In a daze, Stellar felt as though she could hear the chirping of birds. The white noise of various instruments hummed around her, punctuated by the occasional sound of people walking.
She could feel it—the previous sensation of utter powerlessness and the agony that had tortured her were gone. She had never felt so light.
Stellar instinctively opened her eyes, but her prosthetic eyes had not yet focused, leaving her vision a complete blur. What truly terrified her, however, was that while her body felt fine, she could not control her limbs at all. It was as if she had become a vegetable, with only her blurry eyes capable of movement.
"You're awake?"
Noticing Stellar had opened her eyes, Roz casually adjusted the angle of the hospital bed, propping up her upper body. He plugged a data cable into the interface behind her right ear, syncing it with the tablet in his hand.
"Wait a moment. I'm adjusting the data for this body."
Just a few seconds passed before her blurry vision snapped into focus like a camera lens. Stellar could now see everything in the room.
She was wearing a white dress. Several thick data cables were connected to her body, and a massive amount of data flowed across the surrounding monitors.
Roz, still in his usual jeans and flight jacket, stood to the left of the bed, skillfully operating the tablet. The wrench in his jacket pocket peeked out, showing the bit used for tightening screws.
On the right side of the bed, Mayu and Flay were watching her with worried expressions. Mayu reached out and took Stellar's right hand. After a brief silence, she spoke.
"Stellar... Sister-in-law, do you remember what I told you before?"
"What did my idiot brother do back in middle school?"
Upon hearing Mayu's question, Stellar's chaotic mind seemed to clear, and memories of Shinn began to surface bit by bit.
"Shinn... Shinn in middle school..."
Her throat, which should have produced a voice as clear as a lark's, instead sounded like unlubricated machinery. Using an inorganic, mechanical tone, she slowly and tremulously voiced her thoughts.
"Shinn... during the 'Truth or Dare' event at the middle school gala, Shinn dressed up in girls' clothes and eventually walked all the way home like that."
Finally, as Stellar's original voice returned, she uttered those rather explosive words.
Hearing this, Mayu's expression shifted from worry to a relaxed smile.
"That's right. He was even wearing breast pads and a wig on the way home."
Upon hearing this, Roz looked at Mayu with a confused expression.
Wait, you're bad-mouthing your brother like this in front of his sweetheart? Aren't you afraid he'll come back and give you a beating?!
Roz instinctively recalled the young man who had bowed so formally and offered up his savings—the one known as the "King of Part-timers." If that kid wore a wig, would he actually pull it off?
He shook his head, clearing those chaotic thoughts from his mind, and refocused on the data adjustment.
It had to be said that Stellar's condition was significantly better than Christina's or Marvin's had been. At the very least, her brain hadn't been on the brink of madness when the surgery occurred, and her compatibility with the prosthetics was very high.
However, Roz hadn't tested exactly how many military-grade components it would take before the performance pressure of the cybernetics caused Stellar to develop Cyberpsychosis. Regarding that, he had no intention of conducting such experiments anyway.
After all, Christina—who was outfitted with full military-spec cybernetics—constantly fluctuated between "Normal" and "Cyberpsychotic."
The world really needed as few cases of Cyberpsychosis as possible.
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"Miss Stellar's condition is excellent... or rather, compared to others I've seen undergo this surgery, it's as if there are no side effects at all."
Watching Stellar gradually adapt to her new body under Mayu's support, Roz fell into a thoughtful silence.
If the data was correct, Stellar's brain activity was even stronger than Christina's... Was this a blessing in disguise, a byproduct of the Earth Alliance's drug enhancement?
According to Roz's own estimates, Stellar could direct-link to a high-performance MS for combat with absolutely no issues.
Broadly speaking, Stellar had gained a body that allowed her to live properly in this world, and Orb had gained surgical experience and partial data. He could only hope that this medical technology would be used for the right reasons in the future...
"In short, as long as you take your medication regularly for life and avoid installing high-performance combat cybernetics as much as possible, you'll be fine."
Roz sighed, explaining the situation to Stellar and Mayu. "In other words: you should avoid combat at all costs."
"Avoid... combat?"
As if she had heard something incomprehensible, Stellar's eyes widened.
"No... no... I have to keep fighting."
"Whoa, Sister-in-law, you're really strong!"
As Stellar's hand suddenly tightened around Mayu's right arm, Mayu's vision flashed with a warning: 'Right arm under pressure.'
"I want to... I must... return to Shinn's side..."
Stellar murmured. It was clear that while she had a new body, her psychological issues were far from resolved.
Looking at Stellar's current state, Roz felt a bit puzzled.
"Speaking of which, where is your brother?"
Roz suddenly remembered to ask Mayu. "Why haven't I seen him? Normally, he should be here with you two."
"Big brother went to find work..."
Mayu soothed the agitated Stellar, her expression a mix of helplessness. "He said the part-time pay in Orb wasn't enough, so he ran off to join ZAFT."
Hearing this, Roz froze, his expression turning serious.
"To be honest, Sister-in-law Stellar was actually an Earth Alliance Extended that my brother took prisoner..."
Mayu continued, relentlessly complaining about Shinn's unreliable plans. "It's a good thing he's an MS pilot; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to hand Stellar over to me back at the Mendel colony to bring her here..."
ZAFT, an MS pilot, the Mendel colony...
Roz suddenly realized exactly whose familiar brainwaves he had sensed inside that Impulse Gundam.
"Look, this is the machine my brother pilots!"
As she spoke, Mayu pulled a communicator from her pocket, showing a low-angle photo of the Impulse Gundam.
Roz remained silent.
How was he supposed to say this? 'Your brother, Stellar's sweetheart, had his machine torn apart by me in the Unicorn, and only barely escaped in the Core Splendor?'
Or perhaps: 'I almost killed your brother when he was evacuating from Earth?'
Fate truly had a vulgar sense of humor.
....................