Chapter 354 - 355: Isn’t This the Delightful Chaotic Mash-Up Everyone Loves?!

Chapter 354: Chapter 355: Isn’t This the Delightful Chaotic Mash-Up Everyone Loves?!

"What is going on...?"

Several injured patients had been brought into the ward where Flay was lying.

That kind uncle named Sutherland from before seemed to be a friend of her father’s, and he was also a member of Blue Cosmos.

That had given Flay a small measure of comfort.

But now, she had no idea what had happened.

"It was Blue Cosmos!" an injured woman said in terror. "Blue Cosmos went on a killing spree aboard the Archangel! Oh God, it was horrible!"

"That’s right, it was all Blue Cosmos!"

The person beside her was equally terrified.

Blue Cosmos had already fought Mu in the residential area earlier. None of the refugees had died, but quite a few had been injured.

"...Huh?" Flay’s eyes widened. "How is that possible? We’re all Naturals. Why would Blue Cosmos do something like that?!"

Flay did not believe it.

Wasn’t Blue Cosmos an organization that fought Coordinators? Would they... really attack fellow Naturals?

No!

Something had to be wrong somewhere!

Flay refused to believe it.

She refused to believe that kind uncle would do something like that to everyone!

"Miss, could you... give up your spot over there?"

The elderly doctor was not one of the Archangel’s ship doctors either. He was a doctor from Heliopolis and a refugee himself. He had only stayed here temporarily because there were no doctors available.

But there were not enough beds in the infirmary now.

—Wasn’t there another room next door?!

Flay really wanted to say that.

But looking at all the injured refugees gathered around her, she could not get the words out.

"Mm..."

Flay stood up.

Her body had not been injured at all. Flay’s wound was in her heart.

But in front of so many people, she did not have the nerve to say something like that.

There was no one here who would indulge her spoiled-rich-girl temper.

After leaving the infirmary, Flay wandered aimlessly through the corridor.

She reached the residential area, where Mu and the others had also returned and were handling the aftermath.

The corpses of the Blue Cosmos soldiers were being placed into body bags one by one.

"Whoa, kid, you can’t go through here for now." The moment Mu saw Flay, he recognized the emotionally unstable young girl from before.

He was afraid something might happen to her again if she saw all these bodies.

"Mm..."

Flay turned around and started walking back the way she had come, like a walking corpse.

As she wandered along, Flay gradually realized a few things.

The Archangel’s bridge was completely gone. Since a full repair was impossible, the Archangel was preparing to deploy a secondary bridge.

The Blue Cosmos fleet seemed to be fighting ZAFT and losing.

But before the result of the battle had even been decided, the Archangel had already left the combat zone.

"What... is going to happen now...?"

Flay stared out the window in confusion.

She had thought she could finally obtain the power to take revenge, but the other side had vanished almost immediately.

And the people here seemed to hate Blue Cosmos too...

That was only natural.

The refugees aboard the ship did not have much entertainment in their day-to-day lives, but there were still things like televisions in the residential area.

Inori had used the television programs to gently steer people toward disliking Blue Cosmos, and it had been quite easy.

No, Inori did not even need to deliberately steer them.

All she had to do was lay out every filthy thing Blue Cosmos had done, and that alone was enough to make people hate them.

In fact, only a small minority of people from Orb supported Blue Cosmos in the first place, so this was simple.

People might envy or dislike Coordinators, but when it came to the question of Blue Cosmos being utterly inhuman, everyone’s attitude was pretty clear.

[Why is this woman still here?]

[I thought she’d already transferred to the Doolittle]

[ZAFT came too early. Would’ve been great if they showed up later, after she went over there, and blew her up with the rest]

[The bad ones always seem to live forever]

[I don’t think Flay is bad. She’s mainly just too real]

[Huh? You serious?]

[Flay grew up in a family that supported Blue Cosmos, didn’t she? Of course she turned out like this. Her spoiled-rich-girl temper, her hatred—it all feels way too much like real life]

[Not even close, bro. You’re way too deep in it]

[But Flay hasn’t actually hurt anyone, has she?]

[Emotional damage doesn’t count as damage now?]

[I think Flay is pretty pitiful]

[Lmao, she brought it all on herself]

[That’s what self-isolation does. You decide on your own that you’ve got nothing, then decide on your own to hate everyone else]

[I’ll bet half a yuan this girl is going to cause trouble again later]

[Obviously. Who knows what kind of mess she’ll stir up next]

[I’ve always wondered, why do all these warships put their bridges in such obvious places? Aren’t they afraid someone will blow them up with one shot?]

[Blind Monk, you found the blind spot!]

[Too bad we can’t post images here. I’ve got the White Base setting materials. Otherwise we could compare it with how things work over in UC]

[Post it in the comments, bro]

[I’ll post it when the episode’s over]

The audience had originally been discussing Flay.

But then someone suddenly remembered that the Archangel’s bridge was gone, which led them to realize that the bridges on other ships also seemed extremely conspicuous. That left them baffled—wasn’t that basically putting your weak point right out where everyone could see it? Was that really okay?

And so the audience started discussing warship design instead. The audience’s train of thought really did jump all over the place.

"Long Legs... the Archangel..."

Elsewhere, Athrun, Kira, and Inori had now gotten off the Strike.

"Yo! I knew you guys could do it... Whoa, you-you-you-you! Why are you here?!"

Murrue and the others were running themselves ragged right now, but Cagalli happened to have nothing to do.

The moment she heard Kira was back, she immediately ran over to greet her.

But when the Strike’s hatch opened, Cagalli nearly fell over from shock.

Well, this was still a zero-gravity environment for the moment, so Cagalli was actually floating.

"Cagalli!" Athrun had been tense at first—this was an "enemy ship," after all—but the moment he saw Cagalli, he finally relaxed.

[Cagalli will remember this shock for the next hundred years]

[Hahaha, an encounter for the history books]

[Four people, and every single one of them thinks they’re the extra wheel, right?]

[Grass (a type of exclamation), Lacus still isn’t back. It’d be even more fun if all five of them met here]

[Yes! This is exactly what I want!]

The audience had been discussing warships a moment ago, but as soon as Cagalli and Athrun met, everyone immediately switched back to twisted shipping and ship-bait.

Now the audience could only lament that Lacus was not here. If all five of them were thrown into the same pot, it would be far too entertaining.

Of course Inori was not going to arrange a scene like that this early.

—They had not even reached the midpoint of the story yet. A scene where all five met at once was obviously something to save for the middle-to-late stages!

Cagalli knew Athrun was the Aegis’s pilot, but it was still bizarre to see Athrun here.

"Ah, no, you’re... uh, why are you here?!"

She almost blurted out that Athrun was the Aegis’s pilot, but in the end she shut her mouth.

Inori’s personality correction had worked very well.

Unfortunately, Kira already knew Athrun was the Aegis’s pilot...