Chapter 140: Stella
Kamille followed Kira into the locker room in silence, keeping his head down from the beginning to the end. Uraki took a glance at him curiously without asking more questions and started to change to his pilot suit.
"Do you know why I called you here?" Kira asked in a serious voice while changing clothes, "If it wasn't for the sudden disconnection last night that revealed the breach, I wouldn't have found out until now that it was you who hacked my computer and used it to download porn."
"I'm sorry." Kamille did not have the slightest intention to defend himself, and honestly nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"Phew." Kira exhaled breathlessly, "We're all men, so it's not like I can't understand your behavior. But if you feel that your behavior is a legitimate need, why didn't you just bring it up with Mr. Chang Wufei? If you feel that your behavior is problematic, why do it? You criticize adults for double standards all day long, don't you think that your behavior is contradictory as well?"
"Yes, I'm sorry." Kamille said dryly, "I'll reflect on it and never do it again."
Kamille's appearance was a bit surprising to Kira, who gave Kamille a surprised look after changing his clothes. After Kira and Uraki left, Kamille sighed and casually sat down on a bench in a daze.
Of course, he knew what he was doing was wrong, and now he actually couldn't be interested in watching porn. It was just that Stella's death had given him too heavy a blow and so he was bored out of his mind every day that he subconsciously tried to find something difficult to distract himself — like hacking Kira's computer.
There was a sudden banging at the door, and Kamille jumped up from the bench, looked around in a panic, and ducked into the closet without thinking. However, after he hid inside, he suddenly realized a very serious problem.
"Why am I hiding?" He asked himself inexplicably, "I'm not doing anything untoward, why should I hide?"
But going out now would only make it more embarrassing, Kamille simply hid inside, thinking he could bear it and save himself a lot of explaining. He looked out through the gap in the closet and could just see a person facing him sideways, and it was Shinn.
At this time, Shinn just opened his locker. He stared at the picture on the inside of the locker door for a while, then reached out his hand in fascination, and then withdrew it as if he had been burned. The blonde girl in the photo, or Shinn's fragile expression, could be seen clearly at Kamille's angle.
"Brother Shinn…" the feelings called guilt and powerlessness made his heart ache vaguely, "If I were a little more useful, Stella wouldn't … "
After a few more moments, until there was no longer any rattling outside, Kamille lost his mind and opened the closet. He sat down on the bench, staring at the ceiling once again. His mind was filled with a jumble of confusion. When he returned to the bridge in a daze, he was greeted by a cold look from the captain.
"I ask you, what time is it?" Chang Wufei asked in a stern voice, "Do you have any sense of self-consciousness while the mission is in progress?"
"I'm sorry." He didn't know how many times he had said sorry today, and he had become very skilled at it.
"There is a suspicious enemy MS approaching, and the Destiny Gundam went out to deal with it." Chang Wufei did not continue to dwell on it and decisively began to briefly describe the current situation, "Just now, communications with the Destiny Gundam were lost. The enemy MS should have just spread Minovsky particles."
Kamille responded with an "Oh", walked to Chang Wufei, lowered his head to look at the floor, not daring to look at the CIC side. There were several girls in the CIC who always looked at him with hatred. After knowing that these girls were from Arsenal, he had no courage to look at them anymore.
An urge to do something drove his restless heart, while at the same time, a sense of powerlessness haunted him and made him bored.
The bridge fell into silence. After ten seconds or so, a strong mental wave flashed through Kamille's mind. This feeling was so plausible, as if a person with a facelift vaguely similar to the face in the past. The inexplicable stirring made his heart beat fast and had a feeling that something extremely bad was about to happen.
The consciousness only appeared for a moment and left his senses, but the feeling of panic did not abate but became more intense, Kamille's back suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Now, something must be done, or it will really be too late. His NT intuition told him so.
"Grandpa, something is wrong!" He shouted in a panic, "I feel something, I must go and see! Or else, or else …!"
"Insufficient reason, dismissed." Chang Wufei glanced at him indifferently and responded coldly, "Finish your duty."
"But, but …!" Kamille was sweating with anxiety, but incoherent shouting at times like this only made his words less credible. He took big deep breaths and tried to calm himself down, "I'm exceptionally smart, smarter than Scirocco, there's no use in panicking."
