Chapter 286 - 287: Power-Scaling Debates Are an Essential Part of Enjoying Gundam

Chapter 286: Chapter 287: Power-Scaling Debates Are an Essential Part of Enjoying Gundam

"No! No no no!"

Cagalli stood with her hands on her hips in front of several Orb students.

Moments ago, everyone had agreed they wanted to go help Kira.

Since the Archangel was short-handed, they could at least make themselves useful aboard.

But Cagalli, having heard the plan, planted her hands on her hips and blocked them.

"You’re citizens of Orb—do you understand what you’re doing? You want to go enlist in the Atlantic Federation’s military!" Cagalli said, hands still on her hips.

"We just want to help Kira!" Miriallia said.

"No means no!"

[Shook—I never thought Cagalli could say something like that]

[Inori’s course-correction really is working]

[Cagalli’s outfit is see-through front and back, but somehow there’s not a shred of ero to it]

[Honestly, even if Miriallia wore that same outfit, she’d be more alluring than Cagalli]

[Shame—good face, but a bit thick-headed]

[Now this is more like how a nation’s princess should carry herself]

This really was thanks to Inori’s course-correction.

Just like in the "original": Cagalli hadn’t thought twice about climbing aboard the Skygrasper, never mind questions of enlisting or Orb’s official stance.

An Orb princess becoming an Earth Alliance soldier—that was genuinely hard to justify.

But this Cagalli had a bit of self-awareness.

After it had been drilled into her repeatedly, Cagalli had come to realize it too.

She was piloting the Astray now because the Astray belonged to Orb. She hadn’t revealed her identity, but she was, after all, Orb’s princess, so her piloting the Astray Red Frame was perfectly fitting.

Whether the Astray incorporated G Project technology was a matter to bicker over later.

"Anyway, that’s how it is for now," Cagalli said.

"Hold on!"

Something struck Tolle.

"Cagalli-san, you said earlier that both mobile suits belong to Orb, right?"

"Ah—"

Cagalli covered her face.

Earlier, when these people had wondered how Cagalli could pilot an MS, she’d proudly declared it was an Orb machine.

Now the boomerang had smacked her right in the skull.

"Um... I’ll go ask Captain Murrue," Cagalli said.

She couldn’t seem to dampen these people’s enthusiasm. So the least she could do was see what could be done.

"But before that, you’re not to do anything, understood?!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Tolle’s smile carried a subtly perfunctory note.

Once Cagalli left, Tolle smiled. "Didn’t expect that princess—ahem, Cagalli-san—to be pretty decent, huh."

"Kira, though..." Miriallia recalled that Kira had seemed a little off emotionally earlier.

But before she could say more, an alarm blared through the ship.

"ZAFT—they’re back!"

At that moment, though, the danmaku were buzzing about something else entirely.

[Go check the official site!]

[GBN’s launching 2.0!]

[Sounds like there’s a Real Mode too—fully realistic except for gravity, even the sizes match the original specs]

[What happens to the SD line?]

[In Real Mode they get realistically rendered too]

[Heard Avalon’s Kujo Kyoya is doing an exhibition match against the Black GINN]

[wow~ Gundam AGEII Magnum vs the black demon lord]

[Is there a livestream?]

[Heard there is]

[I’m in Tokyo—tickets sold out in three seconds, Grass (a type of exclamation)]

[Finally we get to see what the Black GINN can do]

[The GINN’s specs are terrible though—can it even fight the champion?]

[I think it can]

[I think the GINN could even stand a nerf]

[Real talk, the Black GINN isn’t actually that strong. The Strike at the start is just a bare frame with low combat power, and Kira doesn’t have enough battle experience. This Black GINN might not even get past the four stolen Gundams]

[Hard to say—the Black GINN only wins by exploiting the terrain in the end. Without the arena limits, who knows how it’d go]

[Inori’s processing power should be enough, but the champion’s combat ability is another matter]

[China server? China server? China server?]

[We’re one version behind. If you wanna play, hop on the JP server—otherwise wait half a year]

[Just use a VPN. Unlike Blue Protoc●l, GBN doesn’t ban you for it, and it supports Chinese]

[I checked—they added a new map: Heliopolis, before the battle]

[What about after the battle?]

[The after-the-battle one’s presented like a dungeon instance; wait for the live broadcast for details]

The audience had been discussing the plot, but the news from the official site blew the whole danmaku feed wide open.

The danmaku weren’t only the comments scrolling across the screen; during a livestream there was also a feed-like discussion column off to the side where you could read them.

So sometimes these danmaku really were just chat.

And right now, the entire discussion column was refreshing like a waterfall.

Gundam SEED’s popularity was soaring.

The Gundam Popularity Points had now broken three million.

At this rate, by the finale, forget ten million—thirty million wasn’t out of the question.

Meanwhile, aboard the Archangel, everyone was getting ready too.

"Heat sources detected. Cross-referencing thermal signatures... two Laurasia-class, one Nazca-class—it’s a ZAFT fleet!"

"Enemy MS launching! Buster, Duel, Blitz, Aegis—plus six GINNs! Closing fast!"

The reports, one after another, put Murrue increasingly on edge.

They’d only just gotten the refugees settled, and here came ZAFT.

"ZAFT—do they have a death wish?!"

Cold sweat beaded on Murrue’s brow.

Anywhere else in the debris belt would’ve been one thing.

But this was a dense zone.

Even the AI-assisted Archangel had to pick its way carefully through this region, yet those three ridiculous warships were running at full throttle.

"If it’s that Creuset fellow, he’d probably do exactly this." Mu had already boarded the Astray Blue Frame; he was on comms now. "Because if it were me, I’d do the same."

Come to think of it—in SEED’s original script, Mu really had gone through the debris belt. And the ZAFT forces on the other side had been reckless too, charging straight in.

So even without AI, Inori figured Creuset would give chase—just not at this full-speed-ahead pace.

"Why’s the Duel here already? Wasn’t the Duel damaged? ZAFT shouldn’t have spare parts, should they?" Murrue wondered.

"Probably used GINN components—or salvaged parts off the battlefield for repairs," Mu said.

"Sorry. I didn’t think ZAFT would be this obsessed." The idea of fleeing this way had been Badgiruel’s.

"I’m the one who gave the order." Murrue shouldered the responsibility herself. "Begin interception!"

The Strike had already reached the catapult.

"Kira. Distracted?"

Inori sat perched on Kira’s lap, her tone faintly puzzled.

"No, it’s nothing. Sorry." Kira lowered her head.

"Kira. GAT-X105 Strike Gundam—launching!"

The Strike catapulted out.