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[Hi, everyone!! months since I talked directly here xD, not really the best talker (maybe because I spend all day reading...) anyway! as how prices of everything is going up and everyday life is getting expensive I decided to reduce the price of my sub on P@tr30n.
I don't want to make my readers stop having a good time so this is the least I can do.
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Cagalli looked at the Gundam before her and could not help raising an eyebrow.
Come to think of it, when people called the Strike a Gundam at first, she had not understood why it had that name either.
Later, after Lacus explained it, she learned that it was because the Strike was a product of the G Project. When the first letters of the operating system, which began with G, were read together, they spelled Gundam.
Back to the matter at hand. Strictly speaking, the machine before her should not be called a Gundam. It was a humanoid mech.
It was a little shorter than a Gundam, only about fifteen meters tall.
And its shape gave the impression of a giant metal machine welded together by hand. Its construction looked like some decades-old, lumbering humanoid engineering robot.
It looked crude.
It also seemed as if it had been sitting around for a long time, or rather, had been used for a long time. It was filled with an old, worn-out feeling.
The inside was probably full of rust too.
If this thing started moving, it would probably make nothing but harsh metallic grinding sounds.
Curious, she used a lift nearby to raise herself high enough to see him entering the cockpit.
The cockpit was also full of mechanical parts. It gave her a sense of backwardness. Otherwise, why would it need so many cables and components?
After sitting down in that cold seat, he even had to put on what looked like extremely bulky, heavy armor. The armor itself was connected to the cables.
He even had to attach electrode pads like the kind used on someone lying in a hospital bed.
Honestly, Cagalli felt as though this was an electric chair. Sitting in it felt like sitting on an instrument of torture.
Once she thought that, the thing seemed even more unsafe.
Here it came. It was starting up.
And it really did feel like some outdated machine coming to life. The noise it made was louder and harsher than the Strike's.
Then it twisted its neck, waved its hands, took a few steps, and crouched, as if an athlete were warming up before exercise.
A mobile suit could perform those kinds of movements too.
After that, it shut down?
The cockpit opened again, and he removed all the troublesome equipment from his body before climbing down.
"It's broken, right?"
"It isn't broken. I was just confirming whether the machine was functioning normally."
After confirming that most of the machine's functions worked normally on this side, Kain had no intention of further familiarizing himself with its operation.
The main reason was that there was no sealed-off area here large enough for testing. If he demonstrated too much of its ferocity, it would only frighten certain people.
So it was better to let others not know that this was also an extremely dangerous machine. To a certain extent, that could confuse the enemy.
"Can I try it?"
Since this thing was a war machine from an interstellar age, she definitely could not judge it by appearance alone.
Although even the inside looked very unreliable, perhaps it really was powerful.
"You? Don't go looking for pain."
It was not that Kain thought Cagalli could not learn to operate it. Rather, after sitting in the pilot seat, attaching the electrode pads, and putting on that pilot suit, once it started, it felt somewhat like being hit by a defibrillator.
The function of those electrode pads was similar to the Black Carapace implanted in an Astartes. That defibrillator-like sensation stimulated the nervous signals and transmitted them to the machine.
To put it simply, an Imperial Knight was an enlarged suit of power armor.
"I'm not looking down on you or saying you can't pilot it. But starting that thing requires a strong enough will. Otherwise, sitting in it is the same as sitting in an electric chair."
Before the displeased, frowning girl could speak, Kain added his explanation first, already knowing what she wanted to say.
"An electric chair? It leaks electricity?"
"Close enough."
His answer clearly made Cagalli even more eager to challenge it.
Very well. If she wanted to suffer, he would help.
In the blink of an eye, he had already fitted the equipment on her.
"Are you sure? If you get shocked into trouble, don't come crying afterward."
"I won't!"
The competitive Cagalli curled her lip in irritation.
Since he had mentioned strong willpower and had not brought up physical strength, that meant her body would be fine.
And as for willpower, she did not think hers was weak.
So, staying conscious, she pressed the startup switch he had explained.
Here it came. The machine trembled faintly, and then...
"Mmph!"
She almost screamed, but Cagalli bit down hard on her lip, clenching harder and harder as her body trembled slightly.
He had not been wrong at all. It really was like sitting in an electric chair.
Although it did not seem powerful enough to kill a person, it still felt like being struck by a defibrillator when there was nothing wrong with her.
But that intense sensation only lasted briefly. It soon weakened somewhat, though her body still felt numb, as if electricity were running through it.
How should she put it? This level was about the same as the first setting on the stun device Cagalli used against people with bad intentions when they got too close.
Normally, if she gritted her teeth, she could endure it.
As for the sensation at the instant the machine started up, that had probably been the highest setting.
Then she tried moving the machine. She made a motion to raise its hand, and Cagalli, whose lips had loosened slightly, bit down again as if she had been defibrillated a second time.
After making a few more movements, she began to understand the pattern behind the intensity of that defibrillator-like sensation. The more forceful the movement, the stronger the shock.
No. She had to give up.
If she was shocked like this again, she felt a certain heat was about to escape her control.
This thing really was not something meant for humans to pilot. Sitting in it was simply asking to suffer.
When she shut it down, it gave her another defibrillator-like jolt, making her body shudder.
So even if this mech's cockpit were left open, there was no need to worry about someone secretly climbing in and stealing it.
Operating it was basically wearing a torture device. Just enduring the pain of the shocks took more than half of her mental focus. With what little was left, there was no way to drive it normally. She would end up as nothing but a target.
"Are you sure piloting this..."
After removing the equipment from her body, Cagalli stood up and turned back, pointing at the torture-device pilot seat behind her. But as she spoke, her throat seemed to catch, and she could not get the rest of the words out.
"D-Don't tell anyone!"
There was a somewhat subtle trace on the seat. Her face flushed bright red as she threatened him.
"Don't tell anyone about what?"
The curious voice made Cagalli freeze. Lacus had also come up to the cockpit entrance through the lift.
"N-Nothing."
The mark was not too obvious. Lacus probably would not know anything.
Ah, come to think of it, he might not understand what she had meant by "don't tell anyone" either.
No. He understood. Cagalli saw the playful look in his eyes.
"Then I'll try it next."
"Lacus, don't. This pilot seat really is an electric chair. Piloting this thing is basically torture!"
Cagalli stopped her out of kindness.
Part of it was genuine concern, and part of it was that she did not want Lacus to come in. If she did, she would probably notice more clearly.
"I still want to try."
Lacus insisted on trying, so when she came up, she had changed into a more convenient combat suit.
She also wanted to understand what Mr. Kain felt when piloting something like this.
She wanted to experience his feelings for herself.
(End of Chapter)
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