Chapter 290: Aftermath of the Battle 2
Seeing Miriallia so lost and broken, Tolle felt a stabbing pain in his chest, so tight and suffocating it was hard to breathe.
He wanted to harden his heart and ignore all of this, but it was impossible to pretend he didn't see it.
Tolle immediately had Nami use the dolphin necklace he had given Miriallia earlier to contact her.
The ruby on the dolphin pendant lit up, projecting a small hologram of Tolle. "Miriallia, don't be sad. I'm fine. My unit was destroyed, so I can't return to the Archangel for now."
Miriallia dropped to her knees, holding the necklace as tears of joy streamed down her face. "That's wonderful, Tolle, you're really okay! I'll notify the captain—they'll come pick you up right away!"
Tolle shook his head. "Miriallia, I can't go back right now—and ZAFT's reinforcements are already on the way. If they return for me, the Archangel will be shot down, and you'll be in danger too.
Please keep this a secret. Don't tell anyone. My situation is… a bit special right now.
And this necklace would be impossible to explain. If those Earth Alliance bastards find out, they'll take it away for sure.
So you must keep this secret—and never hand over the necklace. It will protect you when it matters most.
Don't worry. I'll come back for you as soon as I can. When you're in your greatest danger, I'll descend from the sky and become your knight."
Hearing his words, Miriallia's face bloomed with happiness. "Mm… Tolle, I'll wait for you—wait for my knight to return."
"Mm… I can't talk much longer. I'm almost out of range—the signal will cut out any moment. Last thing—I love you, Miriallia. Wait for—"
Tolle ended the call right there. On the other end, Miriallia stared at the vanished projection, bursting into tears again as she cried:
"Tolle, I love you too. I'll wait for you. And I'll keep this secret for you—I won't let anyone take my necklace."
Watching the scene, Tolle felt sad again. Not as painfully as before, but still painful enough.
He hadn't expected himself to grow attached. He'd thought this was all just a game… a magical adventure.
But he had fallen into it deeply—trapped, unable to pull himself out.
Tolle slapped his cheeks hard to clear his thoughts, then pulled out his special communicator and contacted Mina. "Mina, everything went smoothly. Just send someone to pick me up alone. I'll send you the coordinates."
Hearing that Tolle was safe—after she had just received the Archangel's rescue signal with wildly inaccurate coordinates—Mina was overjoyed. "Good. As long as you're safe. I'm coming immediately. Make sure you protect yourself."
"Mm. You be careful too. I'll wait for you."
After ending the call, Mina didn't wait for Orb's rescue team. She immediately departed alone with Yulia in her private jet.
Near midnight, she arrived at the location and, upon seeing Tolle, threw herself into his arms and kissed him passionately.
After a long moment, they finally separated. Then she noticed Nicol standing nearby and asked, "Tolle, and this is…?"
Tolle's face flushed red. He had completely forgotten about Nicol's presence until Mina reminded him. "Ah—this is the Blitz Gundam pilot, Nicol."
"Oh… so this is the pilot who was supposed to… you know… on the same day as you. The Blitz pilot."
Nicol immediately understood. This tall, long-haired woman clearly shared the same… special circumstances as he did.
But Mina's gaze dropped to the compression-space bracelet on Nicol's wrist—then to Nicol's face—and she suddenly narrowed her eyes with a hint of jealousy, whispering in Tolle's ear:
"Don't tell me you… even go after men too…?"
Tolle instantly realized what she was thinking and cut her off sharply. "Mina, what are you imagining?
My preferences are completely normal. He's a like-minded ally, nothing more.
And it's not like only women can be allies.
I forgot to tell you—I want these storage-space bracelets to be the standard gear for our comrades. That way we're easy to recognize."
Mina immediately understood her mistake. After glancing at Tolle again, she apologized to Nicol. "Ahahaha—sorry, that was my fault. Really, sorry about that."
Nicol answered awkwardly, "It's fine… really, don't worry about it."
Mina turned back to Tolle. "So what now? Do you have a plan?"
"I want to head into space first. I need to get Nicol back to the PLANTs—he has to protect someone important. And I also need to investigate a few things."
Mina thought for a moment. "He's going to protect Lacus, right? And you're going to look into the Library Guild's whereabouts?"
Nicol stiffened in surprise when he heard that. But after a moment, he relaxed. She probably had memories of the future as well.
Tolle nodded. "Mm. You're exactly right."
"Then I'll take you both to space. Let's go to Ame-no-Mihashira first, and after that, head to the PLANTs."
Tolle considered it. He had planned to take Nicol up to space himself, but since she mentioned the orbital elevator…
Maybe he could visit it first and see what the protagonist of Stargazer, Selene McGriff, looked like. Not a bad idea.
The timing might not be perfect yet, though. He didn't know whether Mina had already had her sent up the tower.
But since Mina had seen the Stargazer storyline in the memories he gave her, she would likely take it seriously.
Tolle nodded in agreement. "Alright, that works. Let's do that."
Hearing Tolle agree to go with her to Ame-no-Mihashira, Mina shot a quick glance at Yulia, giving her a meaningful look.
Yulia immediately understood. "Tolle, Mina—it's late. We should head back. Otherwise we'll have trouble explaining things."
Tolle nodded. "Mm. Let's go."
Yulia then turned to Nicol. "Um, Nicol, can you fly a plane? Mina and I haven't slept in ages. Could you take the controls for a while?
Don't worry, there's auto-navigation. Just follow the route. We only need two or three hours of sleep—then we'll come take over."