YSS Kaiyō II
Kaiko Park
Within the lower deck, Hoshi was egging her XO on, asking her to step out more fully and more fully. She was floating behind her with her arms wrapped around the front of Ketsurui Aiko's head so that her hands covered Aiko's eyes.
"There's a step, take a step down," Hoshi prompted as the two stepped out of the ship. "Now just walk straight forward for about a hundred paces." She was having Aiko walk across some of the field before directing, "Turn left soon... Now!"
Behind them were some of the crew, Ketsurui samurai, and Boss, the ship's MEGAMI. Boss tried to look around wondrously, her indigo hair turning left and right as if to take in the trees and foliage, but she had a blindfold wrapped around her, stifling her view. She used to never inhabit a physical body save for protecting her ship during boarding actions. Since the war's end, she had been experimenting more with inhabiting it but had never been outside of the ship. Just walking on grass felt weird and she shuffled her feet oddly as she followed along to the sound of Hoshi's voice.
"That's it," Hoshi chimed, "two more steps."
Aiko stepped confidently and without concern despite Hoshi's cautiously presumptive directions. A princess of Yamatai did not trip whether or not her vision was obscured, but she had agreed to play along with this whole surprise alongside Boss and did so without much complaint.
"You are lucky for your rank and ability to order this," Aiko said, trying to sound more amused than uncomfortable. In truth, she was more the former, but did not make a habit of sharing her amusement. "I could have just as easily closed my eyes until prompted."
"I am lucky to have such a fine crew," Hoshi quipped back as her hands dropped from over Aiko's eyes and quickly turned to pull the blindfold off of Boss. The two and crew were in a circular arbor surrounded by lofty iron trellises that formed a dome which let strong woody wisteria climb up, now in their off season, behind which alabaster camellias peaked through. With a splash of purple in the center of the mossy ground, a ring of bellflowers drew the attention to the center of the
"And such a fine ship," Hoshi went on. The real treasure wasn't in the flora but something closer. Although they had just left the ship, it lay before them, just much smaller. On a short golden plinth was a Zesuaium representation of the ship itself. Still lingering overhead, the setting sun's warm hues were reflected in the blue grey of the metal in long splaying oranges and pinks.
"See there on the top?" In fact, it read YSS Kaiyō II and 501, the ship's registry. Captain Hoshi started reading from a plaque, "A testament to all of your bravery on the Kuvexian frontlines. Other ships went out but none of them went so far or for so long into enemy territory, bringing the fight to the Interstellar Kingdom."
The princess stared out and surveyed the grove from left to right, slowly taking in all of the sights here and those still obscured further beyond the trellises. Her visage remained stern as ever, but could only maintain its steely resolve for a few moments before a smile grew from ear-to-ear and held until her quick panorama ended its tour upon Hoshi beside her.
"Amazing, Hoshi-san!" Aiko beamed before taking newly undirected steps toward the Kaiyō statue to get a closer look. "Beautiful, peaceful serenity," she added, invoking words from Yamatai's anthem. "And with a monument to our own struggle against the Kuvexians! What is this place?"
Alongside Aiko, Boss had moved in to gaze wondrously at the ship. She outstretched a hand slowly and with a little hesitation to lightly skim her fingers over the nacellles of the model Kaiyo. Suddenly wet, her orange eyes stayed fixed on the places her fingertips glided over. Hoshi watched her ship's AI from behind in awe before her attention went back to Aiko.
"I don't know exactly. It seems part war memorial part nature park. There are even more monuments and a huge forest, lakes, even a sea breeze from the bay," Hoshi said, theatrically sniffing in deeply to test her point with a smile. "It's incredibly serene as you said, and beautiful to boot. Speaking of lucky, I feel as much to have found such a place!"
"As do I," Boss said reverently, putting her outstretched palm fully against the miniature ship.
A look of disbelief passed behind Aiko's scarlet eyes and across her brow for a fleeting moment, but she would not question her captain's explanation about having "found" a Kuvexian War memorial before it had even opened to the public. Maybe it had been Saiga's doing; a gift to his girlfriend Hoshi and the Empire, he was the scion of a wealthy clan after all. But she would think no more of it in any case.
"It appears you have found your new home away from your body, Boss," the princess said, ribbing the Kaiyō's AI with a grin. "And so quickly. I have heard it takes most MEGAMI months to find comfort away from their ship."
Hoshi felt proud at both having gotten away with her feigned innocence and at Boss' reaction. She had stayed quiet a moment, then when she noticed tears falling from the MEGAMI's face, spoke again.
"Whenever you feel like visiting," Captain Taiyou said. "You can come here whenever you feel."
Boss spoke, "I didn't know we were doing anything special. I thought we were performing our duties. But in hindsight, looking at this... We were so alone." With a stroke of confidence, the ship AI rephrased what she had to say, "I was so alone out there. Having a belly full of personnel is not the same as being surrounded by sister ships. Our duty in Uesureya feels so different and less lonely alongside the task force and his fleet ships. Being here reflecting on the time when we were the only ones, it moves me in unexpected ways."
Turning on her heel, the MEGAMI brought her arms around the short captain, "Thank you for this."
Holding onto Boss in a hug, the captain realized she had never touched the ship's MEGAMI. Hoshi's big blue eyes were astounded, then she noticed Aiko, Rei, Asuka, Muyomi, and more behind Boss' back. She motioned with a hand for them to join in and hug Boss, as well.
Aiko let the other crewmen go in and embrace their MEGAMI at Hoshi's request, frozen with the same smile as when the captain had said it. The princess hoped Hoshi didn't think she was the hugging type after their time on Iðunn and Aiko's decision to comfort the weeping captain there, but nonetheless moved in behind the rest of them. Luckily for Aiko, there was precious little space remaining to wrap her arms around Boss, so she reached over her shorter comrades and placed a comfortably comforting hand on the MEGAMI's head.
With so many hugging her, Boss shrunk a little in the embrace. Feeling the MEGAMI slump under the pressure, Hoshi pushed up and away and sprang into a booming peppy voice that broke up the hug.
"There will be more to see! Not just other monuments like I mentioned, but people, too! I've invited a lot of those we've worked with to celebrate the night away!" The pink-skinned captain was wearing a glittering blue sequined number beneath her heavy duty coat and she had applied a sparkley black eyeliner to accentuate the look, making her look all the more ready for this place she had just 'found' by chance.
"It's Aiko's birthday tomorrow and the anniversary of the ship's launch tonight, so let's party all night and all day! I even invited the Empress and Mistress Taisho." Hoshi added the last title with a wink to Aiko. "They weren't on the ship ever, but without them we wouldn't have had the luck we did.
The princess blushed at mention of her kin being invited to join them. And for her birthday no less. Being immediately recognized anywhere she went in Yamatai didn't faze her whatsoever, for she had been made a hero in the news even beyond earning such glory tenfold in reality, but the prospect of bothering anybody in the Ketsurui Clan with celebrating an occasion that Aiko had, until today, never had the time to observe herself gave her a moment of deep concern.
"This is all very splendid, Captain," Aiko said anyway, sighing out the redness in her cheeks with steady breaths through her nose. "I trust there is time to change out of my uniform. After some medidation here, of course."
Hoshi shrugged, "Who knows? People could start arriving any moment or not at all. Point is to have fun regardless. Happy birthday to you both." She added the last part as she looked from Aiko to Boss and the zesu statue of their ship with a wide smile across her rosy pink cheeks.