"Hahaha, what a bunch of idiots."
Blue Cosmos's "captain" sat on the Archangel's bridge.
After the lock was removed, the Archangel's systems really did return to normal.
For some reason, all of the ship's surveillance feeds were completely black, but the "captain" guessed that this was probably because the Archangel had been rushed into service unfinished and had also suffered damage from ZAFT.
[Honestly, fighting ZAFT earlier didn't even feel this dangerous]
[Your own people really are scarier than the enemy]
[And even if the other side is discriminatory, at least they aren't brainless]
[Murrue probably never expected Blue Cosmos to pull something like this]
[Why didn't they do this sooner?]
[They should've counterattacked ages ago. Now everything's a complete mess]
[You can't just focus on what's happening right now]
[Kids only need to think about what feels good right now. Adults know how troublesome cleaning up afterward is]
[In an eroge, once you start thinking about future baby-formula costs, you realize all of this is actually a horror story]
[??? How did you people derail the topic this far?]
Some viewers were so ridiculous that everyone else got dragged off-topic with them.
The scene then continued with Athrun.
By this point, Athrun had already entered the Doolittle.
According to the original plan, he should have used the docking passage to head to the Archangel first and investigate Lacus's whereabouts.
But just after Athrun found a safe place to stop and rest, a Fyu-Neru suddenly appeared in front of him and startled him.
"Isn't that Inori-san's…?!"
There was no doubt about it. This was Inori's robot.
He remembered the little thing very clearly.
Something this tiny had somehow repaired the Aegis's cockpit directly…
"Does it want me to follow it?"
Athrun thought for a moment.
Athrun did not know how his presence had been exposed, but he still chose to follow.
He had a vague feeling that if he did not follow it, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
"Is this the detention area?"
Before setting out, Athrun had taken note of the Doolittle's general layout.
"Was Lacus-san locked up here?"
Security around the detention area was fairly lax. Only two Earth Alliance… no, two Blue Cosmos members were here.
"She really is beautiful. Shame she's a Coordinator."
"Just use her like a doll."
"Even though she's a woman, we still might not be able to overpower her."
"What are you afraid of? Her hands and feet are restrained."
"She can still move, though."
The two of them were still talking.
Athrun tensed. "Could Lacus really be locked up here?!"
Although theirs was a political match with little affection, Athrun still felt… well… some friendship toward Lacus.
And she was their objective, after all.
"What are you worried about? This is a stun gun. We'll knock her out first, then have our way with her."
"It's no fun if she's unconscious."
"Then we'll just chain both her hands and feet to the wall first."
"Hehe, good idea."
Athrun could not tolerate any more.
He charged over, spun into a kick that sent both Blue Cosmos members flying, snatched up the stun gun, and shocked each of them once.
Then Athrun turned toward the cell.
"Lacus, is that you?!"
Athrun looked into the cell.
The person inside noticed Athrun too.
"Is that… Athrun?"
It was not Lacus.
It was a brown-haired girl.
The girl who had appeared in the video.
The girl who looked so much like Kira.
"Kira…?"
"Are you really Athrun?!"
Kira stood up and ran to the other side of the cell door.
The two of them stared at each other.
[Here it is! Here it is! Here it is!]
[This is exactly what I wanted to see!]
[I've followed SEED for a whole cour just to see when these two would finally meet]
[Hahahahahahaha (screaming incoherently)]
[Cagalli: I feel like I'm getting NTR'd]
[Lacus: What a coincidence. Same here]
[Inori: How about the three of us just live together?]
[Wait, that ship actually works]
[Huh?]
[Cagalli, Inori, and Lacus. I see no problem here]
[I still prefer just Kira, Lacus, and Inori. The three of them can form the "Jirachi" trio]
[Jirachi? What the holy hell is that supposed to mean?]
[This shipping free-for-all is way too chaotic]
[I can't bear to look at this]
[Subway grandpa squinting at his phone in disgust]
As Kira and Athrun reunited, ending-theme music began playing in the scene.
"We were once so close together…"
"But the color of twilight has already changed…"
Honestly, it fit the scene surprisingly well.
The Stage was already a veteran at ending episodes on cliffhangers.
This time, however, the ED was not an ordinary ED, but a special ED.
The contents of the ED were a flashback montage of Kira and Athrun as children on the Moon, back when they were in Copernicus.
But instead of animation, the images were presented as individual photographs with a faint yellowed tint.
Watching those yellowing photographs turn one by one like pages in an album was an absolute killer.
[Holy crap, don't tell me all that stuff earlier really was just ship-bait]
[They even brought out the childhood flashbacks]
[Don't panic, this is just a technical adjustment!]
[The true surprise childhood friend has arrived]
[Inori can't compete]
[Actually, I think Inori was the earlier surprise childhood friend. Don't panic]
[What do you mean?]
[There are tons of analysis posts in the discussion section. Inori may genuinely have some kind of connection with Kira]
[In Athrun's memories, weren't both of them boys?]
[Kira's fashion sense is beyond saving]
[Inori is basically a miracle cure for bad fashion]
[Holy crap, the progress bar!]
[The ED is almost over. Just jump straight to seven years later]
[Sigh, shame the anime version won't be out for another month. Otherwise this shot would be perfect to rewatch over and over]
[Once the video version is out, I'm going to loop this scene forever]
The viewers had already gone mad.
In fact, plenty of people had noticed that SEED's production team seemed to love serving official ship-bait.
But this kind of crowd-pleasing "ship-bait" was something everyone still enjoyed savoring.
That's just how girl-idol fandom works.
The messier the relationships, the more the audience watched.
And Gundam SEED's overall popularity had now surpassed five million.
In other words, Inori had already completed half of her mission target.
"So serving ship-bait can be this rewarding…"
Should I actually make some more?
Athrun and Murrue, maybe… uh, no. Better forget that. That one was too cursed.
Though in SEED-D, Athrun did have quite a few fangirls.
Sigh. Cagalli would just have to suffer a little…
After one more vicious cliffhanger, the next episode began.
[Woohoo! Seven hundred million years—you're finally here!]
[Every day felt like a year…]
[I love twisted relationships!]
[Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!]
[I've gone completely insane]
The moment the scene began, the danmaku went completely berserk. After a week of stewing, the audience had become even more ridiculous than they had been at the end of the previous episode.
Meanwhile, Athrun was nearly losing it too.
"Kira… are you really… Kira?"