He closed his eyes and thought about how to convince Chang Wufei. Invisibly, it was as if a large hand had grabbed his heart, leaving him breathless, as if he would suffocate and die in the next moment. At this crisis point, he somehow suddenly remembered a conversation between Dr. Lingus and him.
"Kira and Uraki have experienced the ups and downs of life and are already very mellow in nature. Although Shinn is young, he is actually the most mature. Only you, like a time bomb. I don't know when it will explode, but I've given Chang Wufei an explanation that you will be solved before you explode."
"So you called me over specifically to threaten me? That makes a lot of sense."
"Let me ask you, as the only NT on board, do you know how many types of NT there are?"
"Combat type, Perception type … Disengagement type?"
"Who taught you this — forget it, I know who it is, no need to answer. I'll tell you this, most NTs are extreme beings with twisted personalities, or only extreme people can become NTs. We will always be driven by passion or impulse to do something without knowing the consequences."
"I think Mr. Quattro is not like… uh … even a person like you is twisted?"
"The first kind of NT can rationally view himself, using the impulses that are good for himself and discarding the ones that are bad for himself, such as Scirocco. The second type of NT is always on guard against himself and fears irreversible consequences due to impulses, such as the former Amuro. The third type of NT will let himself go without any self-consciousness, feeling smug when the results are good and complaining when the results are poor."
"… Like me now, right?"
"You are qualified to drive Gundam only after you are no longer the third kind of NT."
"Grandpa!" Kamille shook his head and shouted loudly in a medium voice, "I have something important to report!"
"Oh?" Chang Wufei turned his head to look at him, "Speak."
"As the sole NT on the Iserlohn, I am sensing that the Destiny Gundam is in a dangerous situation and am requesting permission to sortie to provide support ." Kamille plucked up the courage to meet Chang Wufei's eyes, "It is my professional judgment as an NT, and I will bear all consequences at my own risk."
Chang Wufei looked at him with an expressionless face.
"Grandpa, let me do my duty!" Kamille continued, "I think that's what the NT's duty is!"
"There are no more MS for you."
"Don't we still have the Altron Gundam?" Kamille felt his voice tremble as he said this, "Grandpa, please lend me the Altron Gundam! Please!"
Chang Wufei's sharp gaze locked onto Kamille's eyes, and Kamille glared back with a very headstrong glare. The old man and the young man just stared at each other, while everyone else on the bridge secretly watched them.
It felt like a long time had passed, but in fact, it was only less than ten seconds, and Chang Wufei suddenly turned his head to look at the big screen. His flat voice sounded as if he was saying a trivial thing, "The boot password is Meilan, cherish it."
Kamille froze in place for a short while before reacting to what Chang Wufei's words meant. He shouted "yes" in ecstasy and turned around and ran toward the hangar.
There was no time to change into any driving clothes, every second was precious. Even if he can't feel the consciousness anymore, he doesn't doubt that he can find the other side.
"I must be here for a reason, and NT can't exist just to give birth to tragedies." He quickly jumped into the cockpit of the Altron Gundam and skillfully activated the system, "Before talking about such big words as justice or creating a better world, at least make the important people around you happy first!"
…
The two MSs were too close to each other to dodge the shot. The beam magnum roared and brushed against the left hand of the Destiny Gundam. The beam shield on the arm only blocked less than a fifth of it before it turned to dust, and even the long-range high-powered cannon behind the Destiny Gundam was not spared.
After suffering this damage, the Destiny Gundam finally approached the Banshee Gundam. With a decisive swing of the chopper, the right hand of the Banshee Gundam, along with the elf beam cannon on its right arm, was severed from its body and fell towards the island below under the pull of gravity.
The next second, the chopper was torn to pieces by the Banshee Gundam's sharp claws. The Destiny Gundam kicked the Banshee Gundam out of the way and used its right arm to take out a spare beam saber.
At this point in the fight, both sides have lost all their long-range weapons, and the only way left is to fight in close quarters. Shinn was breathing heavily in the cockpit, and his body was already covered with sweat.
"I can't even defeat the enemy with such a good MS." Shinn smiled bitterly and glanced at the picture in the cockpit, "I'm sorry, Mayu, Stella, I'm so useless."
