A new family

The Heliopolis Space Colony's artificial daylight system precisely simulated the afternoon, its gentle "sunlight" streaming through the windows of an apartment building in the fourth residential district and casting warm patches of light across the spotless floor. The Hawke Family's new home smelled of toast, faint traces of cleaning products, and a warmth brimming with life that Akira had not felt in a long time-a stark contrast to the orphanage's cold, oppressive atmosphere. For Mei Hock, the abrupt transition from a lonely environment where he had to stay constantly on guard to a household bustling with everyday life was so profound that it occasionally felt unreal.

Yet what stirred the most subtle ripples in his heart was not the change in his surroundings, but how his two new younger sisters, Luna Maria and Meirin Hawke, had accepted him almost instinctively and quickly come to see him as their true older brother, bound to them by blood. Children's memories could be fleeting and malleable, especially those of young children who had suffered a terrible fright before being rescued. As their sense of safety returned, the specific horrors of the recent attack and their subsequent escape through dark maintenance ducts gradually blurred and faded in Luna Maria's and Meirin's memories. Meanwhile, the central impression that "big brother Lin Ming suddenly appeared like a hero, chased away the bad guys, and protected them" was reinforced and cemented by each passing day of warm family life, growing ever clearer and more firmly rooted.

Moreover, the Hocks—Thomas and Erica—genuinely treated Akira as their own. From completing the adoption paperwork and furnishing his room to every detail of daily life, everything they did was filled with sincere affection and acceptance. The household felt so naturally harmonious that he might always have been part of it. In this environment without a trace of distance, the fact that "Akira was adopted" was all but washed away within a few short days by a new routine filled with laughter, in the young minds of Luna and Meirin, who were consciously or unconsciously choosing to forget their trauma. Naturally and without reservation, they came to regard Akira as the older brother they had grown up with, someone they could cling to, pester, and rely on wholeheartedly.

"Come on, big brother! Hurry up! If you keep dawdling, all the crumbs will fall off! We're going to be late for school!" The entryway was always a scene of chaos in the morning. With a head of vivid red hair that Mom Erica never seemed able to tame, Luna Maria held half a slice of jam-covered toast in her mouth, hopping on one foot as she struggled to put on her shoes and shouted toward Akira's room. Her voice carried unselfconscious affection and impatient urgency. Her jewel-green eyes sparkled with boundless energy in the "sunlight." The shadow of the attack seemed to have been completely dispelled by the sunshine of her new life, leaving only the liveliness of a child her age and... her "disdain" for her older brother.

"Coming." Akira's steady reply came from his room. He packed his schoolbag and carefully checked the data tablet he would need that day before walking out at an unhurried pace. Meirin was already standing quietly by the door, her soft, long brown hair patiently tied by Mom Erica into two neat little braids with slightly curled ends. Her green eyes watched Akira timidly, like those of a startled fawn in the woods, while her small hands tightly hugged a somewhat worn rabbit doll with drooping ears. When Akira looked her way, her fair little face flushed faintly, and she murmured, "Good morning, big brother."

"Good morning, Meirin," Akira answered gently, his expression softening almost imperceptibly. He naturally reached out to take the drawing board that was a little heavy for her. Meirin hesitated, her long lashes trembling, but then let go and allowed him to take it. She followed close beside him with small steps, a quiet, complete dependence settling into the air. That unreserved trust and closeness sent warmth through Akira's heart, but it also brought a trace of complicated emotion. They saw him as their one older brother, someone they could rely on absolutely. Their pure, fervent affection stood in subtle contrast to the distance that naturally arose from his knowledge of the "truth"-that they were not related by blood and that he knew the future-and the burden of what lay ahead. Even when he did not actively engage his ACCORD ability, it allowed him to perceive the girls' untainted affection more clearly. It made his resolve to protect them as firm as iron, yet constantly reminded him of the invisible boundary between them, built from secrets and fate.

The breakfast table was the warm little stage on which each day began in the Hawke Family. A clean, checkered cloth covered the rectangular table, which held the fried eggs, sausages, nutritious synthetic vegetables, and warm milk Mom Erica had prepared. "Akira, have some more of this. You're still growing, so you need your protein," she said gently, placing the largest, most beautifully fried egg from the platter into his bowl. The affection in her eyes was no different from what she showed when looking at Luna, who was secretly feeding sausage to the puppy pretending to look pitiful under the table, or Meirin, who was nibbling her vegetables like a hamster. It was filled with a mother's warmth. Seated at the head of the table, Dad Thomas watched a morning news report about the harvest in the Space Colony's agricultural district while gently asking Akira whether he was settling in at school, whether his classes were difficult, and whether he had made any new friends.

