Chapter 293 - 294: The Director-san Frets Herself Sick (Bonus - for 50 Power Stones)

Chapter 293: Chapter 294: The Director-san Frets Herself Sick (Bonus Chapter for 50 Power Stones)

"Pairing up couples really is the royal road to farming popularity."

The Strike couldn’t sortie for now; Kira had overloaded it several times earlier, and without a major overhaul there was simply no way to launch it.

Inori, meanwhile, was following these two’s developments the whole way through.

After all, they were in space; the slightest carelessness could easily cause trouble.

Even as the director, she had to keep watch the entire time.

Otherwise a "performance accident" could easily occur.

And for the moment, these two leads were putting on a decent show.

What came next depended on how things developed.

And while Inori kept watching, Athrun, too, began to act.

"Hey—why’d you untie me again?"

Earlier Athrun had kept Cagalli tied up, but now he’d let her loose again.

"Right now, surviving is what matters." Athrun said, averting his eyes.

After all, the material of Cagalli’s spacesuit from navel to chest was honestly a bit too much of a challenge for Athrun.

Especially since Cagalli herself hardly seemed to care.

—In truth, it was because Cagalli had grown somewhat used to it.

This spacesuit had been designed as one that could be worn long-term, so Cagalli had been wearing it all along.

At first she’d been a bit shy about it and would throw another layer of clothing on over the top.

But before long, Cagalli’s own personality reasserted itself.

And since almost no one aboard the Archangel treated her as some "pure, innocent girl," it had never really been an issue.

"So—do you have a plan?"

Cagalli worked her wrist a little.

"The most pressing thing right now is securing our survival. I can spare you a little of my oxygen."

Cagalli’s gear was all skin-tight; though there was armor over it, it probably couldn’t store much oxygen.

(Cagalli can actually look pretty good)

(Peak-visuals episode)

(Meow meow meow?)

(And who even are you?)

"Ahem—that won’t be necessary." As long as she had power, Cagalli wouldn’t face any oxygen shortage. And even in a power-starved state, so long as she could still "sunbathe," the P.A.R.A. could keep supplying oxygen for a very long time.

"All right, then." Athrun was very calm; even knowing their odds of survival were slim, he hadn’t given up.

Having made sure the other party could stay alive, the next step was to find a chance to get out.

"The time limit is six hours..."

Athrun thought.

Normally, a cockpit would have emergency supplies.

But the Aegis had only been taken from the Alliance a couple of days ago; it had no rations whatsoever.

The red machine over there—Athrun had just checked it—had none either.

"The surroundings..."

All around them was debris.

The Aegis had lost its propulsion, but it still had power.

Off to the side, Athrun spotted something that looked like the wreckage of a satellite.

He worked his pilot suit’s thruster system and flew over to it.

"Nothing..."

The inside was empty.

It was just a shell.

Athrun didn’t dare fly too far; some of the distant debris was moving fast—no problem for a machine, but for a human body, a rock hurtling through outer space like that could skewer a person clean through without any trouble.

"Looks like our only option is to rig up an antenna."

Athrun went into the red machine first.

It was wrecked anyway, so it was perfect for cannibalizing for repairs.

"Is this good enough?"

With Cagalli’s help, Athrun spent several hours and finally got the transmitter working.

"That’s right. But the battlefield we fought on before was a region with a complex electronic environment; I don’t know what the situation is here either. For now, though, try not to expend any extra energy."

Athrun’s breathing had grown ragged, his face covered in cold sweat.

"Hey—are you all right?"

Cagalli asked.

"Yeah. But you’ve got to find a way to contact the others quickly. We’ve got no spare oxygen, no food, no water. If there’s no other way, then stay still—maybe rescue will come..."

"Don’t tell me—"

Cagalli suddenly realized something.

"Hey, hey, hey—you’re running out of oxygen?!"

"The physical exertion’s been burning through my oxygen pretty fast." Athrun panted.

"You should have said so sooner, idiot!"

Cagalli pulled out a breathing tube, something hidden behind her exoskeleton.

"I’ve got oxygen over here—you should be able to plug into it, right?"

"Idiot—one person’s survival odds are far higher than two..." Athrun felt his breathing growing more labored.

"You’re the idiot! I told you—the suit I’m wearing is high-tech; as long as there’s power, it can keep supplying oxygen!"

Cagalli plugged the breathing tube into the external oxygen port on Athrun’s helmet.

"Haah... haah, haah..."

Athrun’s breathing gradually steadied.

There was even a faint... sweetness to the air?

"Ugh..."

Cagalli, on the other hand, wore a rather sour expression as her "air quality" dropped.

[This is it]

[That’s right, this is the one]

[Inori gave Cagalli that setup because she thought Cagalli was trash—never figured Cagalli wouldn’t use it herself and would give it to someone else instead]

[I suspect the production team made the whole dumpling just for this splash of vinegar lol]

[This vinegar—I give it full marks]

Athrun was a Coordinator, after all; after a few minutes’ rest, he recovered.

"Thank you." Athrun offered Cagalli his thanks. "If air isn’t a problem, we should be able to hold out another two or three days now."

"That’s long enough to be found, right?" Cagalli said.

"Hard to say... but we can’t give up hope. Still, just sending a signal and passively waiting for rescue probably won’t cut it."

Athrun said.

"We can’t be far from the battlefield, can we?" Cagalli looked around.

Athrun sighed. "Space isn’t like the surface. This debris around us looks motionless, but it’s only relatively at rest—in reality, it and we are all orbiting the Earth right now. And there’s no resistance in space, which means that motion can’t stop. We may look like we were just blown clear, but in truth, riding along with all this debris, we may already be very far from the battlefield by now."

"N-no way..."

Cagalli was shocked.

"And Long Legs... the Earth Alliance warship and our ZAFT warships have propulsion of their own. If they’re still locked in battle now, or have left this sector because of it, then even if we were still in the same spot, finding us again would be extremely difficult."

Cagalli remembered too—both sides seemed to still be fighting!

"Honestly, I think the odds of us being found by the Junk Guild are actually a bit higher. Though whether we’re still alive by the time they find us is another matter."

No food, no water.

Before, with only a few hours, they could manage no more than the bare minimum of self-rescue.

But now, if oxygen wasn’t a problem, they could attempt a more thorough self-rescue.

"My apologies, but I’m afraid you two will need to keep drifting for a while longer."

Inori, for her part, still intended to let the two of them warm up to each other.

And besides that, there was one more matter.

—Lacus’s Silverwind had set out for Junius Seven as well.

There was a new script here too...