LN: Wheeeeeee!
Chibi-Athrun: Whee what?
LN: I don't know, can't a man just whee for no reason whatsoever?
Chibi-Athrun: Well yes if you put it that way, but it makes you seem kinda retarded.
LN: Retardity is over-rated.
Chibi-Athrun: That's not even an actual word.
LN: Like that matters either, language is over-rated.
Chibi-Athrun: You know, that's what I'm made of, it makes me rather uncomfortable...
LN: Alright thats it, this is a stupid conversation and I'm getting a new side-host next time.
Chibi-Athrun: NOOO! You can't do this to me! You made me!
LN: Uhh... that's kinda the point...
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Festival of Dance
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"This is HQ, report your status Wrath 3."
The pilot of the lone J-5 looked towards the armless ruin of Murasume that had plummeted down on the ground. His experience as a solider told him that from the height and angle the Murasume fell at, it was possible for the pilot to have survived the fall. His instincts told him that Kira Yamato was definately alive.
He was in no position to report to HQ based on his instincts, plus he was almost upset that the showdown with the legendary Kira Yamato had to end so abruptly, him looking more like the defeated despite Kira being the one that had fallen.
I won't let it end like this, I will defeat Kira Yamato myself...
"Wrath 3 Report."
"Wrath 3!"
"Oi! Dalien!"
Dalien snapped back to reality, he had not beat Kira Yamato, now all he could hope was that the pilot could survive until they were both ready for a second round.
"This is Wrath 3, the hostile mobile suit has been taken down by unit Wraith, the unit is confirmed to have ceased all functions, the livelyhood of the pilot is unknown."
"Return to base Wrath 3, a ground unit will take over to retrieve the corpse."
Live on Kira Yamato, my boiling blood needs to be satisfied.
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A soft hand caressed his cheek bringing him back into the world. Kira was still alive, yet again, and it puzzled him even more, why would he keep surviving, was some divine force truly asking something of him before he was able to die?
"I'm alive..."
"Actually you're dead, how's it feel to be in hell?" The voice seemed to somewhat resemble Lacus', but it wasn't hers, it was more alive and less calm, but he could sense the same kindness from the voice.
"Interesting."
"Too bad then, cause Lucifer just canceled your visit." Kira felt his head thump towards the floor as what seemed to have been his pillow was pulled out from under his head. The pain stung his eyes open, realizing that in fact his comfortable pillow was a pair of legs and hell was in fact a wooden shed with a chair, table and enough kitchen ware to cook with.
Kira struggled slowly to his feet, his wounds stung, but they were better than he thought they would be considering he fell down from pretty high.
His eyes drifted around the little wooden house a bit more before they settle upon the face of his rescuer. She was a girl who seemed his age, shoulder length gray hair fell smoothly at her side while sets of freckles dotted the outline of her pink cheeks.
"Uhhh..." Her face began to slowly burn red as Kira's gaze kept on her making her seem like a shy girl who would have never expected this much attention from the opposite sex.
Noticing the awkward moment he had caused, Kira turned away blushing, it surprised him slightly that he was still capable of something so simple and pleasant.
"S...sorry about that, I'll go fix you something to eat." It became quickly apparent to Kira that the girl seemed to lack a certain degree of self confidence.
"My name is Kira."
The girl stopped in her tracks halfway between the door and him after picking up the sheets he had used, "I...I'm Meer, Meer Campbell."
"That's a good name."
"My grandmother gave it to me before she passed away, my mom always told me that it was the name an angel had given to my grandmother for me." Meer giggled a bit, then she walked towards the kitchen accessories, putting her sheets in one of the drawers and began making a small assortment of foods .
Kira staggered towards the chair and was about to sit down when he realized that he was more or less naked.
"Meer-san..."
"Meer-CHAN, don't call me san, it makes me feel old. If it's about some cloths, try the ones on top in the second drawer over there."
Kira staggered some more towards the drawer, obviously Meer wasn't as considerate of injured people as she looked like she would be. Kira wondered whether making her more open about things would make his stay more painful.
