The neko shook off the desirous expression towards the food, grinning sheepishly, before she then took a seat beside Kotori on the floor. Once down on the ground Reika met Kotori’s amber eyes and asked with her amethyst eyes glinting curiously, “How are things going with the soul saviour pod?”
"I heard they secured the use of a KAMI to appropriately extract them, though they are holding off until they can procure proper counseling for the revived," Kotori answered as she delicately removed the lid of the bento box. "It's been a standardized practice ever since the members Second Draconian Fleet had to adapt to the many years they missed."
The bento box contained an array of riceballs, adorned with a strip of seaweed to help hold them, which the Princess then began labelling in pairs, pointing two at a time with her fingers. "Dried mackerel, tempura mushroom, tuna with mayonaise, umeboshi and salmon."
“They were your crew – do you think they are going to have much trouble adjusting to their change in circumstances? While they missed a few years, the time they lost is not nearly as bad as what happened to the Second Draconian Fleet.” Reika asked as she pried off the padded training gloves she was wearing and set them aside. Then the neko peered into the bento box at the different riceballs Kotori had identified.
“Itadakimasu,” Reika murmured. While she was hungry, the cerulean-haired neko waited for Kotori to respond before she tried to dig in.
"Consider that up to what they remember, they were at the verge of going into this big showdown with the Daughters of Eve," Kotori started explaining. "Suddenly, you are surrounded with your sisters being all emotional and crying, and it has been years, and your mother - the ship - is gone. The home you knew is gone. You're now around a planet, and there's a house, younger sisters are now older than you, they have fashion sense, younglings, a company were they design new ship technologies, and they know a lot of extraneous things that didn't matter back when they were just a ship sprite... which is what you essentially were and still are."
"Yamatai says you bravely died, became a hero... and none of that is actually connects, none of it you actually remember doing. It might be hard to feel you would have really learned the accolades given. You might even feel like somekind of imposter," Kotori nodded for emphasis. "It certainly will be an adjustment. The Miharus changed a lot in the last few years, and it will be a pretty abrupt transition to those revived. I can't say if it will be harder or easier than the people from the Second Draconian Fleet, but living for only two years and suddenly skipping out on four could feel pretty significant."
Reika winced slightly as she reconsidered the circumstances that the lost Miharu crewmembers would find themselves after their reawakening, given Kotori's reinterpretation of things. "On second thought, that doesn't sound much better at all."
The cerulean-haired neko took hold of one of the dried mackerel rice balls with her right hand and bit down with gusto, closing her eyes and savouring the flavour as it rolled over her taste buds. After chewing and swallowing, Reika asked, "Will they have to serve the rest of their term of service in the Star Army? Or do you think they will be allowed to discharge early if they want to? At the least, they should be given leave time to adjust to all the changes."
"I certainly hope so," Kotori opined. "It would feel disingenuous to take the time to counsel them into adjusting only to throw them back in active duty without some choice in the matter."
