Full Name: Megumi Ai
Age: 10 (appears to be 14)
Height: 5’5”
Gender: Female
Race: Gynoid

History

Megumi was built ten years before the One Year War by a Federation research division headed by a brilliant, but eccentric, engineer. She was the prototype of what was supposed to have been a line of artificial pilots to minimize human loss during wartime; she was created as a young girl to better fit in cramped cockpits. However, as she was nearing completion, the true purpose of her construction was revealed by her love-starved engineer—Megumi was to be his bride, programmed with emotion and independent thought. As he attempted to flee with her, he was apprehended and subdued by the Federation, who decided it best to shut down the project—and Megumi. She was rescued from the scrap heap, however, by a young Fed engineer, Margaret Jonast, who had been visiting the lab when the incident occurred. Megumi was taken under Margaret’s wing and treated as a surrogate daughter, while also improving the gynoid’s innate piloting skills. When Margaret and Tesseract, her adopted daughter, built two Gundams for the 87th MS Team’s personal use, Megumi was assigned to Gundam Grace, as its speed and agility matched her personal piloting style.

87th MS Team

Upon the team’s arrival on the small Side 3 colony Tooele, Megumi is enrolled in the colony’s junior high school as per colony regulations. (The commanders also wanted to make sure Meg could have ample opportunity to gather information without arousing suspicion.) She is also introduced to Liru Phono, the new pilot of Mars Gundam; the two quickly form a mutual dislike of each other. At school, Meg’s perfect looks and mysterious demeanor quickly make her extremely popular, making Liru hate her even more. Liru’s only form of defense is her constant blackmailing of Meg by threatening to reveal the fact that Meg is a gynoid—this blackmail irks Meg greatly, but if anyone found out the truth, the entire 87th would be in serious trouble. Another thing Meg must conceal at school is the fact that she pilots a Gundam and protects the colony during the team’s frequent battles with the Zeons. As the story progresses, Meg and Liru learn to resolve their differences and build a shaky alliance, learn the importance of teamwork both on and off the battlefront, and come to understand each other a bit more. When the strange new student Sedge Laillot arrives at the school, Meg is instantly suspicious of him, which sets her at odds again with Liru, whose feelings about the new boy are exactly the opposite of Meg’s. As the threads of fate are woven ever tighter, Meg faces the double struggle of uncovering the truth behind Sedge and the Zeon attacks…and coming to terms with herself.

Personality

Tall, slender, beautiful, and sociable, Megumi (often called “Meg” for short by the 87th) is everything that Liru isn’t. While outwardly, Megumi appears to relish her seeming perfection, inside is a lonely and confused machine trying to be human. She is generally mysterious and demure, which of course just enhances everyone’s curiosity about her. In actuality, she has severe difficulties dealing with her emotions, and so often chooses not to use them at all. Despite being friendly and kind toward most people, she remains distant and emotionally removed from situations. In battle, she is cold, calculating, and keeps a constantly professional attitude.

Abilities

Being a gynoid, Megumi has several advantages over the average human. She has an innate knowledge of machines and electronics, and cannot be injured easily. She is ageless and, with proper repairs, is essentially immortal. Meg has also been trained in piloting since she was constructed, and so is an extremely skilled pilot.

Design Notes

Although the original concept of the 87th MS Team was formulated some years ago, it was only in recent years that I fleshed out the story and added most of its key elements. However, Megumi’s basic personality (a beautiful and mysterious girl who is secretly a gynoid) has remained the same since her creation. She was designed as a foil to the unattractive spitfire Liru, and their personality conflicts have always been a central theme of the storyline. After some thought, I decided to keep Megumi’s unusual hair color, based on two points. One, it has been established in the UC Gundam universe that unusually-colored hair is seen as normal (granted, that’s a basic staple of most Japanese media). Two, her creator was seriously not right in the head. Would you really have expected him to give her a normal hair color? Additionally, I think it enhances her exotic nature.