"SEED Mode"—that very term originated from Gundam SEED.
In a world where Gundam SEED didn't exist, even the concept of "SEED Mode" itself was unknown.
Time was running out, but right now, Kira had entered SEED Mode.
The GINN's movements became predictable.
The surrounding space felt as though it was entirely within her grasp.
"Kira, scanning of the surrounding area is complete."
Inori transmitted the structural map of the area to Kira.
"Mm. Then—let's end this."
Kira charged.
The GINN came at her in return.
Nine seconds.
Both sides engaged.
Kira deftly evaded the GINN's slash and countered with a thrust of the Beam Saber.
Eight seconds.
The GINN dodged the Beam Saber and rushed forward, clamping its arms around the Gundam frame and slamming it into the wall. The frame crashed through two walls before finally coming to a stop.
Five seconds.
The Gundam frame raised its leg and delivered a side kick that sent the GINN flying—but the leg itself fell apart from the structural instability and the force of the impact.
Four seconds.
The GINN adjusted mid-air, but behind it was the large elevator shaft. It nearly fell in.
Three seconds.
The one-legged Gundam frame forced a sprinting leap. The remaining leg was destroyed by the unrestrained jump.
But at that moment, the Beam Saber came along for the ride, thrusting toward the GINN with the Gundam frame's full momentum.
Two seconds.
The GINN tried to shift position, but Kira had already closed in. One strike severed the GINN's arm, and then she rammed it shoulder-first.
One second.
The elevator at the bottom of the shaft activated, rocketing upward. Half of the GINN's body was already pressed against the shaft opening.
Zero.
"BOOM!"
Crushed by the elevator shaft, the GINN's upper body was wedged in place. Then the cockpit and the entire lower section were sheared clean off by the Gundam frame.
The Gundam frame's power died.
The severed upper half of the GINN was carried by the elevator straight to the surface.
"BOOM!"
Once raised to the exterior, the GINN's already-damaged power supply finally short-circuited and detonated.
"Hah... hah..."
Kira was gasping for breath.
"Kira."
Inori removed her VR visor.
"It's... it's over..." Kira let out a sigh of relief.
"Mm. It's over." Inori gently embraced Kira.
What came next, naturally, was escape.
Meanwhile, Fyu-Neru the rice-cooker bot began scrubbing any personal information Kira might have left behind—out of the audience's sight. No personal data could remain.
Episode 0 had been produced on commission from the Client, so Inori had relatively broad authority here.
But once the main series began, Inori's authority would revert to normal.
On any set, the director's word was law.
Although Inori wanted to trigger some butterfly effects, as far as the set was concerned, her star power simply wasn't enough yet.
Think of it like an actual film set—a C-list actress telling the director "this doesn't work, the script needs to change."
If the director even acknowledged that actress, he'd already lost.
Oh wait, the director could also just fire her outright.
Of course, if it were the lead actress, that'd be a different story. And if it were a lead actress who'd bought her way in? She could kick the director out and direct the thing herself.
A game character's power level was all virtual—but a whale's bank account? That was the real deal.
On the SEED set, Inori still needed to maintain the opening status quo. But once the butterfly effects started cascading and a C-list actress clawed her way up to lead role status—well, then the plot could go anywhere.
Even Qiye from A Chinese Ghost Story pulled off a comeback and became the male lead.
Hyuga Hanabi had spent over a decade scheming in the Naruto-verse before she could change that much. Here and now, Inori had only just arrived. She couldn't go deep yet.
Low heat. Slow simmer. Take it step by step.
[Hooray!]
[The Gundam is so weak though]
[Dude, that's a skeleton without the bolts tightened—the fact it moved at all is impressive]
[The sheer weight of that achievement speaks for itself]
[Take my Ball-beats-Zaku!]
[Impossible! There's absolutely no way GBN can produce this kind of result—this is fraud!]
[Speaking of which, I have a friend who wants to know: is GBN considering releasing an Inori-model joystick?]
[I also have a friend asking. His requirements aren't high—no hands needed, full-body direct-contact type is fine too]
[Can GBN make a replica or what]
[Anyway, I'm now a believer that Inori really is an AI]
[Inori is a woman who could have been a mother to me]
[Char, wake up! Inori's expired!]
[Doesn't matter. Amuro also went for it]
The audience devolved into full shitposting by the end.
Although the battle was over, the broadcast wasn't done yet.
The view shifted once more to the underground level.
"BANG—BANG—BANG!"
The warped door was kicked open.
"Dammit, why did the automatic doors lock?!"
The engineers poured into the underground factory.
Of course, they hadn't actually gone to the evacuation shelters like Inori had told them. They'd simply been lured away by Inori's false alert and then locked out.
When they saw the devastation of the underground space, every last one of them stood there in stunned silence.
"What on earth... happened here?"
The view cut again, this time to the exterior of Heliopolis.
"What on earth happened?"
The ZAFT captain was equally dumbfounded.
From his perspective, the GINN appeared to have fallen into Heliopolis's structural layer. In less than three minutes, it had been ejected from an elevator shaft on the other side—with only half its body remaining—and exploded, destroying everything in the vicinity.
Heliopolis's leadership was also dumbstruck. They were the most nervous of all, because directly below that area was the secret "G" development site.
When they saw the GINN rising to the surface, they too breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Heliopolis was keeping things under wraps. And ZAFT, naturally, couldn't reveal any intelligence related to the "BLACK MONOLITH" either.
The whole affair came to its conclusion in a haze of confusion and bewilderment on all sides.
By this point, Episode 0 had been running for nearly thirty minutes, so there was no OP or ED.
But then the camera cut one more time.
A girl with pink hair, freshly bathed, was toweling off her hair as she walked to her room.
"Haro! Haro! Haro!"
At the girl's feet, a swarm of Haro robots bounced around, chirping happily.
[Huh?]
[Whoa, they actually have Haros]
[Wait, so the rice-cooker from earlier really wasn't a Haro?]
[Nice, this is what I've been waiting for]
[I'm different though—I don't care about the Haro. I want to see the girl's face]
[Here we go again. Not showing the face again, huh]
[Don't tell me the ones from before really weren't the female lead, and this one is?]
[Please don't pull a Witch from Mercury!]
[I'm begging you, let Inori be the female lead in the main series!]
[Onegai—if there's no Inori, watashi...]
[Please, the person above will do anything]
[I'm dead]
The danmaku was a chaotic mess.
The pink-haired girl had already settled at her desk. She casually turned on the media player beside her.
Music began playing softly.
"Hm?"
The girl turned her head and looked at the MV.
The music... was beautiful.
(And there's Kira)
(Not sure who this is—saved it anyway)
(It's Inori!)