6. Leaning Against the Red Uniform

The third trip to the junkyard was a disappointment. The owner was out, and inside the second floor room the desk was the only sign of his father and his work. When you had no idea how long you’d be waiting, there was nothing else to do but leave. 

Amuro felt a slow urge to go to the lakeside, which had stayed on his mind ever since that meeting. However, that passing girl’s words seemed so romantic that he wondered if he hadn’t just dreamed the whole thing up. 

For that reason, he didn’t go. Still, if he did decide to, he was also curious to see what had become of the swan that had fallen into the lake, so he would have had an excuse.   

That reminded him of the wet dream he had woken up from this morning. The girl hadn’t been in it. It was almost like the dream itself was symbolic of her—he had been in the harem of some ancient Middle Eastern kingdom, and as a lustful belly dancer shook her female equipment at him, she asked, “Is it really such a sad thing, to have been born here?”

As she said those words, he came.   

The disgust over the fishy odor of the white fluid, and imagining whether similar experiences had led to his father becoming an engineer left Amuro feeling hollow in the early morning hours. 

That was the reason he ended up driving his buggy off the road, as he tried to move out of the way of an oncoming car. It was also odd that the road wasn’t paved here.

“Damn it!” He could curse at himself, but the car wasn’t getting back up onto the road. “…Hm?” When Amuro saw that red uniform in his rearview mirror he knew the man was his enemy, and he quickly stood up in the driver’s seat. 

The man was wearing a crimson officer’s uniform, with a white helmet, white gloves and white boots. He looked like he was ready for a Halloween party. A pair of wide-framed goggles completed the outfit. 

Char, the Red Comet!

Yes, Amuro knew.

Despite the fact that he had fought against this man, Amuro had never before seen him in person. However, at this moment he knew exactly who it was walking toward him. 

Following the events in India, Char also docked his ship at this side. He didn’t realize that this rigid boy in the dingy Federation uniform was the pilot of the white mobile suit. 

“I’m sorry about that. We were driving too fast…”

“No, it was my fault for not paying attention…”

“…It’s no good…Lalah. We’ll have to tow him out.” Inspecting Amuro’s buggy, which had dug its front wheels into the side of the road, Char spoke.

“Do we have rope?”

At the sound of the female voice, Amuro finally looked over to the car the officer had come from. Sitting on the left hand side was a brown-skinned girl wearing a loose, mugwort-colored outfit.   

“Ah!?” He immediately understood she was with Zeon, but since nothing about her outfit looked related to the military he associated her with prostitutes, the kind who had hung around soldiers since time immemorial.

Receiving Amuro’s mental image, the brown-skinned girl smiled, and to put it into very fine terms, sent these sorts of thoughts flying back. 

{If that was really the case, wouldn’t it mean Commander Char is a very bad person for embracing someone like me? The Commander is a good person, you know.}  

Amuro saw the red uniform of the officer underneath his car’s bumper, the man fastening a rope to it. Had he said it was okay for them to pull his car out? Amuro hesitated, and after a pause he opened his mouth. “Um, let me help you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m finished.” The officer worked quickly. By the time Amuro called out he was already back on his feet.

“Sorry. Uh, by the way, your name…”

“Char Aznable. A soldier, as you can see.” There was a touch of self-deprecation in his voice. Was he embarrassed to be dressing like a clown, or was it his contempt for the military itself? 

However, Amuro understood. Char’s annoyance came from being called the Red Comet…

Driven by Lalah, the car pulled the rope taut.

“What’s wrong? Stand back, Amuro.”

Amuro jerked back at Char’s warning, while also wondering why an enemy officer knew his name.  

“You’ve gotten good at this. {Lalah.}”

The red uniformed officer hadn’t repeated her name, but that’s what Amuro heard. The next thing he realized Char was retrieving the rope, so he hurried, flustered, over to Lalah’s car, where he untied the rope and offered it back. 

“It’s a good thing you didn’t get dirty too.” Speaking to Lalah, Char nodded to the mud on Amuro’s knees. At that moment, Amuro was convinced that it wasn’t a bad thing for Char to love this girl. 

“I’m, um, I really am sorry about all of this.” Even if it had only been in the spur of the moment, Amuro had insulted her with that crass association, and in his words there was an apology for that as well.

Char interpreted Amuro’s hesitation as something else entirely. “Are you enlisted?”

 “No, I’m not. I’m a local conscript, but that was all a coincidence…when your side’s mobile suits raided Side 7, I was trying to escape and came across the Federation’s experimental mobile suit, and I ended up getting into it. They made me carry cargo from the base on Side 7 to their assault cruiser…and then it departed the side, so I didn’t have anything else to wear but military uniforms, which is why I look like this.”

Why in the world did you have to go and tell him all that?

“You are…”

“Amuro Ray.”

Apparently Char was about to ask a different question, but Amuro interrupted him in a clipped tone of voice.

“That’s what I heard earlier…” From Char’s wry smile, Amuro turned to look at Lalah and realized that he had been presenting himself as the model specimen of an awkward boy soldier. 

“T-thank you very much!” Like a wind-up doll whose spring had sprung, Amuro gave a deep bow and sprinted back to his car.