Gundam, the Gundam journey of a certain glue guy and his mecha girl.

"However, after parting ways with Copernicus, I met Aslan again on the battlefield, and we even used mobile suits to fight each other."

“I think Aslan must be just as sad as Mr. Kira after this happened.”

Lacus's tone was as gentle as her appearance, soothing Kira's tense heart. On the Archangel, Kira, like Raven, had helped her in various ways.

Lacus's voice eased Kira's tension, but as he listened to Lacus talk about Athrun, Kira became curious about her relationship with Athrun.

"Are Miss Lux and Athrun very familiar with each other?"

"Yes, on the surface we're engaged."

"Huh? Engaged couple?"

The shocking fact left Kira momentarily speechless, unable to process what he had just heard.

"Although it's just a result of the adjustment of the marriage law, in private we can only be considered childhood sweethearts with a very good relationship."

Upon hearing about his best friend's situation in an unexpected place, Kira's feelings suddenly became complicated.

If it weren't for this war, would he have been able to attend Aslan's wedding?

For no apparent reason, this thought suddenly popped into Kira's mind.

Just then, an urgent warning tone came from the cockpit.

The crimson holy shield ripped through the dark void and stopped precisely in front of the assault.

"Is it... Aslan?"

Kira asked cautiously.

"right."

During the call, Kira heard the same tension in Aslan's voice.

The two opposing mobile suits pointed their beam rifles at each other's cockpits, but simultaneously opened their cockpit doors.

Across the void, Kira finally saw that familiar figure again.

"Long time no see, Aslan."

Lacus's voice came through the communication, and Athrun confirmed that the person standing next to Kira was his long-lost fiancée.

"Thank you for your care these past few days. Please convey my gratitude to everyone on the Archangel for me."

Lux held the sealed bag containing the clothes, Haro, and ants in her arms, then pushed off the edge of the assault cockpit with her toes and floated away, passing through the vacuum of space and approaching the Aegis.

Aslan caught her steadily, helping Lux regain her balance.

"Kira, you come too! You have no reason to stay in the Earth Force!"

At the door of the Aegis, Aslan also reached out his hand to Kira.

Although he made a promise to Kruze, deep down he still didn't want to fight Kira.

Copernicus's beautiful memories flooded his mind, while Kira's image made Aslan's heart extremely restless.

“I’m sorry, Aslan. There are people I want to protect on that ship.”

"Kira, you really are..."

Kira's answer was exactly as Aslan had expected.

Just like Kira in Athrun's memories, he is still so gentle, which makes Athrun both relieved and pained.

"If there's a next time, I'll fight you seriously!"

Aslan said this in a spiteful manner, but Kira gave him a somewhat troubled smile.

"This is not good. I really don't want to fight you."

Aslan froze. He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. After a moment, he angrily uttered a sentence.

"Then don't show your face in front of me!"

Seeing the Aegis's cabin door close, Kira had no choice but to return to the Assault's cockpit.

But the next moment, a private message came in.

"Captain Cruze doesn't intend to keep his promise to you, be careful..."

Before he could finish speaking, two beams of high-temperature particles attacked from behind the shield.

As the Strike flipped over, the particle beam grazed past its cockpit. Kira, sweating profusely, saw three mobile suits attacking from behind the Aegis.

The enemy is here!

Chapter 25 The Battle That Was Suddenly Interrupted

"It was dodged?"

Seeing that his sneak attack had failed, Kruse quickly directed the Duel and Storm to spread out to the flanks, preparing to take down the Assault before the Dagger's reinforcements arrived.

But the next moment, Kruze's senses accurately detected the oppressive feeling coming from afar.

Three beams shot from the direction of the Archangel. Kruze immediately piloted the Shigu to dodge, but one of them still destroyed the heavy particle cannon in his hand.

[Hit! The accuracy was even higher than my predicted shot.]

"However, the enemy has not yet been defeated."

The oppressive feeling he had sensed had not dissipated. Raven dared not be careless and turned the thrusters to maximum power, quickly closing the distance between them.

"Kira, our objective is to hold them off. Be careful not to get shot down! We have ten minutes left before we can rejoin the main force."

He raised his short sword and fired two shots, forcing back the storm that had circled behind the assault, but was then forced to retreat by a hail of bullets fired by Shigu.

"You really came, pilot of the short sword."

"Kruze? I have nothing to say to you!"

Kruze's control was so precise that it extended to every single gesture of the jets, which made Shigu's movements exceptionally agile, allowing her to dodge the short sword beam rifle's shots with nimble footwork.

"I'd love to see you! Tell me, who are you? Is there some other orphan in the Vlada family that I don't know about?"

After using the Gatling gun on his shield to fire a barrage of bullets, forcing the short sword to dodge, Shigu seized the opportunity to draw his heavy cleaver and slash at the short sword.

Raven quickly raised his shield to block the attack, but then the heavy, oppressive aura unique to Kruze washed over him, making Raven's face turn ferocious.

"Who I am is none of your business. Don't drag irrelevant people into your pointless revenge!"

He unleashed the full power of his short sword, using his shield to forcefully deflect Xigu's slash, while simultaneously firing his head-mounted Vulcan cannon at Xigu's surveillance camera.

"No, this is not revenge, but judgment! Humanity will one day pay the price for its sins, and I am the messenger who brings judgment upon humanity!"

"As a human being, what gives you the right to judge other humans?"

"I am qualified!"

Shigu slung the heavy cleaver back to his waist, drew the machine gun from the rack behind his waist, and fired bullets at the short sword. At the same time, Swift Thunder, who had quietly appeared behind the short sword using the Mirage System, also disarmed himself and pointed his Tri-Horn Attack Shield System at the short sword.

"Such a despicable trick!"

