Bang!
Inside the Laurasia-class battleship Gamow.
Athrun was slammed hard into the wall by Yzak.
"You bastard, what the hell were you thinking? What the hell are you trying to do...?!"
Yzak gripped Athrun's collar in both hands, his normally neat face twisted with rage. "If you hadn't done something so unnecessary back then, I would've taken down the Strike Gundam long ago!"
Yzak was very proud, but he was not so proud that he was unreasonable, or completely irrational.
If the Strike Gundam really had been that strong, strong enough to utterly defeat him, strong enough to make him lose, then he would have gritted his teeth and accepted it.
At least he could have made sense of it. Worst case, he would train harder afterward and win it back.
But what he could not accept was Athrun's "betrayal."
Yes, he really did dislike Athrun, but disliking him did not mean he did not acknowledge him.
Only now—he truly could not understand. Not one bit.
"Thanks to you ignoring orders, we've really embarrassed ourselves this time. When people ask about it later, we can just say one Natural beat four of us Red Uniforms. That'll really make us look good!"
Dearka, leaning against the locker room wall, also took the chance to sneer sarcastically.
Listening to their mockery and accusations, Athrun could not say a single word in rebuttal. He could only turn his gaze away, his expression dark.
"Athrun, what exactly were you thinking?"
Michel also found it somewhat impossible to accept. "Ino died at that guy's hands. Rusty died because of him too. They even took Ino's machine and used it. What exactly are you trying to do?!"
In the past, Michel had still held some respect for Athrun. After all, Athrun's ability was worthy of recognition.