Meeting Lacus Clyne

Yet the enemy or danger they had expected did not appear.

"Haro! Haro! He's here!"

A round, pink spherical object bounced out of the open hatch like a toy ball that had been launched from a cannon. Its rabbit-ear-like appendages fluttered gently like wings, helping it float and maneuver nimbly through the hangar's microgravity environment.

This sudden, adorable entrance made everyone, who had been tense and braced for battle, pause in surprise.

The soldiers' taut muscles relaxed slightly, and the vigilance on their faces turned into bewilderment and confusion.

That tense, killing atmosphere vanished without a trace.

Then, a gentle, sweet female voice like heavenly music drifted leisurely from inside the pod:

"Thank you. You've all worked hard."

At that moment, nearly everyone's attention was drawn to the lively Pink Haro as they watched it spin happily through the air.

However, Xia Ya's gaze remained fixed on the dark hatch that had just opened.

Because he knew the true protagonist was about to make her appearance.

Guided by that voice, everyone finally snapped out of their daze and hurriedly turned their eyes back toward the escape pod.

A soft pale pink emerged from the pod, slowly and lightly "floating" out like the gentlest streak of dawn clouds on the horizon.

Her long pink hair was like the finest silk, smooth and lustrous, brushing softly with her movements.

She wore a long dress in similar shades of pink. Its broad, flowing hem spread like blooming petals in the weightless microgravity, swaying gently as she moved as though performing a silent ballet.

The girl who appeared before them looked to be around Xia Ya and Jiliang's age.

Her features were exquisitely beautiful, her skin fairer than snow, and her soft, perfect facial features came together into a beauty beyond the ordinary. Within those crystal-clear eyes lay an indescribable gentleness and serenity, like compassion for all living things.

She was Lacus Clyne, the only daughter of Siegel Clyne, Chairman of P.L.A.N.T.'s Supreme Council, and the peerless idol hailed as "P.L.A.N.T.'s Songstress."

A faint stir rose in Xia Ya's heart.

He had seen Lacus countless times on the screen of the "original work," but only now, seeing her in person, did he truly understand just how astonishing her charm was.

It was not merely her physical beauty. It was an aura that radiated from within like sacred light, as though it possessed an incredible magic capable of soothing hearts and bewitching everyone who came into contact with her.

Perhaps because of inertia, after floating out of the escape pod, her body continued drifting uncontrollably toward one wall of the hangar.

There was a natural confusion on her face, like a child who had just awakened and could not find her way. She made an adorably troubled sound. "Oh my... oh dear?"

Everyone around her, including Mu and Jiliang, seemed drawn in by her otherworldly beauty and her somewhat clumsy adorableness. For a moment, they could only stare blankly, forgetting to step forward and help.

A warning bell rang faintly in Xia Ya's heart—ah, wait a second?

At a time like this, was it his turn, the one standing in the corner with comparatively little presence, to stop her from hitting the wall?

He instinctively glanced at where he stood. Sure enough, he was closest to Lacus's drifting path and in the best position to lend a hand.

Before he could even hesitate, his body moved ahead of his thoughts.

He stepped forward and reached out without hesitation, firmly yet as gently as possible grasping her slender wrist and stopping her from drifting toward the wall.

The instant his fingers touched her wrist, an indescribable sensation ran through him.

Her skin was smooth and delicate, and her wrist was so slender it seemed as though it might break with the slightest pressure. Yet from that seemingly fragile limb came an unusually distinct vitality, like a warm current.

At that moment, Lacus seemed to recover from her brief confusion. She turned her head slightly, and her clear, water-like eyes met Xia Ya's deep blue ones.

Boom—!!!

In an instant, an indescribable, unimaginable sensation like the birth of the universe swept through Xia Ya's entire consciousness like a raging tide!

He felt as though the world around him had been thrown into a high-speed centrifuge.

The hangar lights, the cold walls, the onlookers, even the sensation of his own body all became blurred, distorted, and spun faster in an instant—so fast they were nearly impossible to recognize!

The concepts of time and space seemed to vanish.

At that moment, it was as though the entire universe within his consciousness had collapsed, leaving only him and the pink-haired girl before him, separated from everything else as they engaged in a silent, vast exchange.

He could clearly "hear"—or rather, "feel"—Lacus's emotions, flowing endlessly from her eyes like the purest stream and pouring into the lake of his heart. There was surprise at their first meeting, faint confusion, an innate affinity, and a deeply hidden, barely perceptible sorrow and prayer.

In that instant, every secret he possessed as Char La Flaga—including his existence, his past, everything about him, the essence of his being buried in the deepest part of his soul that he had never revealed to anyone, not even his closest brother Mu—surged uncontrollably and without reservation toward the girl before him like floodwaters bursting through a dam!

He "saw" a deeper flash of shock and disbelief pass through Lacus's eyes.

"You are...?" she asked instinctively in a breathy voice that only the two of them could nearly hear.

That strange and terrifying deep connection between their souls lasted only an instant, as brief as a flash of lightning.

But in that instant, Xia Ya understood everything with absolute clarity—and absolute terror.

