Ye-Hsiung sat, revising over papers and documents while reading a book that was in the corner of his table. As the new captain of the Neo Kansai Maru... well at least the remnants of the group - he was a fairly prominent figure among the crew, yet no one seemed to dare speak directly to or approach him unless it was necessary. Though he knew that most of his crew respected him due to his reputation alone, but at the same time most of the respect came from Matsudara putting him into power.

The sun set and the room grew dark, leaving Ye-Hsiung with barely any light, except for the lights in the window A sigh escaped from his lips as he closed the book he was currently reading and placed it down on top of a large stack of paperwork that needed to be signed and filed properly. It has been five long moths, and although they had not encountered any signs of any trouble y Ye-Hsiung remained suspicious of any danger lurking behind the horizon. Ever since that attack, he had been paranoid of people coming after him... especially what they did to the previous captain, his closest friend among the crew Since then, there have only been a couple minor incidents that had occurred, mainly because there hasn't been anyone interested in trying to kill him since he became the second captain. And even then they didn't really bother to try anything, probably due to them suspecting that they had all died... or that the emperor thought that they were too weak. Regardless, the whole situation only served to make him more vigilant than before.

Ye-Hsiung stood up from his seat and walked over to a nearby table to place the documents on top of it. His thoughts were occupied with many things, most of which revolving on the subject of his dear friend Hisao, earlier Matsudara had came to him announcing his awakening - but Ye-Hsiung did not know what the best way to greet him. A simple hello? Welcoming him back? Going out to drink with him? Or maybe... perhaps bringing him tea in a nice, warm embrace?

... Ah, what's the use in thinking about such trivial matters when Hisao would simply not care. He looked more at the government files that the mayor had assigned him to do before simply shoving them all way in a pile to the left of the desk.

Once he was satisfied with his work, he grabbed the papers and headed out the door before he closed the door behind him softly. His footsteps echoed along the hallway as he continued walking to Mayor's office. The corridors were empty aside from some guards that worked for the government. The two officers stationed on both sides of his room greeted him politely.

"Good evening, Sir." The first officer greeted him.

"Hey, Lieutenant!" Ye-Hsiung greeted back casually. "Any news from Mayor Noriyama?"

"Nothing yet, sir." The lieutenant answered.

"Well then... let's talk about this later, shall we?" Yeh-Hsiung shrugged and walked closer to the office. Before entering though, he heard a voice... a screechy voice that he knew all too well.

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He eventually located the building Ye-Hsiung had been working diligently at after exploring most of the island. Hisao would like to think that he accomplished the most of the job himself, but Matsudara gave him the tip of where his dearest friend was at. Hisao questioned if it was too early to be arriving and whether it would be better to wait until nightfall, but he knew that he couldn't put off dealing with this problem until tomorrow. It needed to be done right now.

The sound of loud chatter reached his ears as he walked up to the third floor entrance, he noticed how this building had a more fancy decor compared to everywhere else - but still retained its anti-technology stance. The hallway was quite spacious yet was quite empty. He looked to the end to see what was happening, and saw two guards talking to his dear friend. Hisao ran to the end and greeted at Ye-Hsiung with a loud noise.

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"Oye!!!" Hisao yelled as he ran closer.

A small smirk formed on Ye-Hsiung as he rolled his eyes, as he lightly punched Hisao.

"Hello... Captain... I see you are finally awake." Ye-Hsiung replied as he waves towards Hisao.

"Ah... yes..." Hisao huffed out as his cheeks reddened slightly - due to the amount of running. "You know, you don't have to call me that anymore." He added after a pause.

"I am sorry captain, I simply can't help it... it is just what everyone called you back then and even now. Besides, even though I am the captain right now it seemed to be more of a temporary position." Ye-Hsiung stated as he gestured towards his chest where the captain badge hung above his collar. Ye-Hsiung began to take the badge off before being halted by Hisao.

"Oi, leave it on!"

"Alright. Alright, I'm leaving it on." Hisao chuckled lightly and nodded at Ye-Hsiung. Once he had taken the removed badge and placed it back, Ye-Hsiung began to talk again. "It seems like I owe you an explanation, but first I need to go this monthly meeting..."

"Oh... okay I can wait..." Hisao said.

"Hey, you can come with me if you want?" Ye-Hsiung said as he turned towards the guards behind Him. "Will he be permitted to come with me?" With that said the two of them agreeing to allow Hisao to come along

So, Hisao was dragged into a meeting that he had no idea about with very limited knowledge. Before entering Ye-Hsiung clued him on what had happen politically in the last five months... something about him teaming up with the government officials to have housing for the crew in return to fight for them. Hisao understood the basic gist of it... but the details and reasoning behind what actually happened was lost on him.

He quickly found himself sitting down on the floor with Ye-Hsiung and the mayor as the mayor poured tea for the two of them and Ye-Hsiung getting out documents. The two of them talked for a while Hisao observed, the diplomacy part was never something Hisao was particularly interested in, so he decided to look at the other things surrounding it instead. His eyes drifted down to the bookshelves near them, which contained a number of different titles on topics ranging from history to politics. He then glanced over to the mayor's desk, which also displayed a multitude of various books, documents, folders and letters.

For a quick while, the mayor formally introduced themselves calling themselves Noriyama. Her face was quite youthful, but you could tell that she was beyond her years in terms of experience She had long black hair and tanned brown skin - something common with people on this island, she looked more elegant and graceful than most noblewomen Hisao had seen.

After having exchanged information with each other, it became clear to Hisao that neither of the two of them had a particularly strong relation, nor were they close from the five months - an awkward air filled the room whenever Ye-Hsiung would talk and describe his plans, but Noriyama would always answer in a cordial way. The meeting was almost finished after a few minutes when suddenly Ye-Hsiung's attention wandered off to the side as he muttered to himself under his breath.

"Hm... something bothering you?" Noriyama asked.

"No... it's just... something feels off." Ye-Hsiung replied, a hint of annoyance could be heard in his tone. He rubbed his temple gently as he sighed, "Sorry maybe I'm being more paranoid..."

Hisao blinked slowly as his eyebrows raised in confusion, Noriyama seemed to be intrigued on what he said - and the conversation once again became things that he didn't care about. His eyeline began to look back at the books. Hisao could understand that most of them were important, especially the documents regarding their island, but they all just seemed to add onto one another without being interesting in any sense at all. There was hardly ever any information that Hisao cared about so he continued to sip the tea that had been given by the mayor. The tea had a nice aroma to it, but it's taste was bitter - something that Ye-Hsiung liked a lot. The tea complimented the moon that shined through his eyes as he sat.

Suddenly a knock sounded at the door of the room, followed by it creaking open as a guard entered with a spear in his hand. Both Ye-Hsiung and the mayor turned to the door, with Ye-Hsiung's eyes widening and almost dropping his teacup upon seeing the brash entrance. "It's Code Thunder!" The guard said, and immediately the faces of both Ye-Hsiung and Noriyama became pale. Hisao stared confused.

"What does that mean?"

After hesitating, Noriyama was about to speak before Ye-Hsiung interrupted, "It means... we're under attack."

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