Chapter 304: Dying of Laughter—I’m Not Even Human!

Chapter 304: Chapter 304: Dying of Laughter—I’m Not Even Human!

[Holy hell, so this world really does have aliens]

[First Gundam series to confirm aliens exist]

[Earlier one—Turn A Gundam, GPF mentioned that the Keilas Guilie on the moon was a superweapon meant to counter aliens]

[But even Turn A’s protagonist thought that theory was ridiculous. In the manga prequel, humans do run into an alien monster, but later it’s revealed that monster was actually humans who’d gone out into deep space and mutated—so there’s really no confirmed alien stuff there]

[Songstress of the Void—maybe "the void" refers to aliens or something like that?]

[I feel like that Black Coffin mentioned earlier might be an alien artifact]

"Even so, there are certainly things in this world that even a Coordinator probably can’t grasp." Le Creuset went on. "Mm, take the legendary... Black Coffin, for instance."

Siegel Clyne’s brow furrowed slightly.

He did, in fact, know a few things about it.

Because it had actually been on Siegel’s own recommendation that the Mendel colony announced the sealing of the Black Coffin.

But that wasn’t something Siegel had any intention of telling Le Creuset.

Le Creuset, meanwhile, was studying him closely.

Siegel was of the moderate faction, standing in complete opposition to Athrun’s father.

For the past year, it was Siegel who had been working hard to hold back the opinions of hardliners like Patrick.

But this man was no complete pacifist.

Despite how the two of them appeared now.

When PLANT had fought for its independence, Siegel Clyne had been the one most strongly advocating armed resistance.

He was a man of great wisdom, not one to let hatred cloud his judgment.

"That’s nothing but a baseless rumor."

—It wasn’t a rumor.

Even the existence of aliens itself might not be mere rumor.

At least, as far as Siegel knew, it wasn’t.

"Chairman!" Just then, someone came rushing over in a panic.

"Nani?!"

At the news, Siegel was thrown into shock.

"My apologies, I have an urgent matter to attend to right now."

"I see, then... excuse me. Chairman Clyne, I should get back to the fleet as well. With that... I’ll take my leave."

Le Creuset turned and left, and Siegel hurried off to another part of the building to deal with the situation.

It concerned the disappearance of his own daughter, Lacus Clyne.

[Those two are both scheming so hard]

[I keep feeling like this PLANT chairman knows something]

[Don’t tell me the Black Coffin really is some alien artifact]

[Wouldn’t that make Inori an alien then?]

[I think she’s probably an artificial human using alien tech]

[Feels like we need to dig into that You Lianxiang character]

[Guess we’ll wait and see if there’s any more official info later]

Siegel was worried about his daughter.

But right now, Lacus felt at ease listening to Inori’s song.

She lay on the bed with her eyes closed, as if drifting into an infant’s peaceful sleep.

"Right, let’s go find Inori-san!"

She looked over at Haro.

Inori’s autograph was on it.

After the scene with Lacus, the camera cut to Kira.

After several hours of hauling cargo, Kira finally let out a breath of relief. She was heading off to find Inori, to ask about the plan to rescue Cagalli.

She knew she was being a little impatient, but she just couldn’t shake that restless feeling.

But as she passed by the mess hall, Kira suddenly caught the sound of voices.

"No means no!"

"Flay, honestly, what’s gotten into you?!"

That was Flay’s voice, and the other was Miriallia.

Flay and Miriallia were arguing over a food tray.

Kira instinctively wanted to flee, but Flay spotted her first.

"Kira!"

Flay ran right up to her.

"Um, what’s going on?" Kira asked.

"It’s that Coordinator—can you believe Milly wants me to go deliver her food? No way! Coordinators are terrifying!"

Miriallia, who’d been fired up a moment ago, paused at Flay’s words, then glanced over at Kira standing nearby.

Right—Flay still didn’t know that Kira herself was a Coordinator.

"Coordinators are amazing at everything, reflexes and all that—what if something happens?!" Flay was still going on. "And that Songstress too, she’s supposedly just a singer, but she can do everything, that kind of person is just cheating!"

"Fine, I’ll go, then!"

Miriallia cut Flay off.

"I don’t fit the definition of a Coordinator."

Inori’s voice cut in.

"Eek..."

Flay jumped.

Inori stood behind them, expressionless.

"I’m not a Coordinator," Inori said.

"You sure don’t look like a Natural either!"

"I don’t fit the definition of a Natural either."

—She wasn’t even human to begin with.

"..."

Flay took a step back.

She was a little afraid of Inori.

She didn’t quite know why, but every time she looked at the girl, she found herself strangely unable to speak.

As if she were being completely overwhelmed.

Which, of course, made sense.

Flay hadn’t realized it herself, but to some extent, she too was being subjected to Inori’s consciousness induction.

Why did Flay care so much about Kira?

Was it because she liked looking after an ordinary, slightly self-conscious girl?

No.

At first, she’d done it to establish "authority."

Within their little circle, positioning herself a bit higher up, playing the caring older-sister role toward a somewhat insecure girl—that was a good way to build up that kind of authority.

And the reason she knew this method at all was because of a magazine she’d stumbled across online.

That magazine, which had "coincidentally" popped up, had appeared in exactly the way Flay would find most interesting.

The "character" of "Flay" wasn’t something that could just be discarded.

Because information later distributed by the Stage indicated this person was a "key."

Some "plotlines" were highly resistant to change, unable to be swept away by any butterfly effect.

But others weren’t—those could vanish easily, with barely any effort.

For example, once Kira had become a girl, her "original" first-experience "plotline" with Flay had, naturally, ceased to exist.

But Kira’s "growth" still needed Flay to bring it about.

When Inori noticed that this world’s Kira still held some kind of feeling for Flay, she began to intervene.

It was simple, really.

Nothing more than "personalized recommendations"—that alone was enough to easily reshape a person’s thinking.

That was the consciousness induction ability of a Lacia-class hIE.

As the super-AI guiding humanity, Lacia was exceptionally gifted in this regard.

And Inori was this world’s "Lacia."

Since Kira’s admiration for Flay couldn’t be avoided, then... working on Flay herself would do just fine.

"My, there sure are a lot of people—what are you all talking about?" Lacus’s voice suddenly came from behind.

"Haro! Haro!"

Cradling the Haro robot, Lacus walked over from behind them...