Raven had sensed the faint killing intent emanating from the cockpit of the Thunderclap from the very beginning. Just as the Thunderclap deactivated the Mirage system, Dagger used his left arm as a shield to protect his front from Xigu's shots, while his right beam rifle extended from under his left arm and fired at the Thunderclap's cockpit.

Nicol was completely unaware that Raven had discovered his whereabouts. He only began to dodge the moment the muzzle of the beam rifle lit up, but it was too late.

"We've been discovered? How is that possible!"

Although Lightning, piloted by Nicol, avoided having its cockpit pierced, its right arm was destroyed by the beam.

This made Nicol's face turn ugly immediately. Almost all of the Thunder Gundam's weapons were integrated into the three-horn shield system on its right arm. Damage to the right arm meant that the Thunder Gundam lost its combat capability.

However, while Raven was distracted by the attack on the Thunder, Kruze took the opportunity to pilot the Shigu and approach the Dagger. His right-hand machine gun kept firing, forcing the Dagger to keep its shield in front of it, while his other hand used the Gatling gun to attack the shield, firing all the bullets at point-blank range at the Dagger's main monitor.

"The main surveillance camera has been compromised?!"

The scene in the Dagger cockpit suddenly went dark, but El could still sense the external situation through the cameras covering the entire MS. He controlled the Dagger to kick Xigu in the waist, disrupting Xigu's posture, and then adjusted the thrusters to deliver another roundhouse kick to Xigu's chest.

This full-power kick propelled Xigu's body forward. Raven immediately followed his senses and fired in Xigu's direction. Kruze sensed Raven's killing intent instantly, but Xigu's reaction speed couldn't keep up with Kruze's actions. The thrusters were a beat slow to activate, and in that brief pause, the beam from the short sword pierced through Xigu's leg.

At that moment, the cockpit of the short sword returned to normal, and Raven saw that Shigu was missing a leg, and clicked his tongue in dismay.

"Tch, he managed to dodge it. What a troublesome guy."

【careful!】

El suddenly issued a warning, and she immediately turned around with her short sword, holding the shield in front of her chest.

From the other side, on the battlefield where the assault and the storm were dueling, a cannonball that the assault had dodged struck the shield that the short sword had just raised.

The stray bullet contained no killing intent whatsoever, and Raven didn't even notice it. If it weren't for El, the short sword might have already been turned into a pile of scrap metal by this stray bullet.

Cold sweat quickly spread across Raven's entire back, but there was no time for him to savor the feeling of having just been on the verge of death.

[Raven, Shig is coming at us head-on.]

Kruze showed no sign of backing down, and Shigu once again brandished his heavy slash and entangled him.

"Tch, what a hassle!"

Although Raven could sense Kruze's spirit, engaging in mid-range shooting was not a good option after losing the numerous sensors on the main monitor. Raven lacked the confidence to deal with Kruze's fierce attacks while simultaneously manually aiming at a fast-moving enemy aircraft.

So Raven simply put away his gun and switched to his sword, preparing to face Kruze's new attack.

But at that moment, the Aegis Gundam, which had previously left, returned to the battlefield at some point, and then Lacus's voice appeared on the public channel.

However, this time, her voice lacked its usual sweetness and gained a more stern tone.

"Captain Rau Le Creuset, please keep your promise and cease operations immediately. Are you going to turn this place, where I, a representative of the memorial service, am located, into a battlefield?"

However, Kruze, already engrossed in the battle, showed no sign of stopping.

However, the next moment, Shigu received a private message from Aegis.

"For Captain Cruze, the achievement of rescuing me from the Alliance is enough, isn't it? If you stop now, I won't tell anyone that you launched the attack without authorization, Captain."

Lux's words brought Kruze out of his near-frenzied state. Although he was somewhat unwilling to accept that he hadn't been able to settle things with the short sword, as Lux said, it was time to stop now.

"We... we made it through?"

Seeing Shigu retreating with several Gundams, Kira, who had exited SEED mode, asked, panting heavily.

"At least for now, we are safe."

Yes, thank you for your hard work, Raven.

The Dagger and the Strike sailed side by side back towards the Archangel's location, while behind the Archangel, flashes of light appeared one after another in the dark universe.

That was a flash of light belonging to the Eighth Fleet's warships.

Chapter 26 Convergence

The Aegis Gundam was the last one to return to the ship.

Although Aslan did not directly participate in the battle against the short sword and the assault, the scene on the battlefield remained vivid in his mind.

Both Kira and that short sword have become stronger.

Aslan still remembers the feeling of fighting Dagger and Strike in the Heliopolis region.

Although short swords were already difficult to deal with back then, their combat rhythm was far less refined than it is now.

Kira's Strike was completely like a rookie at that time, relying entirely on the machine's performance and the pilot's reaction to deal with the battle. But just now, the Strike was able to fight with ease amidst the attacks from both Duel and Storm.

'Kira wasn't exactly a fighter in the past. How did he become so strong?'

Aslan's mind flashed back to Kira saying goodbye to him.

'She cries so easily, yet she was so strong back then.'

"What's wrong, Aslan? Why are you sitting still? Are you feeling unwell?"

Lux, who was about to leave the cockpit, turned around and found Athrun still sitting in the driver's seat, and couldn't help but ask with concern.

Looking at Lux's concerned expression, Athrun recalled how she had stopped the fight.

That commanding presence, so different from his usual demeanor, was something he had never seen before.

Aslan suddenly felt a sense of loneliness, as if he had been left behind by everyone around him.

"It's nothing, I was just a little distracted."

Aslan's thoughts returned to reality. He unbuckled his seatbelt and led Lux ​​out of the cockpit.

Am I the only one stuck in the same place?

With a hint of melancholy, Aslan lightly touched the cabin door with his toes and floated towards the changing room next door.