When Reid said he was taking Mayu to see Stella, it was purely out of curiosity to see how a smart kid like Mayu would react to a simple-minded prospective sister-in-law like Stella.
But when Mayu heard Stella's name, she showed obvious disgust and immediately retorted.
"Mr. Reid, please don't play matchmaker. You just said that girl is an Enhanced Person with physical defects. She won't live for more than a few years, so how can she be my sister-in-law?"
Reid looked at the disdain on Mayu's face. Through his Newtype Sense, he knew her feelings were akin to a worried mother who couldn't bear to see her son with another woman, rather than a brother complex. Suppressing a laugh, he said, "Oh, that? I was just tricking Shinn.
"It's true that the girl named Stella is an Enhanced Person, and it's also true that her body is severely damaged and requires medication to survive.
"But both of these problems can be solved. The nation's achievements in biological research are far greater than you imagine."
Yes, Stella's physical problems could indeed be solved. Nanai Miguel, after all, came from Neo Zeon's Newtype Research Institute.
The Universal Century's technology regarding Enhanced Persons was quite advanced. Although their mental states were unstable, their bodies generally didn't have major issues.
And Neo Zeon's Newtype Research Institute possessed the Federation's Enhanced Person technology. One must remember that Cunny Cass was the perfect Enhanced Person cultivated by Nanai Miguel; she had completely solved the previous issue of extreme mental instability in Enhanced Persons. Cunny Cass's only mental problem was his tendency to get hung up on trivial matters.
Moreover, Reid had the complete Super-Soldier Technology. If all else failed, he could just convert Stella into a Super-Soldier. The Nanomachines implanted in a Super-Soldier's body could effectively solve a CE Enhanced Person's dependence on drugs.
Without the long-term corrosion of medication, Stella was still young. With the help of a Medical Pod and a few years of good food and care, her body should be able to recover to normal.
At worst, Reid still had the option of recruiting Stella and applying an Enhanced person skill to her. That way, Stella's physical problems could be solved directly through a system cheat.
And as it happened, killing Auel Neider in this operation had dropped an Enhanced person skill for Reid.
The moment Mayu heard that Stella's Enhanced Person problems could be solved, her expression softened slightly.
After all, if Stella were truly beyond saving, and Shinn still insisted on marrying her even if it meant she would die, Mayu would find it a huge headache.
So, Mayu agreed to go with Reid to see just how devastatingly beautiful this Stella was, and what right she had to bewitch her brother into his current obsessed state after just one meeting.
However, Mayu's meeting with Stella was completely different from what Reid had imagined.
When Reid and Mayu reached the infirmary and had just opened the door, they heard the roars of a young woman from inside, "Ah! Aaaah!"
Walking closer, they saw Stella tightly bound to the bed with restraints. But she was not still at all; while shouting, her body was twisting and struggling frantically, with enough force to make the bed creak.
Seeing Reid enter, the nurses and doctor in the infirmary looked embarrassed. The doctor said, "Director, this girl has been making a scene ever since she woke up. No amount of persuasion works. In the end, we could only give her a tranquilizer to calm her down. But she seems to have a strong resistance to tranquilizers, so the effect is getting worse.
"We were just about to put her in a Medical Pod to sleep for a while. It just so happens her body also needs the Medical Pod for recuperation."
Reid looked at the troubled nurses and doctors. He knew that putting Stella into a dormant state in the Medical Pod was their last resort. He gestured for them to leave first, then walked up to Stella to see what was going on with her.
However, to Reid's surprise, Stella suddenly stopped struggling when she saw him, her face showing confusion.
A few seconds later, she burst into tears with a wail and shouted, "Waaah—, Neo, I just dreamed that you died. It was so scary, so scary.
"Also, being tied up like this is so uncomfortable. Did Stella do something wrong again? Neo, please let me go. Stella will be good, she'll be obedient."
Hearing this, Reid's face twitched. Stella had clearly mistaken him for his clone, Neo Roanoke.
But normally, Stella shouldn't have seen that clone's face. The Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation would surely know that the clone's identity had to be kept secret; they would never have allowed him to take off his mask in front of others.
