Chapter 271: Return Arrangements 1
The moment Tolle stepped out of the bathroom, he went straight to Erica. He wanted to tell her about improving the PS armor into TP armor—this way, he could indirectly raise the survival chances of Asagi, Juri, and Mayura.
Then, shamelessly, he said to her, "Erica, I've got a brilliant idea—it's a modification plan for the PS armor.
And it absolutely solves the energy-consumption issue everyone's been struggling with. It also extends usage time. Want to hear it?"
Erica looked at Tolle suspiciously, then deliberately touched his forehead and said,
"Tolle, are you talking nonsense because you're feverish? You know martial arts, but PS armor isn't your field.
The problems we haven't solved—you think you can solve that easily?"
Tolle took the opportunity to wrap an arm around Erica's waist, gave her lips a quick butterfly kiss, and replied, "Erica, what if I can do it? Will you give me one night as a reward?"
Even though Erica was experienced, Tolle still made her blush red.
She gently pressed a finger to his lips and said helplessly, "You little rascal… fine. If you really solve it, I'll give you what you want.
But you need to prove the idea actually works. If it doesn't, then you get nothing."
Tolle answered smugly, "No problem. I guarantee it will solve everything.
For the cockpit, monitors, power modules—any important areas—we can add a layer of composite armor over the PS armor.
Under normal conditions, this layer uses PS armor at minimal output, functioning like reactive armor.
When it's hit by physical weapons, the impacted sections can instantly activate full-power PS armor in those areas.
And also—"
After Tolle finished his long explanation, Erica finally snapped out of her daze. She grabbed his face and gave him a French kiss.
"No wonder I chose you. You're incredible. I'll start implementing this improvement right away."
She immediately opened her computer in a rush and began writing down everything he described, leaving Tolle off to the side.
All he could do was stare, shrug, and sit there waiting for her to finish taking notes.
A few days later, after some crash-course training, Erica came to find Tolle—and blindfolded him before fulfilling her promise.
But halfway through, Tolle intentionally let his blindfold slip off—only to discover Erica had broken her promise again.
The first time, she had Yulia substitute for her. This time, she had someone else take her place again.
Her ability to find substitutes was impressive—she could always arrange someone to handle her "promises."
While Tolle wasn't thrilled about the process, he was very satisfied with the outcome.
But what he never expected was that the one rolling in the sheets with him this time was Mina.
After several rounds of entanglement, Tolle looked at Mina—resting against his chest, face flushed.
He wanted to ask why she came instead of Erica, but of course he couldn't. If Mina got angry and beat him up, that would be awful.
Now that she was his woman, it was safer to give her a little brainwashing.
Once that was done, Tolle held her tightly and decided to reveal part of his plans—like the staged death—so she wouldn't kill him someday thinking he was just an impostor.
Mina, after all, was ruthless. She hadn't hesitated at all when she tried to kill Gina's impostor.
Tolle spoke softly to her: "Mina, I've decided not to go to the Earth Alliance's Alaska base.
I'm thinking of faking my death during one of the battles on the way."
Mina gently ran her fingers across his chest and said, "Tolle, is it really necessary to make things so complicated? If you don't want to go, I can negotiate directly with the Alliance.
But you're right not to go. If anything happened to you, it'd be a huge loss for Orb."
Tolle shook his head. "If we go out of our way to negotiate, that will just attract the Alliance's attention.
Would they really believe that some nobody is worth a nation stepping in to negotiate with the Earth Alliance?"
Mina rolled over to lie on top of him, looked into his eyes from up close, and asked gently, "Then what do you have in mind? I'll cooperate with you completely."
"Mm. I do have a plan—let ZAFT do the job.
They're definitely still hiding somewhere in Orb's nearby waters, waiting for the Archangel to depart.
I can let them hit my machine and make it explode—that will create the illusion of my death."
Hearing the word "explode," Mina grew nervous.
"Explosion? Isn't that too dangerous?
And what if ZAFT already left? Even if they're still there, how can you guarantee the fake death works?
What if something unexpected happens? Isn't that too risky?"
Tolle gently patted her back to calm her. "Don't worry. I have a plan."
Then, pretending dramatically, he reached into the bedside drawer and pulled out a palm-sized high-performance electronic brain—one that Nami had copied—and a spatial compression wristband.
Seeing Mina's curious gaze, he asked, "Mina, can I trust you one hundred percent? And can you keep my secrets one hundred percent?"
Mina's eyes sparkled as she nodded. "You can trust me. And I'll keep your secrets."
Tolle lifted his head and kissed her lightly, then handed her the electronic brain and explained:
"This is a high-performance MS electronic brain. It lets the pilot draw out 20% more performance from the machine, and boosts accuracy and evasion by 20%.
I can use it to auto-pilot my MS. Its driving skill isn't great, but good enough to fool observers.
When the time comes, I just need to send my MS into the sea once, then escape.
After that, I'll let this take over and pilot it. ZAFT can shoot it down and make it explode."