Halfway between a tug and rip, Kira managed to pull out a white outfit from the drawer. It was a light overall, a white T-shirt matched a pair of black sweat pants. Once he had put it on, he realized the fabric and shape was perfect to allow someone like him to walk...well stagger around comfortably.
As he finished and got back to his seat, Meer came around with a tray of small assortments of food, Kira for one was very surprised that she even had that much provision, apparently she must have pulled it out from some invisible drawer that he couldn't see.
"How is it?" Meer was rather cheerful, after all this was the first time she had cooked for someone besides herself, it was rather pleasant.
"It's good."
"Boy you're really dry and cut aren't you..."
Choosing to not answer the question, Kira returned to his food, in all honesty it was good, after crash landing and all, it was good to feel some homemade food.
Which reminded Kira, "Where am I?"
"Most people ask that right from the start, you're not very typical." Meer walked towards the lone window in the room and pulled open the blinds. In front of Kira's eyes spread the view of towering mountains, and it seemed from the landscape that the house was located in a valley. Most surprisingly of all, there were other houses constructed along side this one, Kira had imagined Meer to live solely on her own, but now that he thought about it, it would have been far too difficult to do so.
"How big is this village?" Kira needed to know how secure his existence was, if this village was closely linked to the military organization that took him down, he would have to escape, and quickly.
"It's not too big, and isolated because we're in the valley. For that matter this will be the last day we spend here anyways. Which is why the others decided to let me pick you up, despite that the military has already come by.
"They have?" If these people had gotten hurt or killed because of him, Kira would have felt very bad, especially since he still didn't think his life was worth much.
"Don't worry, it was before I found you by the woods. Naturally they searched, but as you can imagine, they didn't find anything."
Kira finished up some more food and stood up, "I should leave, they may come back again."
Meer was rather calm at the statement and simply smiled and gestured for him to sit back down, "Don't worry, like I told you, we're leaving this village after tonight anyways."
"Bu-"
"Certainly not because of you, so don't worry about that either. You see, ever since the New Pallevillia World Order began to plant firmly in this country, it's been getting really heated around here, military coming around to villages like this for someone like you shows it." Kira wondered whether she knew that he had piloted a mobile suit and was more or less a soldier.
A soldier...am I?
"Wait, New Pallevillia World Order? I've never heard of that before."
"Not surprising, the organization was the leftovers of AMCO."
Leftovers of that military establishment? Impossible,the military power they possesed there surpasses those of ORB, even if it is still a small organization, theres no way a country like this could have gained the technology and resources necessary for that kind of construction.
A knock at the door brought both Kira and Meer out of their own individual thoughts, Kira jerked a bit as he repressed the urge to perform a submission on the guy who would pass through the door. Undeniably he was still a bit on edge, however he trusted Meer enough that those in her village would also have no intent to harm him. At the moment anyways.
"It's time Meer, if you want to t-" The man's eyes drifted towards Kira's in a moment of astonishment. "Hahaha! Even better, take him with you now that he's all good."
Meer blushed in front of the man, "Mr.Tablos, it's not what you think it is!"
Tablos waved his hand at her as he headed back out and joined what Kira could tell to be some sort of festivity.
Meer gestured to Kira shyly with her hand out, "It's not what he said, I just want you to enjoy the last day with us."
Kira smiled at Meer's blush and took her up on her offer as she pulled him from his seat. Her hand felt warm and firm as it gripped his, rather coincidently he stumbled a bit and fell into Meer's embrace.
"For some reason I get this feeling you're doing it on purpose."
Kira shook his head nervously, especially because he wasn't quite sure what the answer to that question was.
After taking some trouble to set themselves straight up again, they managed to trud into a circular ring of dancers and a large campfire stationed in the center. For Kira, this was the first time he had seen something like that, he had heard about it from Cagalli before, but to think that there were still people who celebrated that way.
"Hey everybody! Meer made it!"
"...and look who she's with..." Meer tried to ignore that quiet comment, however, the stare from others and the whispers that aroused from further back only made her blush turn more crimson.