How on earth did Stella identify people? Logically, his own scent should be completely different from his clone's.
Curious, Reid asked, "Stella, how did you recognize me? I don't think I've ever shown you my face."
Hearing this, Stella once again showed a puzzled expression, then said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Neo is Neo. Stella can feel it. I don't need to see your face."
Reid heard this and thought carefully. He roughly guessed how Stella had mistaken him for someone else.
Someone who could become a cosmic ghost wouldn't have poor spiritual potential. So, Stella probably recognized people by their spiritual waves, though she herself didn't know it, merely treating it as a kind of intuition or instinct.
While there was a huge gap in spiritual strength between Reid and Neo Roanoke, their frequencies were more or less the same, if not identical. After all, they were beings whose minds could connect just by being near each other. It wasn't strange at all that Stella would make a mistake.
At this moment, seeing Reid's grim face and silence, Stella said pitifully in a small voice, "Neo, Stella knows she was wrong. Please let me go. Sob, I promise I'll listen to you and not run around anymore."
Honestly, Stella's expression, like that of an abandoned kitten, was truly enough to make one's heart soften involuntarily. Even Mayu, who had been extremely dissatisfied with Stella before, now understood a little why her brother couldn't let this girl go.
Through his Newtype Sense, Reid could tell that Stella was genuinely afraid right now—afraid that "Neo" would abandon her. So, Reid's heart softened as well.
He began to untie Stella's restraints, saying as he did, "Once I untie you, no more shouting and no attacking anyone. If you violate either of those, I'll have to tie you up again."
Stella immediately nodded frantically and said, "Mhm, mhm, Stella will be good. I definitely won't shout, and I won't attack anyone."
Reid sighed inwardly. He never thought he'd one day have to impersonate his own clone. What kind of situation was this...
However, the moment Reid untied her restraints, Stella threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly as she said, "Neo, I'm so glad you're not dead. That dream was so scary."
Reid thought to himself that he couldn't very well say the dream was real and that he wasn't the Neo she knew.
He felt that if he said that, Stella would break down on the spot.
So, Reid could only pat Stella's back to soothe her, then change the subject. "Stella, you've been lying down for over ten hours. Do you need to use the restroom? We're on a new ship, and you don't know your way around. The girl next to me is Shinn's sister, her name is Mayu Asuka. Let her show you the way."
It was clear that Stella still remembered last night's events. It was possible that because they needed to ask her about Shinn, or perhaps because Neo Roanoke had his own selfish reasons, the frequency of her memory wipes had been reduced, so her memory hadn't been erased.
After all, the current Neo Roanoke was not the brainwashed Mu from the original story. Judging from the emotions he had conveyed to Reid at the end, he truly saw Stella, Sting, and Auel—three Enhanced Persons who shared his plight—as his children.
This was unlike the brainwashed Mu from the original plot, who might have had some feelings for Stella, Sting, and Auel, but in principle, still treated them as tools.
So, after hearing Shinn's name, Stella looked at Mayu and said in a daze, "Shinn's sister? Mayu Asuka... Stella will remember. But is Shinn here too? Why didn't he come to see Stella?"
Reid cursed himself for running his mouth and mentioning Shinn. As punishment for Shinn, he definitely wouldn't let the two of them meet for a while.
So, right in front of Mayu, Reid had to spin a tale. "Shinn has another mission. He went to carry it out. You go to the restroom with Mayu first. Also, I've changed my name. From now on, call me Reid. Don't get it wrong."
Hearing this, Stella nodded. She could correctly understand the word "mission," so she knew Shinn wasn't on this ship.
As for Reid saying Mayu was Shinn's sister, Stella believed Neo would never lie to her. And as for Neo changing his name, Stella didn't find it strange, because she didn't rely entirely on names to recognize people.
However, as Stella was walking away with Mayu, she suddenly thought of something and asked, "What about Sting and Auel? Did they go on a mission too?"
Reid thought that if it were Shinn, the two could still meet.
