Lytrotikí epistolí

*Z23's PoV*

After everything that has happened, now we switched from calming Hylia to comforting Javelin who was constantly pouting because of the pranks she has received. Hylia has now joined our effort to cheer her up by allowing Javelin to touched her hair, like what Laffey did before.

This time there were no big problems needed to be handled, and Javelin was very happy with what she's doing now. Starting from being more friendly towards Hylia and her pet? I think, since that being called Fuwa is from another world I'm not sure whether its an animal or maybe an alien?

'It worked fine.'

Besides that, there are also Laffey and Ayanami, the two of them joined in and talked about some things at the harbor to cheer up Hylia who might still feel sad, because no matter where you look, she still looks sad whenever Cera-san's name is mentioned.

Even though the two of us have only recently met, I think Hylia is a friendly girl and easy to make friends with many people, especially with the charm she gave off. That's why I feel happy with the return of the laughter and the big smile on her cute face.

'Well...Maybe not with that kind of greetings though...'

Remembering our first meeting with Hylia, I thought of Hylia was a grim reaper with a cute face. Fortunately, my assumption was wrong, could it be that the commander or Cera taught her the catch phrase? If commander really is the culprit then I'll need to be more stricter at him.

'Commander is...He's looking at the camera?'

As for the commander himself, he was enjoying his time looking out at the ocean again on the left side of the deck. If I'm not mistaken the commander was looking at the ocean from that high place, is there something strange in the ocean that makes him keep looking at it?

'I wonder if now is a good time for me to interrupt him, should I leave commander for a while...''

Since I also wanted to know about some things from the commander, I walked alone towards the commander and let the others play or talk for a while with each other, right now I have my duty to escort commander safely back to the port so I need to be vigilant about our current situation.

From what I've seen, the commander seems to really like the time when he looks at the photo on his camera, though I don't know how the commander got that thing out of thin air.

'Looks like... The commander won't mind if I stand beside him right?'

I stepped my foot towards the commander who then noticed my arrival from his behind. He greeted me with a nod of his head and invited me instead to look at the photo he had taken together.

At first I intended to keep a little distance from the commander so that he would still have his privacy, but that intention became useless because the commander himself brought his body closer to me.

The two of us were so close, so close that I could even feel how warm the commander's body was against my left shoulder.

"Commander...Your body is really warm. Are you sure you're not sick?"

"It's alright, my normal temperature is a little bit higher than most people. Although it got troublesome when sun is out since I'm getting uncomfortable."

"I understand, thankfully you're not sick commander. If that's the case, then why don't you take your jacket off? Right now is not that cold either, so I don't think you need to wear it for now."

"Yeah...You're right. I guess, I'll just being relaxed for a while and enjoy the breeze of this sea."

"Let me hold it for you."

The commander then handed over the jacket he had removed to me. Having been trusted by the commander to take care of the jacket, however I can't understand the reason of why the commander wore this jacket despite many cuts and stitches patched on it.

This jacket does feel good and cold when it hits the skin, but, I think it would be better if the commander used a new jacket so that the commander's charisma becomes more visible.

"Ahaha...Let me guess, Nimi-kun. You're curious over why I'm using this worn out jacket instead of changing it into a new one?"

"E-Eh?! Did it showed trough my face, commander?

"Its just the common response whenever someone could hold this kid. Am I wrong? Then I apologize for that."

"You don't need to apologize to me, commander. Although...I'm a bit curious of your reason, but I'll found it out later because we're going to meet a lot after all, my commander."

Every words that came out of the commander's mouth, sounds like a mysterious thing for me. I don't know about what this jacket mean for him, but there must be one since he never throw it away and keep it beside him.

Cera-san has told the three of us, if commander is a troublesome person who always put his heart in every meaningless thing. When I thought about that, I wonder whether commander thought of us as meaningless or not.

"Oyaa Nimi-kun~ That my commander sounds good, could you say it again please?"

'To think I'm being jealous over this, I need to keep myself together.'

"Ufufu...There's no more of that for now, commander."

Even though the commander himself said that if I could act more relaxed in front of him, right now he seemed to be in deep thought over the detail he didn't want to tell us. Perhaps he didn't want to since he's being considerate and didn't want to worried us over his problem.

'...There's no way commander is a pirate right?'

The roar of the waves can still be heard hitting the hull of the ship, the sparkle of light illuminates the sea we are sailing.

I don't know when commander will thought of us as "A meaningless thing he put his heart into", and I don't know when will commander left us again. For now, I concluded this train of thought, and took my time to escort my commander together with my friends.

