A Visit

Just two days earlier, when Xia Ya had been preparing to head out once again, Jiliang and Lacus had stopped him.

"Xia Ya," Jiliang had said hesitantly, "you visit that child every day... Could we... come with you?"

"We want to meet Miss Mayu too," Lacus added from beside her, her eyes full of sincere concern. "We heard that she... is alone. We thought that if she could get to know more friends, it might help her recover."

They must have been worried about him. Xia Ya understood that immediately.

He had to shoulder the heavy combat duties and mobile suit maintenance work as a pilot, while also using every spare moment to visit a child whose heart had been deeply wounded.

From their perspective, he must have been pushing himself too hard, taking on far too many unnecessary burdens.

"I'm fine. It's not a burden," he had explained.

"That's exactly why we're even more worried," Jiliang immediately retorted. "You're always like this, Xia Ya, carrying everything on your shoulders. Fighting, maintenance, and now caring for a child with a wounded heart..."

In truth, Xia Ya had never considered visiting Mayu a burden.

If he searched his heart and asked whether there was truly not even the slightest trace of obligation or duty-driven compulsion in his visits to Mayu, then he could only say... it was not entirely absent.

He had failed to end the battle sooner. He had failed to stop everything before the disaster happened.

That guilt would always remain.

But to him now, Mayu was far more than a victim who needed saving.

She was a living, breathing friend who smiled at him and looked forward to his visits.

Though they were not related by blood, he truly had come to see her as a little sister.