Supplies Collection on Julius Seven

The atmosphere in the cafeteria underwent a subtle, curious change after the slightly childish commotion earlier.

The uproarious laughter sparked by Xia Ya's "honesty" and Jiliang's "rampage" acted like a catalyst, dissolving the invisible barrier that had hung between Xia Ya and Tolle, Miliaria, and the others.

The wary, distant looks from before vanished, replaced by a more relaxed friendliness touched with curiosity and teasing.

It was as though that unpleasant "physical exchange" had instead shown them that this ace pilot, always shrouded in an air of mystery, was not as cold and aloof as they had imagined. He could be angered, say stupid things, and land himself in awkward situations—he had a side that belonged to an ordinary person.

However, Xia Ya himself held a different opinion about being labeled "cold" by the onlookers.

He unconsciously touched his ear, which still ached faintly and was flushed an unnatural red. The sensation of Jiliang tugging it hard still lingered there.

Cold? Maybe... but I definitely can't agree about Jiliang.

His thoughts drifted involuntarily toward the so-called original work.

In his memories, the boy called Kira Yamato had been confused and angry at times, but he had seemed more reserved and repressed.

The Jiliang Yamato before him was completely different.

Setting aside the original Kira, this Jiliang definitely isn't the type to hide her emotions, Xia Ya thought. She'll get into a brawl with Flay Allster out of jealousy and misunderstanding, and just like earlier, she'll lash out at me over a few jokes—even... pull someone's ears.

As he silently complained, Jiliang's bright eyes, carrying a hint of scrutiny, turned toward him. She seemed to have noticed the subtle shift in his expression. "Xia Ya?" she called softly. The anger in her voice had faded, leaving only pure curiosity.

Xia Ya reflexively bared his teeth in a bitter smile that mixed helplessness and pain. Pointing to his ear, he said, "Jiliang, that really hurt."

Jiliang froze for a moment, only then realizing what she had done in her excitement. A blush quickly rose to her face, and her gaze darted away as she muttered softly, "W-Who told you to say such weird things...?"

See? The original Kira would never react with that little tsundere attitude after doing something like that.

Come to think of it... how did she know I was thinking about her just now?

He had keenly caught that flicker of understanding in Jiliang's eyes when she questioned him, as though she could vaguely glimpse what he was thinking.

The feeling of being seen through made him uncomfortable, while also stirring deeper curiosity and vigilance within him.

This girl's intuition seemed even sharper than he had anticipated.

Just as the cafeteria atmosphere gradually shifted into the relaxed mood of friends teasing and ribbing one another, a steady voice with a faintly teasing edge broke the harmony that had only just begun to form.

"Well, you all seem to be having fun."

Everyone turned toward the voice and saw Xia Ya's nominal older brother, Mu La Flaga, standing near the cafeteria entrance at some point.

He still wore that seemingly lazy, carefree expression, though sharpness glinted beneath his eyes. With both hands in his pockets, he leaned against the doorframe, his gaze sweeping between Xia Ya and Jiliang as a knowing smile played on his lips.

"Big brother?" Xia Ya called, somewhat surprised.

The teasing expression quickly faded from Mu's face, replaced by seriousness. He straightened up and looked over the young pilots and their friends.

"The captain is looking for you," he said slowly. His voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable note of command. "Come with me to the bridge."

The relaxed mood in the air instantly froze. Although they were full of questions—why would the captain suddenly summon them after they had just finished such a fierce battle?—

—no one dared ask.

Xia Ya, Jiliang, Tolle, Miliaria, and the others immediately put down their utensils, rose to their feet, straightened their slightly rumpled clothes, and hurried out of the cafeteria behind Mu toward the heart of the warship—the bridge.

It turned out that Lieutenant Ramius had summoned them to discuss the vital matter of supplies.

When they heard the news, delighted smiles spread across everyone's faces, and some could not help cheering.

*

Space was a silent graveyard, and the wreckage of Julius Seven was its largest, saddest tombstone.

The crimson Blaze Gundam maneuvered nimbly through twisted steel frameworks and fragments of ruined buildings.

Sitting in the cockpit, Xia Ya stared through the monitor at this scar upon space.

This had once been one of P.L.A.N.T.'s thriving colonial satellites, an agricultural satellite that symbolized life and abundance.

Yet during the Bloody Valentine tragedy, the nuclear bomb dropped by the Earth Alliance had reduced all of it to nothing in an instant.

A cold number had been branded into the records of history—243,721 people.

That was the official number of lives lost in that horrific nuclear attack. Coordinator lives.

Xia Ya carefully used Blaze Gundam's mechanical arm to retrieve supplies, but his thoughts drifted to a darker place.

Two hundred and forty thousand... It was a horrifying number.

Yet the "world" he had come from had endured even more wars and massacres on far greater scales.

He even found himself unconsciously comparing it to the casualties later caused when the Coordinators launched Neutron Jammer attacks against the Earth Alliance in retaliation.

An absurd, chilling feeling of self-mockery rose within him.

Was he the only one who obsessed over comparing death tolls like this, measuring the pain of one side through the tragedy of the other, simply because he was an observer carrying memories of another world?

His gaze swept across the bodies exposed to the vacuum, frozen in the postures they had held at the moment of death.

They had been preserved by the cold of space, transformed into eternal sculptures that silently spoke of the pain, despair, and sudden death brought by the nuclear blast.

Those sights struck the heart far harder than cold numbers could, filling his soul with an indescribable heaviness and suffocation.

"..." Xia Ya abruptly shook his head and forcibly suppressed his tangled thoughts.

He realized that he had unconsciously stopped working again, immersed in grief and reflection over a historical tragedy.

That was not what he should be doing now.

