Daily Life in the MS Pilot Training Class

"Clap clap—"

"Bang—"

"Athrun!"

At the Z.A.F.T. military academy, two young men stood in the center of the training room, daggers in hand, under the gaze of their classmates.

"Yzak! Be careful not to lose again! Athrun, go easy on him, just enough to keep him in bed for three days!" a slightly tanned young man sitting on the ground nearby yelled lazily at the two in the arena.

"When was the last time Yzak won?" Rusty asked, standing to the side.

"Diakka and Rusty, you two shut up!" the white-haired young man called Yzak snapped, turning his head to glare furiously at them.

"Uh..."

"Tsk tsk—"

Rusty and Diakka exchanged a look, then shrugged helplessly.

"Go Athrun!" Nicol, with green hair, stood and cheered for Athrun.

After speaking, he seemed to feel it wasn't quite right, and immediately added, "You too, Yzak, go for it!"

"Nicol! What do you mean by that, you brat!" Yzak's fur bristled completely upon hearing this. Since when did he become an afterthought?

"Yzak, maybe we should call it a day," Athrun Sarra, standing in front of Yzak, couldn't help but say.

"Call it a day? I'm absolutely going to beat you today!"

"Die!"

Yzak roared and charged at Athrun.

"Athrun, be careful!" Nicol quickly shouted a warning upon seeing this.

"Yzak, don't..."

Diakka called out from his seat.

"Bang—"

However, before Diakka could finish speaking, he saw Athrun sidestep Yzak's dagger, grab Yzak's wrist with his free hand, and place his right foot on Yzak's heel.

Then, with a forceful push.

Yzak fell straight backward.

But Yzak wasn't one to be trifled with. After a brief moment of stunned silence, he reversed his grip on the dagger and slashed towards Athrun's chest.

Athrun's eyes narrowed slightly, and with a quick step, he dodged the dagger by tilting his head back.

Yzak, using the opening created by Athrun's retreat, quickly adjusted his body and regained his balance.

"Whoosh— Not bad, looks like I won't be getting beaten today," Diakka whistled, watching Yzak's maneuver from his seat.

"It's hard to say, after all..."

"You two, shut up!" Yzak was so angry he almost cursed upon hearing this.

"Diakka, be careful!" Nicol suddenly noticed Athrun's movement and quickly shouted a warning.

"What..."

"Bang!"

The moment Yzak turned his head, he saw Athrun charging right in front of him. In a dizzying blur, he found himself lying on the ground with a practice dagger pressed against his throat.

"Wow—" Diakka continued to exclaim.

"See?" Rusty spread his hands.

"Yzak, are you alright?" Nicol rushed over as soon as the fight ended, pulling Yzak up.

"Get lost!" Yzak pushed Nicol away, then turned to Athrun and said, "Let's go again!"

"Tsk tsk, lost and won't admit it, then gets smug when you win, tsk tsk—" Diakka walked over slowly, hands clasped behind his back, shaking his head and mumbling.

"Diakka, you brat..."

"Alright, we've already taken up too much of our classmates' time."

Athrun quickly interrupted their argument.

"...Next time, I'll definitely beat you!" Yzak wasn't unreasonable. Seeing the eyes of the surrounding classmates, he uttered a threat and then angrily stormed off the training ground.

In this year's military academy, they were indeed a unique sight.

Let alone their individual strength far exceeding that of their peers.

Just their backgrounds alone made it impossible for them to be low-key.

White-haired Yzak Joule, a second-generation Coordinator.

His mother, Ezalia Joule, was a member of the Supreme Council and the Defense Committee, a second-generation official.

Furthermore, his personal combat ability was extremely high. Even against Athrun, he could hold his own, with wins and losses on both sides. Although he lost most of the time, compared to other classmates who were completely outmatched, he was already incredibly formidable.

Green-haired Nicol Amarfie

His father, Yuriya Marfi, is a member of the PLANT Supreme Council's Defense Committee and possesses exceptional personal strength, far surpassing other cadets of his cohort.

Diakka Elsman, with his blonde hair, has a father named Tad Elsman, who is a member of the PLANT Supreme Council.

His personal strength ranks within the top ten of his cohort, and he is extremely powerful, with his abilities and Yzak's being a four-six split.

Athrun Sarra, with purple hair.

His mother, Lenoya Sarra, is responsible for developing the neutralizing agent for Gene Potion No. 4. His father, Patrick Zala, is a PLANT council member and concurrently serves as the Chairman of the Defense Committee.

He is also the fiancé of the diva, Lacus Clyne.

Rusty...

These individuals are undoubtedly the most popular figures at the school. Even outside of school, they are considered among the top affluent young masters within PLANT.

"Eh, Yzak..."

"Enough, let him go. He'll come back on his own after he's vented for a while."

Diakka stopped Nicol, who was preparing to chase after Yzak. They knew Yzak's personality all too well; he was a tsundere.

It was unbelievable how they had ended up friends with this tsundere! Thinking about it felt absurd.

"But..." Nicol was about to say something else, but before he could utter a word, he was drawn to Athrun beside him.

Or rather, he was drawn to the man Athrun was looking at.

On the training grounds outside the MS practice field, a blonde man wearing a white uniform and an eye patch was walking slowly across the field with two attendants, heading directly towards the school's MS practice area.

"Shouldn't the Z.A.F.T. white uniforms be on the front lines? Why are they here?" Nicol asked, his brow furrowed at the sudden appearance of the white uniform.

Because Z.A.F.T. was a volunteer force, it did not have a formal rank system, but there were ways to distinguish individuals.

The simplest method was by their attire.

Green uniform: Represents ordinary soldiers. Although there were differences in status among them, they generally belonged to the common class.

Red uniform: Elite candidates, elite pilots.

Black uniform: Captain, vice-captain, first mate.

Yellow uniform: Army ground force commander.

White uniform: Fleet commander.

Purple uniform: Chief of staff, high-ranking officer.

A white-uniformed fleet commander appearing at a Z.A.F.T. school during such a critical time of conflict was indeed thought-provoking.

"Ah—Yzak's gone after him too." Diakka immediately spotted the white-haired figure. Yzak was currently charging furiously in the direction of the white uniform.

It looked like trouble.

"Should we go take a look?" Nicol said, unable to help but glance at Athrun. Their small group was primarily led by Athrun.

Even though Yzak was always bickering, he would mostly follow Athrun's lead.

"Let's go take a look."

Athrun pondered for a moment after hearing Nicol's words. He glanced at his classmates behind him and then strode towards Rau Le Creuset's direction.

Among the white uniforms, only one person wore an eye patch, and that was Rau Le Creuset, who had been awarded the Nebula Medal.

Soon, the four of them arrived at the MS practice field together.

The area was already crowded with students from the mecha maintenance class.

Besides being used by the MS class, the mecha maintenance class also borrowed the MS practice field.

After all, what would mecha mechanics repair if they didn't even know how to use an MS?

It was like a car mechanic; if you couldn't even drive a car and didn't know its basic operations, how could you possibly repair it?