"I made it into the title?"
More than the backstory the Stage had just fabricated, what caught Inori off guard was the title itself.
"Songstress of the Void"—right there in the anime's name.
Wasn't she supposed to be a supporting character?
Was this a promotion?
[Your on-set status has been upgraded]
[In this set, your role is classified as Major Supporting Role]
[The title name is the client's attempt to ride a trend]
"Huh?"
[The client's world is saturated with songstresses. Without an idol reference in the title, no one watches]
Well, that was blunt.
[Client has added a new requirement]
[Client requests filming of an Episode 0 Prologue as advance promotional material]
"Huh?"
Compared to the Ninja Way set, the Gundam set's Production Team was seriously lacking.
Did they even know what they were doing?!
"Hold on—Gundams don't even appear in this world until the main storyline begins."
This was absurd!
[Negotiating]
[Client's position: Gundams are optional, but idol elements are required]
Inori: ???
—Did you even hear what you just said?
A mecha set—and you don't want the mechs, you want the idols?
Whatever. It was the client's request, at least.
Inori collected herself.
The lingering sense of "Hanabi" was still there. That wouldn't do.
A truly excellent idol should embody whatever role she plays.
"Inori Yuzuriha" was a kuudere—at the very least, she needed to act like one.
She did have Lacia's Inheritance Card, though. Director Lacia's directing chops outstripped even Director Hanabi's. She couldn't afford to fall behind.
While the Stage and the client were busy bickering, Inori used her saved-up Popularity Points to upgrade Lacia's card to LV3.
The upgrade didn't strengthen her body directly—instead, it enhanced the Black Monolith.
[Character Inheritance Card]
[Lacia — Hollow Box Humanoid LV3]
[LV3 Bonus Talents: Quantum Terminal, Metamaterial Nanofactory]
[Quantum Terminal: Can connect with the main unit to perform electronic warfare and similar operations]
[Metamaterial Nanofactory: Can manufacture metamaterials, or use metamaterials to process external components]
Directing in the Gundam world was actually harder than in the Naruto world.
But with electronic warfare capability, things would get much easier.
The Metamaterial Nanofactory was an unexpected windfall on top of that.
Unfortunately, Analog Hacking—the signature ability of hIE-type humanoid terminals like Lacia—wasn't included.
Otherwise, it would've been the ultimate manipulation skill.
Inori wanted to keep fine-tuning. But just then, she felt her consciousness beginning to dissolve.
"Mm…?"
Cold. Trembling.
When she came to, Inori regained physical sensation.
Data flooded her mind, but control over the body felt… off.
"Am I… inside the Black Monolith?"
The space around her resembled a life-support pod.
She could control the body, but something was still missing.
"So I've got the hardware, but no software?"
The physical sensation was similar to being "Hyuga Hanabi," yet distinctly different.
This body's baseline specs actually exceeded those of Hyuga Hanabi without Chakra.
Of course, factoring Chakra in changed the equation entirely—Chakra was an out-of-spec variable in this world.
"My environmental perception seems more precise."
Inori could feel that her body was carbon-based flesh and blood, yet she could regulate and operate it with precision down to each individual heartbeat.
Having no software was a real problem, though.
Inori felt like a newborn infant, learning to operate her own hands and body one tiny step at a time.
Finally, she gained a measure of awareness of her surroundings.
She never would have guessed that the very first thing she'd need to do after arriving in the Gundam world was almost exactly what Kira had done in the "original."
—Hand-code an OS.
It wasn't easy, but once she'd gotten the hang of the quantum computer's processing capabilities inside the Black Monolith, cobbling together a basic driver was manageable.
"Next—go transparent."
Making the Black Monolith encasing her turn transparent, Inori finally saw the space outside.
Regrettably, it was pitch black.
But only for human eyes.
"Adjusting visual spectrum."
The view shifted again. A world that would have been pure darkness for a human being was now blindingly vivid before Inori's eyes.
Ruins. Familiar ruins.
Just moments ago, by her subjective reckoning, she'd been attending biology class right here.
"This is the abandoned Mendel Colony at L4. The story's starting point is the Heliopolis colony at L3."
Complicated as it sounded, the short version: picture the Lagrange points as positions around the Moon's orbit. One position ahead of the Moon was L4; directly opposite it sat L3, where Heliopolis was.
Meanwhile, PLANT—the nation the Coordinators had built—was at L5, one position behind the Moon.
(SEED Universe Map)
A somewhat irregular square-shaped trajectory.
"Hmm… Part of my processing power can't be fully released… The Fatima passive?"
Fatima were artificial beings too—among the strongest, even—but they were constrained by their master.
The Destiny Card's affix gave the highest raw power ceiling, but also the heaviest restrictions.
"I see. I need authorization."
Inori still couldn't control her body properly.
Right now, she was like a computer sporting an RTX 5090 graphics card—but only being used to play Minesweeper.
Without "data," she couldn't even run computational adjustments.
This was different from before.
"Hyuga Hanabi" had reincarnated and grown from infancy, slowly developing over time.
But as Inori, this "artificial being" had been manufactured as an adolescent from the start—there'd been no time to adapt.
"But there is a way to acclimate."
There was still the residential intensive piloting course.
The course even came with a piloting suit.
A full year—more than enough time to adjust.
[Performer Training (Humanoid Mecha Piloting): 3-Star, 360-day residential intensive course. During instruction, you will temporarily leave this world. World time will be paused.]
[Training hours consumed]
[Training facility preparing]
[Haggling in progress]
[Commencing duel]
[Solemn Judgment, Solemn Judgment, Solemn Judgment, Self-Destruct Button—Draw]
[Client is satisfied. Willing to offer a discount.]
[TSF Piloting Course has been arranged]
[Performance Costume will be issued during training]
[Please concentrate. Push open the Black Monolith.]
Inori flexed her body experimentally, then slowly pushed open the Black Monolith.
She tumbled out into an empty dormitory.
A sailor uniform was laid out nearby.
"Ah… mm… oh."
Inori rose to her feet, unsteady.
"I'll treat this as pre-performance training."
She swept her gaze around the room. Textbooks on the desk—in Japanese.
She scanned them quickly.
"Eishi—Surface Pilots… and Tactical Surface Fighters… I see."
No mistaking it.
This training facility was in the Muv-Luv world.
An obscure, under-the-radar world, crawling with bumbling Showa-era staff officers.
None of that concerned her. Three hundred sixty days would be the perfect buffer—enough to fully acclimate to her new body.
As for the world itself… well, the girls were cute.
But beyond that, there wasn't much of note.
—In this world, I am nothing but a cold, relentless studying machine.
Oh, actually—it wasn't entirely unrelated.
The BETA, this world's enemy, were essentially carbon-based machines.
Too bad Inori still wasn't interested.
—Because they were too ugly.