Kira's Thoughts

Inside the room, the air seemed to have solidified into transparent crystal. Everything was silent, leaving only the subtle, tense current flowing wordlessly between the two of them.

Char's apology was like a stone cast into a still lake, shattering the suffocating silence.

His head hung low, golden hair obscuring his brows and eyes. Only his taut jawline remained visible, revealing the struggle and sincerity in his heart.

As Lacus Clyne looked at the boy before her, so humble in posture, a corner of the thin ice built up in her heart from the earlier fright and confusion quietly melted away.

She could sense that this apology was not perfunctory, but heartfelt remorse.

A flicker passed through her clear blue eyes. She hurriedly reached out her jade-white hand as if to help him up, her voice carrying a trace of barely perceptible fluster. "...! Please, please raise your head. Um... I do not mind what you did just now."

Her voice was as soft as feathers brushing against heartstrings, carrying a soothing power.

Yet Char did not immediately heed her words.

He remained with his head lowered, as though wrestling with something even heavier in his heart, or sorting through a tangled mass of thoughts without knowing where to begin.

The air fell silent again for a brief moment. Only their faint breaths intertwined, creating a strange atmosphere of intimacy and distance existing side by side.

After quite a while, Char slowly raised his head, as though it had taken considerable effort.

The embarrassment and guilt from before had faded from his face, replaced by the calmness of someone who had made up his mind.

The corners of his lips even curved into an exceptionally faint smile, like sunlight after a winter snowfall. It carried a trace of detachment, yet strangely dispelled some of the cold.

"I think you should already know. Still, by proper etiquette, allow me to introduce myself again..."

He paused, his azure eyes meeting Lacus's equally deep violet ones. His voice was clear and steady. "My name is Char La Flaga."

At the instant that name left his lips, Lacus's heart gave a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.

Char La Flaga.

Of course, she "knew" that name.

Rather than knowing it, though, it was more like... she had only just "read" it through an utterly extraordinary means.

During that brief yet profound contact, like a resonance between souls, while his emotions and memories had surged into her consciousness like a flood, that name—and the stormy secrets it carried—had already been branded into her awareness.

Though her heart was in turmoil, Lacus's face retained the perfect composure and courtesy expected of a noble lady.

She dipped slightly and performed an impeccable curtsy. Her skirt gently swayed open like a blooming flower as she spoke in a warm, pleasant voice. "...I should introduce myself as well, though you may already know. My name is Lacus Clyne."

She paused, then looked at Char sincerely and added, "As for why I was able to leave that... rather cold solitary cell and come to this comfortable room, Mr. Mu told me it was thanks to your request... Thank you very much, Lord Char."

Her posture was as elegant as an elf who had rehearsed onstage countless times, every movement pleasing to the eye.

Even though she knew he had most likely learned her name through that strange connection, she still meticulously followed proper etiquette, introducing herself in imitation of Char and expressing her sincere gratitude for his help.

It was not merely the result of noble upbringing, but also a reflection of her kindness and sensitivity.

Char nodded lightly, accepting her thanks.

His short golden hair swayed slightly with the motion, flowing with the luster of melted gold beneath the room's soft lighting.

"I was the one who acted improperly first," he said slowly, his voice returning to its usual low, calm tone. "So you need not concern yourself with it. More importantly..."

His tone suddenly shifted. The faint smile vanished from his face, replaced by an almost sharp seriousness.

Those sapphire-like eyes, focused like searchlights, fixed themselves tightly on Lacus's face without the slightest attempt to avoid her gaze, as if trying to pierce through her gentle, serene exterior and look directly into the depths of her soul.

"...You should know why I came here to find you."

His voice was not loud, yet it carried an unquestionable force that made the air tighten once more.

Hearing this, Lacus involuntarily drew in a soft breath.

That faint sound, like a feather touching the ground, was especially clear in the overly quiet room.

Of course she knew.

Or rather, she had strongly sensed it.

The reason Char La Flaga, this mysterious and powerful young ace pilot, had appeared before her... truly did not need to be asked.

Because she and he were driven by the same intense emotion.

It was an uncontrollable desire to uncover the truth behind the inexplicable connection that had occurred between them, as well as the shocking "truths" they had glimpsed through it.

Char's voice rang out again, like a great bell struck in a silent hall, carrying an unrefusable decisiveness.

"Let's talk, Lacus Clyne."

To Lacus, those words were no different from an invitation she had long awaited.

A burst of uncontrollable excitement and anticipation surged through her heart, as though a tightly drawn string had finally found someone who could resonate with it.

She knew that the conversation to come might unravel countless mysteries in her heart, perhaps even... change her understanding of this world and the future.

Elsewhere aboard the battleship Archangel, however, the atmosphere in the bustling, noisy hangar was completely different.

Kira Yamato was piloting her beloved machine—the Strike Gundam—carefully transporting supply crates recently salvaged from the ruins of Julius Seven to their designated storage area.

The surroundings were filled with the roar of heavy machinery, shouted orders from maintenance crew members, and the clamor of metal striking metal.

Sweat ran down from her temples, soaking the hair by her ears. Yet her eyes, usually bright and full of life, seemed somewhat hollow now, as if they had lost focus.

"Hey—! Little lady! What are you spacing out for? What's wrong!?"

A rough, familiar shout yanked Kira sharply back from her wandering thoughts like a clap of thunder.

It was the maintenance chief, Mr. Maddock.

Only then did Kira realize that she had stopped operating again at some point. The Strike Gundam's enormous mechanical arm was suspended in midair, frozen in a stiff pose.

"Ah... r-right, sorry, Mr. Maddock!" A guilty flush instantly rose to Kira's face. She hurriedly came back to herself, her fingers flying over the controls as she tried to focus her thoughts on the work before her again.