Kira felt that it was about time to say something to help the situation, "Ever-"
"SHUT UP!" Obviously, Meer had her own way of doing things...
Laughter bursted out from all around, Meer practically dropped Kira on the spot and started going over to other people in an attempt to make sure they would remain silent permanetly.
Kira felt his strength drain from him as he settled himself on the grounds of which he fell, and laughed really hard at the scene around him. The happiness of these simple people with simple joys had caught on to him, and he was glad that this was what peace looked like, even though he understood this already was momentary. He liked it, he liked peace.
Shizukana kono yoru ni anata wo matteru no
Ano toki wasureta hohoemi wo tori ni kite
Are kara sukoshi dake jikan ga sugite
Omoide ga yasashiku natta ne.
Kira eyes fell wide onto the stage as he witnessed Meer singing the song he had heard many times in that tiny cottage. In the moment of confusion, he almost believed for a second that Lacus was right there on the stage, but after a few seconds he could tell that the song was different.
"So how is it Kid? She sing good? I heard Meer learned that song a long time ago from someone, and it's the main reason she's going to move to PLANT after we leave."
"Really? It sounds...good."
The man emitted something halved between a hiccup and a giggle, then he drove himself back with his company and left Kira alone.
Hoshi no furu basho de
Anata ga waratte irukoto wo
Itsumo negatteta
Ima tookutemo
Mata aeru yo ne
The difference had become more vivid, when Lacus sang, there was always an immense sense of calm and peace that surrounded her audience. What Meer brought to the stage instead was life and joy, the truth was that it was hard to measure the two on an actual scale, but he realized that right now in that moment, he was really enjoying Meer's song.
Soon the singing ended and Meer prancefully hopped back to Kira's side, her face slightly flushed under the campfire.
The festivistes delved on for quite a good while longer, Meer helped Kira retire early as he began to doze off now and then. In an almost laughable fashion, the crowd watched as Meer struggled very deftly to lift Kira back to her house, naturally, they were enjoying the event in more ways than one.
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Dalien leaned against his barren room within the military compound, a third class officer and all he got was a metal shed with a rusting toilet, at least he wouldn't need to share with the rest of the people who carried god knows what diseases on them.
Despite the advancement of technology, NPWO was corrupt down to its core, Dalien never got over his fascination about how an organization led by the tops that they had could make it this big. People had one track minds, no one shared the same goal...although there was one common desire. All of the militants of NPWO had experienced war, they were all veterans, and having found themselves with nothing better to do in the peace time, they wanted more...bloodshed, death, killing without consequences, they were born from the battlefield.
The higher ups loved the idea, brainless soldiers who got on mass slaughtered instilled fear, as long as they could provide a good fight, the soldiers could keep stupid.
"Thinking deep again Dalien?"
"Why wouldn't you let me join the ground squad search?" Dalien ignored the figure of Murasume that still stuck to the back of his mind, he wanted that challenge, wraith had stolen it from him.
"Because I know you, and you're bound to do something rash, lusting after a fight like that isn't good for your health."
Dalien laughed maniacally as though it was Marco who was insane, "Why the hell are we all here then?"
Marco sighed, "Well, you got me there, I guess we're all kind of insane."
Marco headed out for the door, it was rather apparent that though insane, he hadn't quite fallen as far into the well, "By the way...have you taken a look at the suit?"
Dalien opened his eyes in interest, "The one that's almost done? What was it called...Gundam?"
"That's the technical name, the official name is Repulse."
"Is that even a word?"
"To re-persue, re-unite, re-lust, and well...something else or rather, the point is, some artistic mechanic named it. The test run is soon you know, maybe taking at look at the fastest suit in history will help take your mind off Yamato."
Dalien stood up and snorted, "I'll take a look, but I can guarantee you, I'll never see anything faster than Freedom."
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Morning had come by, the sun shone brightly onto Kira's face. The blinds were open and a small plate of food already lay on the table of the cabin. Meer was nowhere in sight, and now that Kira thought about it, he was sleeping on the only bed in the cabin, which would have left Meer to sleep...
Don't think too much into it...
