"Over here?!"
Kira twisted aside, dodging the Aegis's beam rifle.
Kira didn't dare make any big moves—she could only barely defend. A moment ago Cagalli had nearly gotten hurt.
"What about that pitch-black whatever-it-was? Can't we use that?!" Cagalli, seeing the four Gundams surrounding her, was thoroughly not okay.
(Strike Gundam)
(Duel Gundam)
(Buster Gundam)
(Blitz Gundam)
(Aegis Gundam)
"Insufficient power," Inori said.
She wasn't lying, either.
Perhaps in Lacia's original story the Black Monolith's strength was guaranteed.
But after this world's tech had been "localized," Gundam SEED-era technology couldn't yet support that kind of ultra-compressed power system. So unless they connected an external power supply and had Kira unlock a higher tier of authorization, there really wasn't a good option.
"Wahh!"
If it had been just one machine, Kira could have barely managed to dodge.
But now she was facing four Gundams!
And the enemy was fully armed, while all she had were the two Armor Schneider close-combat knives!
"It's no good! Let's retreat!" Murrue said. "These MS are all fitted with Phase Shift armor—kinetic weapons have no effect on them. All we've got here are short knives. We can't fight at all!"
"There's no escaping!"
Kira gave it everything she had.
The OS was sorted out now, but one-against-four was still more than a little rough.
"Kira." Inori's voice came again. "Use me."
"What are you two talking about?" Murrue was completely lost.
Why the sudden lewd-sounding talk?
Had she been scared out of her mind?
"There's no other way." Kira didn't want to expose it, but she had no choice.
Because if she let Inori step in, the mystery of who had activated the Gundam frame earlier would likely be exposed.
But right now, protecting everyone was what mattered most!
"Mm."
Inori squeezed forward from behind.
And at that moment Kira released the control sticks.
"What are you two doing?!"
Murrue couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Letting go of the controls at a time like this—wasn't that just giving up?
Meanwhile Inori had turned and straddled Kira's lap.
Kira and Inori laced their fingers together.
Then Inori pressed her forehead against Kira's visor.
[Ohhhhh!]
[This is it! This is exactly what I came to see! My blood is on fire!]
[My little bro says he's up.]
[I'm different—my little bro wants to know when they'll release a two-person cockpit figure set.]
[Go check the official site, it just refreshed—they put up a survey asking whether people want a Strike cockpit figure.]
[A production team this on-point deserves to make bank!]
[Yes! Now! Right now! Immediately!]
[Those two extra third wheels should really be cropped out.]
[Yeah yeah yeah, lmao.]
"Ngh!"
Cagalli's face flushed bright red.
Murrue, meanwhile, stared in disbelief at the screen beside her.
"The X105's movements… they changed!"
The Strike's motions had already been remarkably smooth before.
But now they shifted again, becoming even more fluid.
If the Strike with the shoddy OS freshly installed had been a child who tripped over its own feet just walking, then the earlier Strike had been a grown man in his prime.
And now it was… superhuman!
But—Kira had clearly let go of the controls!
Murrue looked at the pilot's seat.
Inori had turned and straddled Kira, their fingers laced together.
"Remaining power 84 percent. Phase Shift armor disengaged. Full-motion optimization complete. Motion models for the Duel, Blitz, Buster, and Aegis loaded. Beginning input reading."
Inori didn't actually need to say any of this aloud, but for the audience and for dramatic effect, she chose to voice it anyway.
Fan service, after all.
"The Phase Shift armor's disengaged—looks like that machine's out of power!" Yzak's eyes lit up. "Athrun, switch to Plan B! We can capture it directly!"
Plan C was to destroy the Strike; Plan B was to capture it.
The Strike's Phase Shift armor was disengaged now—that meant the other side was out of power!
A golden opportunity!
"The movements changed!" Athrun was the first to sense something wrong.
The Strike's motions had been fluid before, but they'd clearly been an amateur's piloting.
Now, though, the situation had changed.
It was like an idle stroll through a courtyard—it simply sidestepped his beam rifle.
"Take this!"
Over there, Dearka, seeing the Strike disengage its Phase Shift armor, switched back to live rounds and pressed the assault with the Buster.
And yet… every shot missed.
The Strike looked for all the world like it was out for a walk, and yet it evaded every single attack!
"No good! Yzak, keep going with Plan C—we have to destroy the Strike!" A warrior's instinct told Athrun something was off.
How long had the Strike even been active?!
There was no way it was out of power now!
In other words—the Strike's pilot had disengaged the Phase Shift armor on purpose!
Whatever the enemy pilot was trying to do, this situation was deeply wrong.
"Playing tricks! If ranged is useless, then taste this!"
Yzak refused to believe it, and charged in swinging his beam saber.
But faced with the charging Duel, the Strike merely stepped a couple of paces to the side and gave the Duel a light shove—like a person on a walk skirting some obstacle in the road—and slipped right past it!
"Nani?!"
Yzak, unconvinced, wheeled around to attack again.
But this time the Strike simply stayed where it was, and the Duel lunged straight into empty air.
"What is up with that machine's movements?! What?!"
Yzak, still unwilling to accept it, naturally wanted to turn back and keep attacking—but this time he found that the beam saber in his hand was gone.
[Safety lock released. Authorization acquired.]
The beam saber was in the Strike's hand!
"Compared to that one, you've still got a long way to go!"
With the "Inori OS" now running, all of Kira's latent potential was unleashed, and Fatima's copilot support pushed her piloting skill to a level that didn't belong to this dimension.
[That's the caliber of a prologue boss, lmao.]
[Man, confidently switching off her own armor—she's completely unafraid of the enemy hitting her.]
[Go watch Episode Zero—the black GINN's movements, nobody else could lay a finger on it either.]
[The human-machine gap.]
[If only GBN had an AI this powerful.]
[GBN pulling this? You think there are too many players or something?!]
[As an ultimate challenge it'd be fine, but a nightmare bot like this would be a serious turn-off.]
[Hey, did you all miss Inori's line just now? "Input reading."]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), this really is nightmare difficulty.]
[You're kidding me—so it was input reading.]
[Reading the player's inputs is trash design in a game, but out in the real world, that's the most terrifying combo there is!]
"All right, now I can go on the offensive."
Kira gripped the beam saber.
With a weapon in hand, she could finally sound the call to counterattack!