[Heliopolis-wide Level Eight evacuation order in effect. Residents, proceed to the nearest air-raid shelter immediately...]
[Repeating! Heliopolis-wide Level Eight evacuation order in effect. Residents, proceed to the nearest air-raid shelter immediately...]
Amid the smoke and flames engulfing Heliopolis, the air-raid sirens and the thunder of explosions rang without pause.
Ino knew about war, but had never truly set foot on a battlefield. He couldn't help but be shaken by what he saw.
The land was devastated, littered with countless lifeless bodies.
Tanks and armored vehicles engulfed in flames exploded with deafening booms.
On the ground, the faces of the residents who hadn't found shelter in time were etched with despair and fear. They had no idea where to go next.
All they could do was flee frantically amid the roar of the artillery, like ants that had lost their way.
"So this is war..."
Ino, experiencing a battlefield firsthand for the first time, unconsciously stopped in his tracks.
After graduating from military academy, he had taken part in combat, but it had been in the cold, silent vacuum of space, and those who died had been enemies who had gone to battle prepared to die.
But now, most of the bodies scattered across the ground belonged to ordinary people caught in the crossfire.
And because there was an industrial school here, most of the dead were young people dressed in fine clothes.
Rumble!
A series of deafening explosions drew Ino and Michel's attention.
Not far away, amid violent explosions and the trembling ground, two Mobile Suits burst out of the thick smoke, trailing clouds behind them.
One of them soon landed behind Ino.
The other staggered a couple of steps across the ground before collapsing face-first.
"Athrun?"
Ino asked instinctively, confirming his identity.
"It's me."
Athrun delivered the grim news in a heavy voice. "Rusty... failed!"
"I... I see."
At his words, Rusty's face flashed through Ino's mind, and his hand clenched into a fist.
Would he never see that lively joker again?
Before they left, he had tried to remind Rusty to be careful, but...
Still, at least I changed Michel's—
"Ino! Athrun!"
Just as Ino was thinking that, even though he hadn't saved Rusty, he had at least changed Michel's fate, Michel's voice suddenly came from behind.
Turning around, he saw Michel rushing in from the direction of the port.
"Michel?"
Athrun said, instinctively, as he saw Michel's face appear on his screen.
"Athrun, did you finish—? And where's the other Mobile Suit? Where's Rusty?!"
But when Michel reached the battlefield, he found that the situation wasn't what he'd expected.
"Rusty... failed."
Athrun repeated the words he'd just spoken, his voice weighed down with grief.
"Failed..."
As if struck by lightning, Michel stared in shock at the Mobile Suit across from them. "Then the one over there..."
"That Mobile Suit is being piloted by an Earth Alliance officer," Athrun replied.
"Damn Naturals!"
On the screen, Michel's eyes filled with unmistakable killing intent. "In that case, I'll capture that Mobile Suit! Ino, escort Athrun back!"
"What?"
Ino snapped out of his shock and hurriedly said, "No, you escort Athrun—"
"Shut up!"
Michel's furious voice cut him off. "I'll finish the mission Rusty couldn't!"
With that, Michel roared and pulled the trigger, firing at the Strike Gundam.
In their squad, everyone other than Ino had someone they were especially close to.
Athrun and Nicol.
Yzak and Dearka.
Michel and Rusty.
So when Michel heard that Rusty had died—and at the hands of a Natural—he instantly lost his head.
"Michel..."
Watching Michel charge straight at the Strike Gundam, Ino felt as if he couldn't breathe.
He'd deliberately left Michel outside to keep Flaga occupied. So how had Michel still made it here?
Had Flaga really been unable to hold off one Michel?
Ino knew that Michel and Rusty both died here. Rusty died while trying to seize a Mobile Suit, and Michel died at the hands of Kira Yamato.
That was why he'd deliberately left Michel outside to deal with Flaga.
But now—
Could fate really be impossible to change?
"Ino, I'm counting on you!"
Just as Ino wondered whether he should go help Michel, Athrun's voice suddenly came from inside the cockpit. "I'm having some trouble with the unlock on this end."
"Athrun? You—"
Ino stared at him in disbelief.
Trouble unlocking it?
What the hell did he mean, trouble unlocking it? This guy—
"I'm counting on you, Ino."
Meeting Ino's gaze, Athrun spoke again from the cockpit of the pale white Mobile Suit.
Through the helmet on the screen, Ino could just make out Athrun's wavering eyes.
"What are you two doing back there? Why aren't you leaving?"
Michel watched the two of them standing around and shouted angrily, "Don't you want to finish the mission?!"
"We're leaving right now! But be careful, Michel. These Mobile Suits are equipped with Phase Shift Armor. Once it's activated, a Ginn's weapons won't be able to damage them!"
After saying that, Athrun turned to Ino again. "I'm counting on you, Ino!"
Maybe it was just his imagination, but this time Ino heard a plea in Athrun's voice.
"Damn it!"
Ino understood what Athrun meant. He could read it in his eyes, too.
If you don't take me with you, I'm not leaving—and I'm not activating that Phase Shift Armor either—
For a moment, Ino even felt like kicking Athrun out of the cockpit.
But there was nothing he could do. He couldn't exactly tell them that he knew Michel couldn't beat the Strike Gundam.
If he said that, ZAFT would lock him in a room the next day.
"Michel, be careful!"
In the end, Ino had no choice but to make a decision.
Then he turned to Athrun. "I'll escort you back first! Then I'll come back!"
Without waiting for Athrun to respond, Ino piloted his Mobile Suit toward the port.
He didn't know exactly when Michel would die, but he figured he could hold out for a while. No matter how much of a genius Kira Yamato was, he couldn't become invincible the moment he got his hands on a Mobile Suit.
So as long as Ino was fast enough, he could make it back before Michel died.
Hearing this, Athrun took one last deep look at the Mobile Suit staggering under Michel's attacks, then turned and followed Ino without a backward glance.
Ino moved fast.
Perhaps because he was worried about Michel, this time he shot down every Moebius that got in his way.
In no time, he had fought his way out of the port.
And he brought Athrun back to the Vesalius.
"Please refuel me first!"
Ino urged the hangar crew as he ate an in-flight ration.
Because he'd made the trip back and forth, his Ginn's energy was nearly depleted.
If he went back like this, he wouldn't just fail to save Michel—he might not even make it out alive.
"Ino, you're going back?"
Dearka, replenishing his strength in the cockpit of the Buster Gundam, couldn't help but be surprised by Ino's determination.
The guy was acting strangely today.
Yzak and the others looked equally startled.
"Michel's still in there. I have to go check on him."
Ino explained his concern. "Rusty's already been lost. I don't want to lose Michel too."
Ino was actually grateful to Athrun and the others.
Maybe it was sentimental, but ever since he came to this world, Ino had felt lonely.
He didn't notice it when he was busy, but on some quiet nights, the loneliness of being stranded in a foreign land with no way to return would rise up from deep inside him.
Ino had tried hard to get used to the feeling and to convince himself to accept reality completely.
But some feelings couldn't simply be cast aside just because you said you would.
He could only do that if he abandoned his memories of the past. Yet the more he tried to cast those memories aside, the clearer they became, and the deeper his loneliness grew.
It was Athrun and the others who gave Ino a place to put his feelings.
Training together, arguing together, playing together... All those moments gave Ino something he could only describe as a sense of reality.
So, as long as he could keep himself safe, Ino didn't want anything to happen to Athrun or the others.
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