It was over.

She knew.

The moment he touched Lacus Clyne and their gazes met, his greatest secret, the foundation of his existence, everything he was, had been stripped of all disguise and completely exposed before this girl he had only just met.

"...!"

A freezing chill shot from his tailbone to his brain, making his scalp tingle!

It felt as though an invisible hand had seized his heart in a crushing grip, nearly stopping it altogether!

"Xia Ya!?" Mu La Flaga keenly noticed his younger brother's face turning deathly pale and his body going rigid. He immediately called out loudly, his voice full of concern.

But Xia Ya could no longer hear his brother calling from behind him.

His mind was consumed by unprecedented panic and naked terror, with only one thought roaring madly through it:

Run! Right now! Immediately! Get out of here!

He abruptly released Lacus's wrist as though it were a red-hot branding iron.

His body sprang backward as if mounted on a spring. Then he turned and bolted out of the hangar without looking back, moving faster than he ever had in his life!

His movements were so sudden and violent that he even knocked over a nearby tool rack, producing a shriek of clashing metal.

He ran wildly onward, ignoring the astonished looks cast his way by other crew members in the corridors. His heart pounded crazily in his chest like thunderous war drums, making his eardrums buzz.

He did not know how long he ran until he crashed into the room temporarily assigned to him and forcefully locked the door behind him. Only then did he finally stop.

With his back against the cold metal door, his body slid uncontrollably to the floor.

He gasped for breath, his lungs burning like broken bellows.

Cold sweat seeped endlessly from his forehead, temples, and back like streams, quickly soaking through his undershirt.

His body trembled uncontrollably—not from cold, but from the terror and lingering fear that had seeped into his bones.

Calm down... calm down... I have to calm down... he kept telling himself over and over.

Yet his chaotic thoughts ran and crashed through his mind like wild horses that had broken free of their reins. His pounding heart was so loud that it drove him to distraction, leaving him almost unable to think.

After quite some time—perhaps minutes, perhaps longer—the overwhelming panic finally receded slightly like a tide, allowing him to regain a small measure of thought.

As he struggled to regulate his still-disordered, rapid breathing, he desperately replayed and pieced together the unbelievable scene that had just happened in the hangar—

Touching Lacus Clyne.

Their gazes meeting.

Then... what exactly had that been?

The scene of his earlier confrontation with that masked man, Rau Le Creuset, surfaced in his mind.

That time, he had also felt something similar: a phenomenon in which they could communicate directly on the level of consciousness without any communications equipment.

It had been a form of telepathy, an expression of the spatial awareness—or perhaps pseudo-Newtype ability—inherited through the La Flaga Family bloodline.

But he also knew with absolute clarity that what had happened between him and Lacus just now, while similar to what had occurred with Rau Le Creuset, was fundamentally and vastly different!

With Rau Le Creuset, it had been more like vague emotional perception and a collision of thoughts.

But with Lacus just now... it had been a flood of information! A sharing of memories! Souls laid bare before each other!

Its depth, breadth, and clarity far surpassed the kind of resonance he had shared with Rau Le Creuset!

...Was it the power of a Coordinator? Such a thought suddenly crossed Xia Ya's mind.

More precisely, it was the power of a special existence that stood above ordinary Coordinators, one he had learned about from the later parts of the "original work," especially the theatrical film.

Accords.

According to the "information" he knew, Accords were humans "designed" through genetic engineering for specific purposes.

They possessed mental and physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary Coordinators.

More importantly, they seemed to possess a powerful special ability that could interfere with the minds of others.

They could read the thoughts of specific targets and could even mentally influence, brainwash, and control them.

Furthermore, they appeared to possess a form of telepathy, allowing them to read one another's minds and communicate on a spiritual level without speaking aloud.

Xia Ya himself could achieve a certain degree of telepathy through the La Flaga Family bloodline.

So he instinctively connected what had just happened to the abilities of an Accord. It seemed like the most reasonable explanation for now.

However, even if that might be the reason, there were still key parts of that phenomenon that he simply could not explain.

Xia Ya was certain that what had occurred between him and Lacus had not been as simple as "telepathy" or "mind reading."

What they had exchanged were "memories" and "emotions" at an even deeper level, engraved into their souls.

Did this... also fall within the capabilities of an Accord?

He quickly recalled the plot of the theatrical film.

Lacus and her destined counterpart—an Accord man named Orphee—had also demonstrated the ability to communicate mentally without words, but... had anything as profound as what had just happened occurred between them, where they could receive the other's past memories in their entirety?

Xia Ya searched his memories desperately but could find no supporting evidence.

As far as he knew, while Accords could read a target's "thoughts"—their current ideas and emotions—they did not seem to have clearly demonstrated the ability to read a person's complete "memories"—their past experiences, knowledge, and secrets.

At least, in the theatrical film he had watched, there had been no direct depiction of such a scene.

...I wasn't some "new type" of Accord created after Lacus and Orphee, was I— Xia Ya silently analyzed, then immediately rejected the thought. —No. That shouldn't be it.