Yet her mind was already like a wild horse that had broken free of its reins, drifting somewhere else entirely.

In her mind, the scene from the hangar several hours earlier kept replaying itself—the pink-haired girl, Lacus Clyne, beautiful like a fairy fallen into the mortal world; and... Char La Flaga, who had undergone a drastic change in temperament after that brief contact with her, fleeing the hangar in a panic as though he had seen a ghost.

After that, Kira had watched with her own eyes as Lacus was surrounded by armed soldiers acting as if they faced a formidable enemy. There was no fear in her eyes, but obvious confusion and helplessness. Like a frightened fawn that had wandered into a hunter's trap, she was taken away to what was said to be a temporarily converted solitary cell.

Seeing that scene, anyone would naturally suspect that Lacus had done something to Char—some unknown attack?

Mind control? Or something else?

—something that had caused the ace pilot, who was usually so calm and powerful that he hardly seemed human, to display such unprecedented loss of composure.

In fact, that had been Kira's initial assumption as well.

After all, Char's reaction had been far too abnormal, far too intense.

A huge question wound itself around Kira's heart like a vine: if Lacus seemed so harmless, then why... why had Char acted as though fleeing from a plague, desperately running away from her?

Kira was not the only one confused by this question.

Later, during a break, she heard Flay, Miliaria, Tolle, and the others discussing it quietly together, expressing similar thoughts.

"That girl named Lacus doesn't look scary at all..." Miliaria tilted her head, her face full of confusion.

"Yeah, she seemed really gentle. What exactly is wrong with Char?" Tolle frowned too, unable to figure it out.

Even Flay, who usually had something of a spoiled rich girl's temperament and did not think much of Coordinators, rarely made any sharp remarks this time. She merely remained silent in thought.

Kira sat quietly to one side without joining their discussion, simply turning her gaze toward the deep universe beyond the hangar while secretly pondering it all.

Because there was one thing she had not told anyone.

—At that moment... at the instant Char's hand touched Lacus's wrist and their gazes met... Kira had felt it.

She had felt an... incredibly faint, yet undeniably real, indescribable... unbelievable sensation.

What kind of sensation was it?

Kira tried hard to search her mind for the right words, only to find it exceptionally difficult. It was not sound, not light, nor any distinct emotional fluctuation.

It was more like... a momentary distortion of space, or perhaps perception? An extremely brief, subtle sense of "discord," as if all the world's background noise had vanished for an instant?

Even she could not say exactly what it had been.

Only that, in that instant, something in Kira's heart had indeed been lightly and quietly stirred, like an exceedingly faint yet impossible-to-ignore ripple spreading across a perfectly still lake.

Then, immediately afterward, Char had flung Lacus's hand away as if shocked by electricity and fled with a deathly pale face.

A bold guess flashed through Kira's mind like lightning. "(...Could it be... could it be that Char felt the same thing too? Maybe... even more strongly than I did?)"

But as soon as that thought arose, she found it hard to believe.

Char La Flaga, who normally piloted the Blaze Gundam effortlessly through storms of gunfire and never changed expression even when facing powerful enemies—that calm, strong, even somewhat cold man—would be so shocked and frightened by such a tiny... insignificant sensation that even she could not accurately describe, that he would flee in panic without a thought for anything else?

That simply did not fit Kira's understanding of Char.

Later, she had accidentally heard from Mr. Mu that Lacus had now been moved to a private room approved for use by Captain Murrue.

Not that cold solitary cell, but a private room prepared with much better conditions.

And all of it had happened because Char had strongly pleaded with the captain and Mr. Mu.

Kira's heart immediately filled with even deeper confusion.

Char, who had seemed desperate to avoid Lacus, had actually taken the initiative to plead on her behalf?

What kind of secret was hidden behind all this?

Maybe... maybe in that brief instant of contact, something really had happened between those two... something beyond her imagination, something she did not know about.

And was that thing truly connected to the subtle, indescribable sensation she herself had felt then?

Kira's delicate brows furrowed slightly as an inexplicable, indescribable emotion surged through her heart.

It was a little sour, a little irritated, and carried a trace of... anxiety she herself could not understand. She unconsciously raised a hand and lightly pressed her palm against her chest.

"...?"

Just now, there seemed to have been an extremely brief, sudden pain there, like a needle prick.

But when she tried to feel it carefully, the pain vanished without a trace like an illusion.

"Hey—! Miss! Spacing out again!" Mr. Maddock's impatient urging rang out once more.

Kira snapped back to herself and hurriedly called out, "S-sorry! I'll be done right away!"

Only then did she realize that she had once again stopped working, while the faint pain that had flashed across her chest moments ago had already been completely cast from her mind, as though it had never happened.

As for the complicated emotion Kira felt at that moment, one that even she herself had failed to interpret accurately—what exactly was it?

Perhaps only through some experience in the near future would she finally understand it, and regret it too late.

Inside the room, after that brief silence, the atmosphere turned sharp again.

Char drew a deep breath and decided to stop beating around the bush.

His gaze was as precise and cool as a scalpel as he looked directly into Lacus's blue eyes, which seemed capable of reflecting the human heart. "I'll ask you directly."

His voice was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation. Though deep down, he privately felt that this way of cutting straight to the heart of the matter seemed somewhat stiff and abrupt, lacking the necessary lead-in.

But he also understood that after the extraordinary "exchange" they had just experienced, any roundabout probing would seem hypocritical and meaningless.

He omitted many complicated details and all the background explanation, but he believed that with Lacus's intelligence, and the strange "connection" that had just formed between them, such a direct question should be enough for her to understand his intent.

"Did you 'see' it?" he asked, giving the word "see" a special meaning.