He took a deep breath, focused again, and continued the resupply operation.

At the same time, he did not forget his other "mission"—using Blaze Gundam's advanced sensors and high-resolution cameras to continuously scan and record the surrounding airspace.

He knew that, according to the original work's plot, Strike Gundam piloted by Jiliang would encounter a ZAFT Scout Guinn amid these ruins. After the battle, she would accidentally discover a drifting escape pod.

Inside that escape pod was a key figure capable of changing the entire course of the war—and even changing Jiliang's fate—Lacus Clyne.

That classic scene from the original work had not yet occurred.

Xia Ya's brow furrowed slightly as a question that had troubled him for a long time rose again in his mind. ...What should I do?

If he, piloting the speed-focused Blaze Gundam, found that Scout Guinn before Strike Gundam did, what should he choose?

The question lingered in his heart like a ghost.

Option one: act decisively, just as in the original work, and shoot down that Scout Guinn.

That would ensure the subsequent plot developed along the path he knew.

After recovering the escape pod, Jiliang would meet Lacus Clyne. Their bond would form as expected, and a series of important events would unfold afterward.

It was the "safest" choice, the one that best suited his advantage as someone who knew the future.

Option two: take another path. Perhaps he could avoid shooting down the GINN directly and instead cleverly guide it into discovering and recovering Lacus Clyne's escape pod.

That way, Lacus Clyne could safely return to P.L.A.N.T. and avoid the awkward situation of falling into the hands of the "enemy ship," Archangel.

Jiliang and Lacus Clyne's meeting would be delayed, or they might even miss each other entirely.

That seemed like the more "humane" choice for Lacus Clyne herself, but it could trigger a chain of unforeseeable deviations from the plot.

Xia Ya sank into deep thought. Two choices, two entirely different futures.

Personally, he did not wish to actively stray too far from the original work's path.

After all, much of his understanding of this world was built upon that "predetermined" story. Recklessly altering a key point could trigger a butterfly effect beyond his control and lead everything into an unknown abyss.

Yet another voice spoke within him: Was it truly right to calmly bring an innocent girl—a girl with a sensitive identity and important status—into the heart of a warship belonging to the opposing side, placing her amid potential danger and a complicated political whirlpool, all for the sake of "following the original work"?

Did he truly possess enough ability and wisdom to handle all the problems that might arise, ensure Lacus Clyne's safety, and ultimately let her leave smoothly as she had in the original work?

He was not completely confident. The Jiliang of this world, the Mu of this world, the Murrue of this world... all of them differed subtly from the people in his memories.

Doubt filled his heart like cosmic dust, impossible to brush away.

"..." Xia Ya silently sighed inside the cockpit.

He realized that he always seemed to fall into these pointless worries.

However, in the very next moment, reality ended all his hesitation and thought in an almost mocking fashion.

Blaze Gundam's sensors suddenly picked up a faint signal.

It was not an MS response, but the signal of a standard escape pod.

Xia Ya's gaze instantly locked onto the slowly drifting white cylinder on the screen. He murmured instinctively, "An escape pod... This is... the one Lacus was in, isn't it...?"

The script of fate did not seem inclined to give him many chances to choose.

Before encountering the Scout Guinn that should theoretically have appeared, he had already discovered Lacus Clyne's escape pod first.

In fact, no matter how he maneuvered Blaze Gundam, expanded the search range, or carefully scanned every shadow among the ruins, he could not find a single trace of the Scout Guinn.

The sensor display was completely clear. Aside from the escape pod before him, there were no other active targets.

A strong doubt rose within Xia Ya. Could it be... it never came?

He checked the sensor data again and again.

The result remained the same. Moreover, even his intuition, which was unusually sensitive to danger and hostility, was calm at this moment. He could not sense the slightest hidden threat nearby.

After some rapid logical deduction, he could only reach one conclusion: that Scout GINN had perhaps deviated from its intended route for some unknown reason, or simply had not yet reached this airspace.

...Do I have no choice but to recover it? Xia Ya frowned slightly as he considered it.

He could not determine when that GINN would arrive.

If it was only a few minutes or hours later, perhaps he could wait and see whether he could "give" the escape pod to it.

But he could not rule out the possibility that it might take days to arrive, or that it might never come at all—though that possibility was extremely slim.

Lingering in these vast and dangerous space ruins for too long was itself a tremendous risk.

He could not gamble with his own life, nor with the life of the songstress inside the escape pod, on an uncertain possibility.

He had to make a decision quickly.

"Archangel, this is Blaze. I've discovered an unidentified escape pod and request recovery instructions." Xia Ya opened communications and reported his discovery to the mothership.

After the resupply operation on Julius Seven ended successfully, the atmosphere in Archangel's hangar became tense once more.

The white escape pod Xia Ya had recovered now lay quietly in the middle of the open floor. Its metal shell reflected a cold gleam beneath the hangar's bright lights, like a sleeping mystery.

Lieutenant Ramius and Ensign Badgiruel had personally come to the hangar. Their expressions were grave, and they clearly attached great importance to this unexpected escape pod.

The experienced chief mechanic, Mr. Maddock, was carefully operating the escape pod's external emergency opening mechanism with his tools.

Around him, several fully armed soldiers had already taken position. They gripped their rifles tightly, muzzles vigilantly aimed toward the hatch, ready for any unexpected situation.

Jiliang, Mu, and several other young crew members stood farther away as well, watching with curiosity and tension.

"Click." With a soft sound, Mr. Maddock straightened up and said in a low voice, "It's open."

As soon as he spoke, the escape pod hatch let out a faint hiss of pressurized air and slowly slid aside, revealing the dark space within.

The soldiers' nerves instantly tightened to the limit, their fingers settling on their triggers.