Simultaneous Time Travel: Gundam? All Teammates are Old Six

Chapter 44: Barbed Wire and Barbecue Grill, A Silly Variation of Fate

The nights in Orb are peaceful and pleasant.

Inside the temporary room assigned to him on the Archangel, Ling Yu was facing a virtual screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard. On the screen was a PowerPoint presentation titled "Genesis ver_0.1".

However, this PPT does not contain blueprints for the mechs or weapon parameters.

There were only densely packed postwar economic models, flowcharts of military industry mergers and acquisitions, and crazy ideas about how to use intelligence advantages to build a completely new financial order on the ruins.

Frey Alsta sat opposite him, her eyes shining.

"You mean... after the war, using the intelligence we've gathered in advance, we'll buy up the stocks of those military-industrial giants that are bound to collapse at rock-bottom prices, and then, through capital operations, reorganize them into our own industry?"

"Not only that." Ling Yu snapped his fingers, zooming in on a slide. "We also want to establish our own 'shadow bank,' specifically to provide funds for those 'losers' who lost everything in the war but possess technology to rebuild their lives. What we want to control is not factories, but technology, talent, and future standards."

Frey's breathing quickened slightly.

This plan is far more ambitious, fascinating, and challenging than simply seeking revenge against ZAFT.

It turned hatred into a kind of "capital" that could be managed and profited from.

"This plan... is simply the devil's blueprint," Frey murmured.

"No, this is called 'venture capital'." Ling Yu smiled like a bewitching angel. "And you, Frey, will be the first CEO of this future conglomerate. Believe me, it's much more elegant to crush your enemies with money than to bombard them with cannons."

Just then, Ling Yu caught a glimpse of Kira out of the corner of his eye as he walked out of the room, looking lost and dejected, heading towards a certain direction of the port.

"Tsk, young people are so sentimental."

Ling Yu closed the PPT, stood up, and picked up a silver briefcase that was clearly newly bought from the corner of the wall.

"Let's go, Miss CEO. I'll show you what true 'dimensional reduction attack' really means."

[Ob Neutral Zone Boundary]

The cold barbed wire fence, like an insurmountable chasm, separates two worlds.

Aslan Sara stood on one side of the barbed wire fence, his heart gripped by a mixture of longing, anger, and sorrow.

he came.

He came to see the man who should have been his best friend, but who was now the most terrifying enemy on the battlefield.

When he saw that familiar figure, the brown-haired boy, appear on the other side of the barbed wire, Aslan felt as if his throat was blocked.

Kira...

"Why...it's you..." Aslan's voice was dry and trembling.

"Athrun..." Kira's face was also pale, his eyes filled with painful struggle.

The atmosphere was heavy and oppressive.

A fateful standoff is about to erupt. Countless questions and endless grief are about to burst forth on this land torn apart by barbed wire.

However, at this very moment...

An incredibly strong fragrance, completely out of place with the somber atmosphere, drifted over without warning.

It was a flavor that blended premium Wagyu beef fat, a secret sauce, and the aroma of charcoal.

zizi——

As the oil dripped onto the charcoal fire with a soft sizzling sound, the aroma became even more overpowering, like an invisible hand roughly drilling into their nostrils, interrupting all the emotions they had been building up.

Aslan was stunned.

He looked towards the source of the fragrance.

Not far away on the grass, a black-haired youth wearing a pair of flashy sunglasses and a comical white chef's hat was standing in front of a high-end-looking fully automatic barbecue grill, skillfully flipping a skewer of sizzling beef.

The person was holding a pair of clips in one hand and even a glass of iced cola in the other.

It was Ling Yu, the guy with the abnormal brain circuits on the Archangel.

"Yo."

Ling Yu noticed Aslan's gaze, raised the meat skewer in his hand, waved it in their direction, and revealed a standard eight-tooth smile.

"Hey, you in the red shirt, since you're already here, why don't you grab something to eat before you go?"

Aslan's brain crashed.

He had imagined countless scenarios for their reunion.

They might be facing each other with swords drawn on the battlefield, confronting each other across the ruins, or roaring at each other through tears.

But he swore he never imagined that while he and Kira were having their fateful showdown of faith and friendship, someone would be having a barbecue party nearby.

What exactly is this person made of?

"What...what are you doing?" Aslan felt like his tongue was tied in knots.

"Barbecue, can't you tell?" Ling Yu said matter-of-factly, tapping the grill with his tongs. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bribe you. It's just that I bought too much meat. Look, A5 grade Kobe beef tenderloin, it was on sale at the supermarket today, and I couldn't resist. Kira can't finish it all by himself, wasting food is shameful, right?"

Kira stood to the side, his face flushed red, wanting to say something, but completely at a loss for words.

The sorrow he had carefully cultivated—the grief of turning against his closest friend, the despair of being toyed with by fate…

Now, all of that has been dispelled by the smell of barbecue.

He just wants to crawl into a hole and disappear.

In the distance, Diakha and Yzak, who were on guard duty, were observing the area through binoculars.

"What is the captain doing? Is he talking to the enemy?" Diaká asked, his face full of questions.

"Shut up!" Yitzhak snatched the binoculars, his brow furrowed so deeply it could trap a fly. "That black-haired guy... I think I vaguely remember him. Isn't he that lunatic who kicked people in the Gene in Malacca? He's... eating? Are they having a barbecue party?!"

Ling Yu ignored the commotion over there and even enthusiastically handed over a skewer of grilled chicken wings.

"Come on, try some, it's New Orleans style. I know you Coordinators are particular, don't worry, it's not poisoned. Look at me, I'm enjoying it just fine, aren't I?"

As he spoke, he took a big bite himself and let out a satisfied sigh.

Aslan looked at him, then at Kira's helpless expression, and then at the overwhelmingly domineering aroma of meat in the air. He felt as if his worldview was being subjected to a dimensional reduction attack by an unprecedented force.

Dignity, mission, war, peace...

All grand vocabulary seems so pale and ridiculous in front of this sizzling, oily grilled meat noodle.

He could no longer maintain that grief and indignation.

"I...I won't eat it!"

Aslan practically roared those words, then, as if fleeing, turned and left without looking back amidst the utter chaos.

"Ugh."

Ling Yu watched his hasty departure, shook his head regretfully, and complained to Kira beside him.

"This generation of young people has absolutely no manners; they won't even accept things from their elders. I really don't know how their parents raised them."

Kira was about to retort, "You don't look much older than us," when the highest level emergency alarm suddenly sounded on Ling Yu's personal terminal in his pocket.

A sharp buzzing sound shattered the tranquility of the night.

On the screen, Maru Ramias's solemn face popped up.

"Ling Yu! ZAFT... ZAFT has launched a full-scale attack on Orb!"

The smile on Ling Yu's face vanished instantly.

He dropped the kebab in his hand, and his eyes behind his sunglasses turned cold and sharp.

"……Why."

"Not even a peaceful meal is allowed."