than the work boat's external cameras.
Several hours later, the Archangel's ammunition was just one final supply run away from being fully replenished. As for other living supplies, especially water, extraction was difficult, and another four hours of work would be needed before replenishment could be completed. So that he would not miss something while transporting cargo, after returning to the Archangel for the first time and sending Miriallia back, Xiao Ran took over all the water extraction work himself and remained on Junius 7 for a long time.
When Xiao Ran saw the Strike Gundam suddenly move on the display, delight instantly appeared on his face. As he adjusted the angle of the work boat's external camera, he directly opened a private communication line to the Strike Gundam. "Kira, find a way to capture it!"
"Teacher? Capture it? Could you be...?" Kira's voice entered Xiao Ran's ears. Kira paused, then said, "I understand. I'll try to capture it, but what about the person inside?"
"I'll handle that when the time comes." Xiao Ran stared fixedly at the Black Mecha appearing on the screen, his expression incomparably excited. Without even thinking, he said in a low voice, "If it doesn't work out, we can just find an opportunity to let her go."
"Uh, isn't that a little inappropriate..." Kira had been worried that the Recon Ginn, which knew nothing yet, would discover the work boat at work. But because of Xiao Ran, he instead became somewhat helpless.
"Don't worry. I have my own plan." Xiao Ran's tone was full of encouragement. When he saw the Recon Ginn turn as though it was about to leave, he hurriedly said, "Kira, it's leaving!"
"I know, Teacher." Kira's helpless voice came through into Xiao Ran's work boat. In the next instant, Xiao Ran saw the Strike Gundam rush out from cover at high speed and raise the Beam Rifle in its hand. Just as the Recon Ginn detected the heat signature, the three beams fired by the Strike Gundam's Beam Rifle struck the Recon Ginn almost simultaneously.
In Xiao Ran's eyes, the Strike Gundam moved swiftly and precisely. In three attacks, it directly disabled the Recon Ginn's arms and head, then quickly rushed in front of it. It aimed the Beam Rifle at the Ginn while its other hand rested against the Recon Ginn's body.
Through the still-connected communication channel, Xiao Ran also heard Kira's voice. "Surrender. If you keep resisting under these circumstances, you have no chance of surviving. We'll guarantee your safety."
The Recon Ginn's pilot did not answer. Xiao Ran's heart tightened. To be honest, he did not care what choice the Ginn's pilot made. His only concern was that the pilot might refuse to surrender out of unyielding pride and choose self-destruction instead. If that happened, Xiao Ran would naturally have to let this MS slip past him.
Perhaps the Recon Ginn's pilot was still hesitating, but every second became an agonizing mix of fear and anticipation for Xiao Ran. Fortunately, the torment did not last long. A minute later, there was an answer.
The Recon Ginn's cockpit opened, and a green-uniformed pilot slowly rose from the cockpit and raised her hands toward the Strike Gundam. At the sight, a joy and excitement Xiao Ran could not suppress instantly surged from the depths of his heart. His eyes remained fixed on the damaged machine, and his expression was one of utter satisfaction.
Just as Xiao Ran imagined himself piloting the Ginn and fighting in every direction, Kira's startled voice abruptly interrupted his fantasy. "It's a girl?"
Xiao Ran looked toward the figure flying out of the Ginn's cockpit. In his cheerful mood, he could not help whistling at her perfect, curvaceous figure outlined tightly by her space suit.