As the other fleet noticed our presence.

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Time will keep moving on for them who took their chance to walk onto their own chosen path. As Z23 and Sakura Zeimachi talked with each other over small topic, Javelin and co. were gone to explore inner chamber of the Black Pearl to satisfy their hunger of exploration.

They're like being in a museum when they explore the Black Pearl because of the feel of the relics given by the pirate ship. However by doing so, their mood have turned out a little bit better than how it was.

After they finished exploring and returned to the ship's deck, they saw Z23 laughing happily with their commander showing a faint smile. Nonetheless, they didn't hate Z23 for having fun alone with their commander, they're just a little jealous because it seemed the two of them were enjoying their time together.

"Gulp...Sasuga Nimi-chan."

"Yes desu."

"Nimi and commander...It'll be better to leave them alone."

The three ship girls act like stalkers behind the boxes arranged on the side of the ship. They kept an eye on the two of them and showed a strange but also cute facial expression since they need to hold urges to jump out and called the two of them.

"Fuwa!"

"Hmm? Over there? Ah you're right Fuwa. Zei! Zei!"

As for Hylia, she was told by Fuwa if there's a group of people standing on the water loowho looked onto their direction.

The feasty haired girl who heard her little friend news, then innocently called Sakura Zeimachi to see what she had found, though by doing so, she also informed the position of Javelin, Ayanami and Laffey who were peeking beside her.

Even though Z23 had different intentions, in the end Sakura Zeimachi and Z23 approached them to hear what the feasty haired girl had to say.

There's some tension between the three ship girls after the person they were spying on, came up to them and asked about whatever reason they were doing it.

Nonetheless, the four of them are friends who are not in a false sense. Therefore it all ended with Z23 being embarassed after being teased by the three of them.

Meanwhile Sakura Zeimachi looked to the direction that has been given by Hylia and Fuwa about the presence of another fleet. Even though his eyes got hidden behind those fabric, he could still use the Feather as his other alternative to detect his surrounding, but Hylia didn't noticed that.

What she knew was different from how other people's logic worked, but it doesn't mean she's a big dumb, dense isekai protagonist who never got taught over some common sense.

For now, what Hylia had focused on was not how he could see when his eyes were covered by the red cloth.

"Zei? Can you see them?"

"Of course Hylia, although what I see is different from what others could see. Now that I think about it, don't you know if human can't see if their eyes got closed?"

"Un! Yes I know about it since Cera taught me a lesson of...of...Bico...Beicolo..."

While Hylia was thinking about the knowledge she had learned, Sakura Zeimachi called Z23 to use her communication device to notify the fleet he had identified.

"Biology?"

"Yes that's it! It was fun to learn new things with Cera, but...She's not in here."

"...You're still sad?"

"I can't. I mustn't be sad, if I'm crying again...Others will also sad because of me, and I don't want that."

As if understanding her owner's feelings, Fuwa rubbed her body against the girl's cheek to comfort her a little.

"...It's not a bad thing to be sad over the disappearance of what you deemed important, Hylia. Being able to feel the sense of lost and helplessness is also an important thing to build up your courage."

"Uhn! Thank you Zei. I'll be a courageous lady so I can chase my wish and not putting Cera's expectation meaningless!"

"That's more like it. A little lady needs to keep their head's up in whatever predicament they have to face. Repeat after me, "Ohohohohoho, desu wa." and put your hands like an Ojou-sama style laughter!"

Sakura Zeimachi then let out a laugh that seemed to be condescending to others with his hand that seemed to want to touch his lips.

"Ohohohoho desu wa~"

"More arrogance!"

"Ohohohoho desu wa~!"

"No need for those soft touch at the end of it!"

"Ohohohoho desu wa!"

Maybe...This was the reason why Cera was very careful of Zeimachi whenever she was around Hylia. It could be said that he could transmit a bad influence on the little girl.

Meanwhile, the four shipgirls who were silent and watched them laugh, could only look at them from the side of the screen as they felt strange about what they had seen.

Not long after, the fleet they had communicated with came over to the Black Pearl ship. As expected by Sakura Zeimachi they had no bad intentions at all, and they're invited to board the ship using a ladder made of rope.

...

....

.....

On the deck of the Black Pearl, there're two people communicating with each other. One was a shipgirl with hair color similar to Ereshkigal from FGO, while the other was a man wearing a Sunday suit, just like when he wanted to go for a morning run with a blindfold on his eyes.