Kira staggered up slowly and tested out his body, his muscles had managed to recover here and there, and although still strained he was now at least able to push himself to a soldier's abilities should it become necessary.
"You're awake?"
Kira sat down at the table and began eating as Meer came through the cabin door, carrying a good deal of luggage on her back, apparently she wasn't exaggerating when she said the village was leaving. Outside the window Kira could see it happening all around, some people had already begun to trudge away, waving goodbye to their neighbours.
"Are you leaving soon too?"
Meer shoved a last bit of clothing from the closet into her bag and nodded, "Yeah, and you? What do you plan on doing?"
"I still have business in Pallevillia."
"o..." Meer felt slightly dissapointed, she had always read it in romance novels, the beginning of beautiful love was supposed to start like this, apparently she didnt quite have the luck after all.
Kira finished his meal and was about to take the dish to the sink when he realized there wasn't one, he awkwardly looked towards Meer and held out the dish and accessories.
Meer bursted out laughing at the sight, "Haha! And here I was... Haha! Leave it there Kira, I can't fit anything else anyways."
Kira blushed as he dropped the plate and fork on the table, examining the cabin he had spent a close encounter to death in, he walked out with Meer.
"O? He leavin with you Meer? I can't say I saw that coming, you youngsters move right along after all."
"Mr.Tablos, Kira has things he's got to do here, he's not absent minded and carefree like you."
Tablos looked at Kira surprisingly, "Here? In Pallevillia, you do realize what state this country is in, besides you're still hurt."
Kira shook his head, "This is something I have to do, after all I came all the way here to do just this."
Tablos shook his head, "Gosh, youngsters." He kept walking, joining the larger pack of marchers.
Meer handed Kira a small duffle bag, "Some food, it'll last you only a few days, and I put a knife in there too. The village can't provide anything more in terms of a weapon."
"Sorry...and thank you."
Meer laughed as she began to dash off towards the rest of the villagers, walking south, they were close enough to the next country to make it there in a day or two.
Kira waved at her, and then on a sudden stroke of impulse, "You sing good Meer!"
Meer stopped in her tracks and twirled around, and for a moment Kira felt the same essence from her that he had felt from Lacus, Cagalli and all the women he had respected and loved in his life.
"I'm going to PLANT, and I'm going to become a singer! Maybe I'll see you again, and then you'll regret not coming with me!" Meer dashed off laughing again, this time not looking back. Kira wasn't sure how, but he believed that Meer had cried a bit as she said those words.
Kira moved back under one of the cabins and examined the map that Meer had given him, with a red circle marking where the NWPO military base was, it was surprisingly close, he could trek there easy before he ran out of provisions.
He raised himself up and looked towards the northern trail from the village, it would lead him into a small set of woods that he could pass through undetected, and then would come the tough part. He would have to sneak into the base somehow, if he made it that far, he would be able to secure a mobile weapon and gain some information while he was at it, then he could narrow down this whole affair and his target. Only now did he realize how vague his objective had been when he started.
Stuffing everything but the knife back into the duffle he slung it over his shoulder and placed the knife on a small strap at his side. Athrun would've been better suited to this kinda weapon, Kira had never been formally trained with the knives, but he was the ultimate coordinator, it was all good.
Shizukana kono yoru ni anata wo matteru no
Ano toki wasureta hohoemi wo tori ni kite
...
Kira spun around, it wasn't Meer, she shouldn've been too far by now for him to hear.
"Lacus..."
Kira sighed, the thought was odd, but he missed her, the silent happiness that he found hard to appreciate but he had truly enjoyed.
He began trailing off north, humming her song.
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LN: So there it is, I never thought I was actually gonna do another chapter, surprisingly what having nothing to do a few days before exam can do to your mentality.
Chibi-Cagalli: Ummmm...study?
LN: O yes, here's Athrun's replacement, and no, lets not study, cause face it, if I did, you wouldn't be existing right now.
Chibi-Cagalli: I cound start going into space-time theory and explain how it doesn't actually matter.
LN: Ok...Well...so thats no Athrun and no Cagalli, lets see how long the next side host lasts.