The gang and the other volunteer warriors resided on the ferryboat, waiting to be examined. Lola happily wagged her tails as she and a sleeping Chronia sat in Zalroth's arms. Lola happily looked up at Zalroth and smiled at him.
"Did Lola do good, Paa?" Lola mumbled out with a big grin on her face.
"You sure did, Fluffkins," Zalroth remarked, placing a hand on his daughter's head and ruffling her hair.
"But why did you frame yourself as taking his weapon when he dropped it?" Abigail whispered, indicating to Lola that she should, too. Lola smugly grinned before hopping over to Abigail and landing on her shoulders.
"Well... while Papa was talking to the bald samu raizo, I noticed he dropped his knife so I went to get it for him," Lola whispered back to Abigail.
"And what better way to get past someone's guard than to hurt their ego by being outplayed by a kid?" Jeslyina asked smugly while nodding along, listening to the kid's conversation. Lola nodded to her auntie's remark while Abigail pouted, annoyed at realising her mother had probably teleported the guy's weapon away in the first place and roped Lola into it.
"Yah!" Lola proclaimed cheerfully out of the blue, causing some of the others in the line to chuckle amusedly. A short, super fair-skinned seven-year-old girl, covered by a pale golden cloak with a large gear on the back, a few positions ahead of Zalroth, and co, glanced slightly to the side to get a look at Lola as she happily proudly smiled at Zalroth.
(The short seven-year-old girl: she has golden bronze blonde hair with a spark-shaped ahoge and three spark-shaped fringes, and bronze brown eyes with two interlocking crosses in each of her pupils)
(She's wearing white puffy knitted wool shorts, golden-coloured leggings, gold crocks with gear engravings on the sole of the crocks)
The female child continued staring at the duo before slightly lowering her arms and looking forward again. The child took in a deep breath, aggressively breathing out to cool her nerves.
A few minutes later, on the deck of the shogun's ferry, a lightly tanned woman wearing the shrine-maiden samurai uniform [she's a human: she has long curly pink hair, and blueberry blue eyes] stood in a row with seven other people wearing the same uniform as her. The shogunate samurai wrapped her finger around the ends of one of her fringes, and the shogunate samurai next to her leaned slightly towards her arm to nudge her.
"Hey, Moette, don't you think the shogun's being a bit... I dunno how to put it... like she's jumping the shark? She didn't even have the recon team go to the island before she organized this expedition," the other shogunate samurai remarked to Moette, the female shogunate samurai. Moette rolled her eyes at the other samurai's comment as she let go of her hair.
"It's not our place to judge the shogun's orders besides what do you think this expedition is?" Moette uttered calmly. The other shogunate samurai looked a little shocked at Moette's comment.
"Wait... are you saying we're doing the recon this time?" the other samurai asked, causing Moette to roll her eyes dismissively. Heavy footsteps echoed from below the deck before a tall, super fair-skinned male walked up from the stairs in the middle of the ferry leading up from the low deck.
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(The human-looking man has pitch-black hair with dark purple highlights, and he has two super long glowing purple rabbit-ear-shape hair poking out the top of his head which hangs behind him and reaches his waist, and glowing purple eyes with three golden interlocking crosses in each of his pupils)
(He's wearing a black shrine maiden-styled samurai kimono with a large shogun insignia on the back of it [regal lion-styled insignia], and a dark purple kimono trouser)
The man placed his hand behind himself, grabbed his black-handled katana in a dark purple sheath and held it with his rabbit-ear-shaped hair. The man slammed the base of the sheathed katana against the deck, and all the shogunate samurai stood at attention.
"Chief Izonava!" the shogunate samurais proclaimed calmly in unison. The chief exhaustedly sighed as he closed his eyes for a brief moment.
"None of you needs to refer to me by my title unless it is during government events, trials and whatnot, so just call me by my name," the chief requested, making the shogunate samurai bow.
"Understood, Chief Eizon!". Eizon mentally sighed at hearing his subordinates add chief to his name but gave up on having them refer to him in an informal fashion. Eizon glanced at the group of volunteers before the crosses in his eyes spun, causing his vision to alter; most of the crowd had a blue glow around them, the girl with the golden gear cloak a green glow, and Zalroth and co didn't glow. However, when his eyes landed on Ela he flinched at the pitch-black silhouette encasing the girl's body.
"Now, I want you to split the volunteers into groups of three, and then you shall evaluate them," Eizon ordered. The samurais nodded but Moette raised her hand.
"Yes, Moette?" Eizon asked calmly.
"But, sir, there are twenty-six people if we don't include those who are obviously not fighters," Moette explained.
"Do not fret. I intend to evaluate three individuals as well to allow us to remain bound to the schedule provided by the shogun," Eizon stated. Eizon's subordinates bowed again before Eizon turned to the crowd of volunteers.
"I take you were paying attention to what I previously said?" Eizon asked inquisitively. The volunteers nodded their heads.
"Good; now you three, I shall be evaluating you," Eizon stated as he pointed at Zalroth, Jeslyina, and the girl with the golden gear cloak before the crowd of volunteers split up.
Ela sat on a swing attached to a canopy-like structure on the ferry, and she looked out to the sea while a sleeping Chronia led against her. Abigail, carrying Lola in her arms, stood next to the swing. Eizon placed his sheathed katana back on the ends of his rabbit-ear-like hair antenna.
"Now... before we begin, could you cover your ears, Volenteer Nolivia," Eizon requested calmly. Nolivia gasped at being called by name, her breath fluttery. But even in her startled state, she robotically slapped her hands over her ears, not wanting to ruin her chances of passing the test. Eizon moved his focus to Zalroth and co, mentally sighing as he spotted the cheeky smirk on Chronia's face.
"Your return doesn't bode well for this expedition. Although...," Eizon said in a whisper before turning his gaze to the kids in the group, "...but if you've brought children with you, then it can't be that bad.".
"Incorrect," Ela stated boldly to a robotic degree that shook everyone to their cores, excluding Zalroth and Eizon. Although her tone of voice didn't worry him, Eizon felt a sense of unease from the glassy glare in Ela's eyes, forcing the non-human to consider what the Shogun was planning.
"Well... at least I know to be prepared for what's to come," Eizon stated calmly while itching the base of his hair filament.