A little further in front of the two of them, there're the Cleveland-led fleet that had previously found something on Helena's radar. Her fleet consisted of Light Cruiser Cleveland herself, Light Cruiser Helena, Destroyer Nicholas, and later Destroyer Eldridge.

"That's it for our mission detail, commander. Well, enough with formalities, fheww...You've really changed after we last met. Is there something wrong with your eyes?"

"Yeah, getting to change your style is also my privileges' as the one who worked in the office all day and night."

"Uhh...I'm not that familiar of how commander's duty and such, but...Fight on! I'll be supporting your back!"

"*Sigh*...Thanks...Cleve-aniki~"

"S-Stop it with that nick name?!....But as expected, you really investigated us didn't you commander, then how did you even know about that name?"

"Kukuku...I just know about it, my Brother Cleveland."

"Uwaahhh...You're creeping me out."

"..."

"..."

"Huhuhu...."

"Ahahaha!"

Times moves on and the other ship girls had board the ship to complete their mission. The four of them had greeted their commander and were ordered to rest at the Black Pearl for their hard work.

Because they were still unfamiliar with their new commander, they didn't act too familiar except for Cleveland, whom he had met while picking up his Human Ball.

They chatted a bit, but since Sakura Zeimachi didn't want to act cold to the ship girl who just found out about him, he ended the conversation with Cleveland and called Hylia to his side.

"Got it?"

"Absolutely!"

Looking at this scene where he'll ended up being a diplomatic person at later date, Sakura Zeimachi moved out along with Hylia to the Bridge after discussing some more exciting plan together with her.

"Are you ready Lia?"

"Aye! I'm ready sire!"

"Alright! Let's enjoy this travel with some music on board. We're getting merrier after all with Cleve-aniki her fleet's member arrival."

The two people who were talking to each other were Sakura Zeimachi and Hylia who were getting ready to sing a song to color their voyage back to Azur Lane academy.

Currently Sakura Zeimachi was sitting in a Cajon that he had built from his Astra Sphere, meanwhile Hylia who was wearing a pirate captain hat given by him, is standing while holding the steering wheel of that pirate ship.

"Cleveland, what is commander going to do? We need to escort him back after since there's a lot of people waiting for him."

"Uhh...Sorry Helena. The truth is...I don't really know about what's going on either. At least we know he's going to sing something right?"

"Don't think, Cleveland! Just feel. You too Helena, let's enjoy this show."

While Cleveland was confused about what was happening there and Helena was being quite meek of this image of her new commander. Sakura Zeimachi who could heard their doubt chose to put aside their surprises and continued with the song they wanted to sing.

Not only Cleveland, Helena and their friends were confused by the behavior of their commander who suddenly wanted to sing, they were now even more confused by the movement of the ship they were on.

"I'm sorry Cleveland-san, but I can't really put how commander's mind works in this case."

"It's fine, it's fine. Since all four of you are safe and also with commander in tow, there's nothing more than great news for that."

The ship moves at a speed of 10 Knots while breaking through the roar of the waves created by wind gusts and also the gravity of the moon and sun.

"The ship has now sailed, as Captain Hylia of this ship! I'm ordering for the music to start!"

"Aye aye Captain! Don't miss a beat alright, Captain Hylia~ Three, two, one! *Clap*"

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#Nathan Evans - Wellerman (Sea Shanty)#

" ♪There once was a ship that put to sea♪

♪The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea♪

♪The winds blew up, her bow dipped down♪

♪O blow, my bully boys, blow♪

"HUH!!!"

"W-Whoaa?! That's surprised me..."

Nicholas was slightly surprised by Sakura Zeimachi's pirate-like roar.

♪Soon may the Wellerman come♪

♪To bring us sugar and tea and rum♪

♪One day, when the tonguin' is done♪

♪We'll take our leave and go♪

"...Good." (Eldridge's Ahoge swayed freely to express her enjoyment.)

"♪Da Da Da Da Da Da♪

♪Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da♪

♪Da Da Da Da Da Da♪

♪Da Da Da Da Da Da♪"

The Black Pearl pirate ship continued to sail with the ship girl which if you think about it logically is very unlikely considering they are a warship that weighs tons, but in fact they exist and are sailing with the accompaniment of a sea shanty to a place called as their home.

Their journey is certainly not short and there are many things they will talk about to fill their time of ignorance and curiosity that they have.

But...It doesn't really matter.

After all.

This is not the story of Hope and Dream.

Yet...

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- Lytrotikí epistolí mean Letter of Redemption, I picked that words from Greece. -