Sting and Auel... there was a chance to see the former again, but Reid felt that the kid's cleverness was a disadvantage now. He would most likely only hate him for killing Neo Roanoke. If possible, it was best not to let him and Stella meet again.
As for Auel, his body had long been dragged out of the Abyss Gundam's wreckage and cremated. Reid hadn't asked how the ashes were handled; they had probably been discarded somewhere.
So, Reid could only bluff again. "Sting and Auel were transferred to another unit. You probably won't see them again. You were supposed to be transferred too, Stella, but I found a way to keep you here."
When Stella heard she was going to be sent to another unit, she immediately protested, shouting, "No! Stella doesn't want to leave Neo—no, I don't want to leave Reid!"
Seeing Stella getting agitated again, Reid forced a smile and said, "I know, I know. Go to the restroom now. You'll need an injection when you get back. You don't have any combat missions for a while, so you need to rest in the infirmary for a few days."
Hearing that Reid wasn't sending her away, Stella immediately cast the matter of Sting and Auel to the back of her mind and obediently went to the restroom with Mayu.
Once Stella was out of sight, Reid's face was a picture of exasperation.
What was this? Did he just pick up a stray kitten? But this was a living person, and if she kept throwing herself into his arms like a child, people would get the wrong idea.
And the fact that he was deceiving a young girl by impersonating his own clone was just too damn ridiculous.
But it was obvious that as long as Stella saw him as that Neo Roanoke, she was controllable.
If he didn't do this, Reid would probably have to brainwash Stella to stop her from randomly attacking people around her.
So, in a sense, he really had to take over for his clone and raise Stella as a daughter.
However, Reid wasn't opposed to this. He was already raising quite a few people as daughters anyway. Herding one sheep was the same as tending a flock; adding one more Stella wouldn't hurt.
And at least Stella truly had the disposition of a child, and she was very clingy.
Unlike Nein, Liuli, and Vivian, who were all like leaky cotton jackets in their rebellious phase.
Of those three, the first two would badmouth him behind his back, while the last one had given Reid a taste, more than a decade early, of being called to school by a teacher for a lecture, and she even clamored about graduating early despite her poor grades. (When Elsa was busy, Reid, as her nominal guardian, had to go, albeit in disguise and with a different name.)
Compared to those three, the obedient Stella might just be the best-behaved of them all.
Soon, Stella returned and, as expected, was very obedient, letting the doctor examine her and give her an injection.
Although he didn't get to see the drama between Mayu and Stella and instead became the main attraction in a play where he impersonated his own clone, Stella's problem was, for now, temporarily resolved.
Moreover, after meeting Stella, Mayu was clearly less hostile towards her future sister-in-law, because Stella was truly pure, her mind truly like that of a child.
Although Stella had a great deal of blood on her hands, her ignorance and mental immaturity meant that she could do anything without ulterior motives, making her seem exceptionally "pure."
The only problem was that since she wasn't allowed to run around the ship and no longer had her two playmates, Sting and Auel, she would come looking for Reid whenever she was free. Then, she would follow him around like a puppy. Even if she did nothing, just sitting there humming an unknown song while watching Reid work was enough for her.
To be honest, if they were in Star Palace City, Reid could find a bunch of people to play with Stella. But this was a warship, and everyone had work to do. No one could spare a large amount of time to play with a little girl, especially one who was so shy around strangers.
As it stood, only Mayu could take Stella around. If anyone else so much as spoke to her, she would flinch reflexively like a timid little animal.
So, Reid could only keep Stella with him and make specific arrangements for her after they returned to the New Misurugi Kingdom.
Reid had a plan. Once Stella was back in Star Palace City, he would arrange a dance teacher for her. She loved dancing so much, she should be able to immerse herself in it.
For her daily routine, he would still have Stella report to Nanai Miguel. Her body needed to be healed, and she could serve as a case study for the physical restoration of an Enhanced Person.
However, to prevent Stella from going berserk due to various issues later on, and to mitigate the risk that her body might be irreparable, Reid went ahead and recruited her while impersonating his clone, which served as an insurance policy.
(End of Chapter)