"School is... all right. The teachers are patient. My classmates are... fairly friendly." Akira chose his words carefully, lightly prodding the food on his plate with his fork. He deliberately maintained an age-appropriate, slightly shy sociability. When answering questions in class, he would "just happen" to know the answer without elaborating too much; during group activities, he completed his share without stealing the spotlight. He knew that on this Space Colony, where Coordinators and Naturals lived together and Blue Cosmos ideology lurked beneath the surface, standing out too much could invite unnecessary trouble or even potential hostility. In everyday life, his ACCORD ability remained in a minimal passive warning mode, like an invisible, sensitive shield, continuously scanning the energy fluctuations around him and distinguishing others' goodwill and curiosity from hidden malice.

The hours after school were usually filled with small, comforting moments. A soft carpet covered the apartment's living room floor, and sunlight streamed through the windows in patches. Luna Maria's personality was like a dancing flame. She would chatter away as she tugged at Akira, eager to tell him who had argued with whom at school that day, what funny thing a teacher had said, or pester him into watching her favorite cartoon about interstellar exploration. Whenever she got excited, she would shake his arm vigorously. Meirin, by contrast, was like a quiet spring. She preferred sitting beside Akira on the sofa with a picture book, or simply coloring quietly on drawing paper. Occasionally, she would lift her head and secretly study his sharply defined profile with eyes so clear they seemed capable of reflecting the sky, then quickly lower her head again, an almost imperceptible smile of contentment at the corners of her mouth. It was as though the whole world was peaceful as long as she could stay beside her older brother.

On weekends, if Dad Thomas got off work early, he would often take Akira to his workshop in a Morgenroete annex. Thomas was a mid-level engineer responsible for some of the circulation pumps and filtration modules in the Space Colony's internal environmental maintenance system. His workshop was not large, and it was crammed with wrenches of various sizes, oscilloscopes, half-dismantled sensors, and parts that carried a faint smell of machine oil. With evident enthusiasm, he would explain the basic principles of pneumatic transmission to Akira or demonstrate how to check a circuit for faults with a multimeter. Akira, in turn, displayed just the right degree of interest and understanding, occasionally asking one or two questions that went straight to the heart of the matter without seeming so advanced as to arouse suspicion. He might, for example, point out a slight discrepancy between a connector's standard voltage and its measured value. This delighted and surprised Thomas, who would often pat Akira's shoulder, his eyes full of approval.

"Akira, you really have a gift for this! You think clearly, and you're very observant!" Thomas's voice brimmed with pride. "Looks like the Hawke family is going to have an outstanding engineer someday!" Akira's ACCORD ability let him understand and memorize this knowledge as quickly as a sponge absorbed water, and even construct three-dimensional models in his mind in an instant. But he carefully controlled the depth of understanding he displayed and how quickly he expressed it, making himself appear to be a bright boy who was "talented and hardworking," rather than a monster who "defied all reason." These hours spent with Thomas not only helped him integrate into the family more quickly and win his "father's" approval, but also laid a sound, plausible foundation for his eventual access to more advanced mechanical knowledge and even Mobile Suit theory.

Beneath this peaceful, warm daily routine, however, Akira never stopped honing himself. Every day before dawn, while Heliopolis's artificial night sky had yet to change and the rest of the Hawke family was still asleep, he would rise quietly and perform silent but extremely intense physical training in the limited space of his bedroom. He guided the unique SEED Factor within his body to operate at an extremely low, almost imperceptible level, allowing a faint warm current to strengthen muscle-fiber recruitment and optimize nerve conduction speed. At the same time, his ACCORD ability acted like the most precise biological monitoring system, carefully regulating the rhythm of every breath and the sequence and intensity of each group of muscles as they engaged. It maximized the efficiency of his training without leaving any signs of overtraining, such as unusual muscle soreness or fatigue. He knew this body was still growing and developing. He had to build a firm, stable foundation rather than rush for results.

He also used the late-night hours after his family fell asleep to quietly access the Space Colony's civilian network databases through an anonymous node protected by multiple layers of encryption and disguise. His brain worked like an efficient information-processing terminal, rapidly filtering and absorbing everything he could access about basic MS (mobile suit) theory, celestial mechanics, the fundamental principles of interstellar tactics, and publicly available organizational structures and equipment data for ZAFT and the Earth Alliance Forces. He checked this newly acquired knowledge against the "plot" he remembered from his previous life, cross-referencing, integrating, and reconstructing it. Like a young lion hidden in the shadows, patiently growing, he silently sharpened his claws and fangs in a solitude no one knew of, gathering strength as he waited for the day when he would truly need to tear through the darkness and protect everything.

In this new family, Akira successfully played an almost perfect role: a dependable eldest son, a gentle older brother, and a gifted but unassuming student. Yet deep in his heart, there remained an observer so calm he was almost cold. He watched Luna's bright, carefree smile, radiant as summer sunshine; felt Meirin's complete dependence, like a young animal clinging to its mother; and enjoyed Mom Erica's meticulous care and Dad Thomas's proud expectations.