Chapter 284 - 285: Anyway, Let’s Start With a Bombshell!

Chapter 284: Chapter 285: Anyway, Let’s Start With a Bombshell!

Kira’s reason for launching without orders was simple—someone she knew was inside that escape pod.

Flay.

On this worldline, the "onee-sama" who’d once looked out for Kira.

Even knowing that Flay actually despised Coordinators, Kira had still chosen to sortie.

She didn’t even go with Inori.

The moment she heard the name "Flay" from Inori, Kira had jumped straight into the Strike.

"Honestly. Keep this up and I’ll get jealous."

Since no audience was watching, Inori let herself tease now and then.

She’d been the one to tell Kira about it in the first place—but even so, Kira had moved a little too fast.

"Still, I can tell Flay’s got a pretty heavy ’role’ in the script."

After the evacuation of Heliopolis was complete, Inori had launched these escape shelters ahead of schedule.

They’d all turned into escape pods and left Heliopolis.

Except one of those pods ran into a little... accident.

After its navigation failed, it drifted into the debris belt—and then got struck by a meteoroid.

That wasn’t Inori’s doing.

That was the original "script."

Inori’s billing wasn’t high enough yet; she couldn’t overwrite much of the original script.

But from another angle—she really had changed it.

On this worldline, the "Artemis" arc and the "Flay" arc were almost mutually exclusive, one or the other.

And from that, you could tell Flay’s "weight" in the story was considerable.

Over on the Stage she was still a minor supporting act, but here on this set, her "billing" carried a little pull.

And clearly, with enough money, playing a female lead wasn’t out of the question.

No—forget female lead. With enough money, Inori suspected the Client would happily green-light an entire show just for her.

"If the script can be cut, revised, and added to, then... could I do even more?"

The debris belt was thick with rubble, and some of the larger wrecks sat out there like lonely islands.

Maybe...

Inori thought of Cagalli.

Cagalli had been grinding away inside the Astray all day and was resting now.

"She’s here now."

Outside the window, Kira had already reached the ship’s exterior, cradling the escape pod.

Badgiruel still wouldn’t allow it, but Murrue’s resolve softened.

Kira, for her part, was frantic, because the pod’s oxygen was already running low.

Thankfully, Murrue finally waved her through.

"How are they?!"

The instant the Strike returned to the Archangel, Kira bailed out, unable to wait.

The pod’s hatch had already opened, but everyone inside had passed out.

"Oxygen levels dropped—good thing their vital signs are stable." Murdoch was a mechanic, but the escape pod’s side did have monitoring gear. "Any later and they’d have run out of air. Would’ve been bad."

"Flay...!"

Kira spotted the unconscious Flay inside the pod at a glance.

She climbed straight in and lifted Flay out.

"Mm... Kira..."

Only after breathing in fresh air did Flay stir from her daze.

Seeing Kira, she instinctively hugged her back...

"I... was so scared..."

"It’s... okay now, Flay..."

Kira let out a breath.

And Flay, as if finally reassured, closed her eyes again and slipped back into unconsciousness.

Just then, the camera cut to Inori.

Inori had come down too, standing at the hatch, watching.

[White Album 2 positioning]

[One second of pity for Inori]

[I’m carrying Inori off]

[She’s not the idol in this scene—doomed to be the losing heroine]

[Maybe I came at a bad time]

[No, you came at exactly the right time]

[It’s fine, Inori’s still got a little fangirl—Lacus]

[Grass (a type of exclamation), don’t tell me those two are the actual couple]

[Meow meow meow?]

The audience’s imaginations ran wild.

This shot was one Inori had added with a Close-up Shot Card.

It really was just a single cut, but the effect landed.

The Client was a master of manufacturing ship-tease; Inori was picking it up on the fly and putting it to use herself.

Peddle a bit of fake ship-bait, give the audience a laugh.

And as far as results went, not bad at all.

The audience genuinely ate it up.

Right about then, Murrue and the others hurried down from the bridge.

"How are they?!" The moment Murrue saw Kira holding the unconscious Flay, she sensed something might be off.

"No one’s in danger." Murdoch walked over. "So what do we do with them?"

Murrue exhaled, though a note of helplessness crept in. "If they’re all fine, then get the survivors settled for now. Take the unconscious ones to the medical bay first."

"Yes, ma’am!"

The sturdier refugees had already come to.

But some of the others were in worse shape and needed treatment.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news.

The Archangel had no ship’s doctor—and there was a physician among the lifeboat survivors.

Plenty of people had been hurt in the earlier fighting; before, they could only be patched up roughly, but now they could be properly treated.

"Flay!"

Once word got out that Flay was aboard, Sai and the others rushed to the medical bay.

"Sai... Sai!"

By then Flay had finally regained consciousness.

Her body was still weak, but she threw her arms around him anyway.

"Just now—right, just now, that was Kira!" Flay said, suddenly remembering.

Kira.

She was the one who’d carried her out.

But Kira only stood in the doorway, keeping her distance.

"Flay, what happened?" Sai asked.

Flay shook her head. "I don’t know. I got separated from the others and went into the shelter on my own. Then the broadcast said it was dangerous, so it launched out of Heliopolis. After that something slammed into us, the ship lost power, breathing got harder and harder, and then Kira showed up... Sai, what happened to Heliopolis? What’s going on? Is this a ZAFT ship?"

"It’s an Earth Alliance ship," Sai said.

"You’re kidding. Kira was piloting one of those MS earlier." In Flay’s mind, MS belonged to ZAFT.

"That’s an Earth Alliance machine too." Sai scratched his head.

"I see." Flay relaxed, then looked toward Kira. "Kira, thank you. Really."

"Mm." Kira nodded, but her expression turned even more complicated. "I’ve still... got some things to do. Flay... get some rest."

With that, Kira strode off.

"Kira’s clothes... aren’t they strange? Is she embarrassed?" Flay found that black skin-tight combat suit of Kira’s odd. She’d assumed Kira’s behavior just now was shyness.

By then Kira had already left the compartment, one hand pressed to her chest, heading the other way.

She reached the end of the corridor and stared blankly at the space beyond the porthole.

And Inori—somehow, at some point—had appeared right behind her.

The expressionless girl spoke.

"Kira... about Flay—do you like her?"

Anyway, let’s start with a bombshell!