He understood that his Destiny Gundam was the best amongst the three MSs of Celestial Being. He also understood that in terms of piloting skills alone, Kira was better than him. It was just simply because Ade was more favorable to him so he could drive the Destiny Gundam.
For him, to the person who lent a helping hand to him and his sister at the darkest time of their lives, who taught him many precious truths without reservation, who couldn't help but secretly be partial to him but acted as if he didn't care, words like "thank you" and "repayment" are too frivolous and cheap.
"I only know to drive MS, at least I have to do this only thing I can do." He forced up his exhausted spirit and turned on SEED again, "Stella, if you can hear me, lend me your power, please."
The light wings behind the Destiny Gundam let out a dazzling glow, and the MS left a trail of stigmata as it rushed towards the Banshee Gundam. Shinn finally found the right moment and stabbed the Banshee Gundam's cockpit with a backhanded beam saber.
As if it had humanity, the Banshee Gundam subconsciously raised its left hand, and the saber pierced through the claws and nailed it to the fuselage. The light wings suddenly busted out, and the Banshee Gundam was pressed down sharply, and finally ruthlessly hit the ground of the island below, breaking trees and woods.
"I admire myself for making something as unscientific as a palm cannon." Shinn suddenly remembered Ade's smug tone when he introduced the Destiny Gundam to him. He let out a long breath and a relieved smile, "Yeah, I'm impressed too."
The Destiny Gundam let go of the beam saber, put its right hand against the gap in the claw, and the cannon in its palm exploded in the next moment. After a series of serial explosions, the golden light emitted by the psycho-frame gradually dissipated, and the Banshee Gundam didn't move at all.
"It's finally over, it's time to go back—" Shinn's voice ended abruptly, and what appeared in the main camera, under the completely scrapped left arm of the Banshee Gundam, on the fuselage that was torn open by the explosion, was the figure of his soul, "… ah."
Shinn's brain went blank.
He manipulated the Destiny Gundam to dig out the cockpit of the Banshee Gundam, jumped out of the MS impatiently and ran to the cockpit wreckage, carefully picked up the girl's seemingly weightless body and put her on the ground. The young girl looked at him with a smile on her face from the beginning to the end, her breathing so weak that she seemed to disappear in the next second.
"Shinn, you're here." The young girl struggled to raise her arm to touch his cheek, "Shinn, will protect Stella."
"Stella, I'm here." Shinn took the young girl's hand and put it on his face, using all his strength to keep breathing, "Why is this happening? Isn't this kind of thing once enough?! Destiny… this name is too ironic!"
"Shinn," the young girl tried to open her eyes, but was so tired and worn out that she couldn't seem to do it, "Shinn, I… like…"
The young girl closed her eyes, and her small, soft, boneless hands left his cheeks and hung down weakly.
"Stella, Stella? Stella!" Really tears finally let loose. He hugged the girl's body, raised his head to the sky, and cried out in despair, "Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!"
Not remembering at all what happened, when Shinn came back to his senses, the Destiny Gundam was hovering quietly in the sea not far from the shore of the small island, with its palm outstretched parallel to the sea. He was standing on the palm of the Destiny Gundam, holding Stella's gentle body.
In the distance, a familiar-looking green MS was approaching at high speed, but such things didn't matter to him anymore. He had more important things to do.
"It's okay, Stella, there will be no more scary things and no more pain." He leaned down and held the young girl's body flat on top of the silent sea. He murmured with a choke in his gentle voice, "There's nothing left to frighten you, there won't be anyone to bully you anymore. So rest assured, quietly here…"
He looked at the young girl's sleep-like face in a daze, and slowly let go of his hands. The young girl sank into the water little by little and became more and more blurred in his sight.
"Good night …"
"Stop it, Brother Shinn!" The Altron Gundam stopped sharply beside the Destiny Gundam, and Kamille's eager voice came from the cockpit door, "There is still consciousness, I can feel it!"
"… huh?" Shinn looked up as if dumbfounded, "What did you say?"
"She's not dead!" Kamille shouted, "Stella's not dead!"
Shinn's brain then understood what Kamille said. He instantly dove into the water and swam to the bottom of the sea. Poor Stella narrowly escaped the fate of drowning.
