Alright! Once this report's handed in, your field mission will be formally closed out.
Skadi
Mm.
Rhodes Island Operator
Wait, is it still... blank? Ahem, hm-hm...
Rhodes Island Operator
The only thing on this entire sheet is the word 'complete!'
Skadi
Hmm?
Skadi
The mission definitely is complete.
Rhodes Island Operator
I-I mean, that's not wrong...
Rhodes Island Operator
...but it wouldn't hurt if you wrote a little more, right?!
Skadi
Hm?
Rhodes Island Operator
(What do I do... just how difficult is she?)
Rhodes Island Operator
(I never really talked to her before. I heard we were linking up with her, and the group leader even warned me... but this is still going to be tricky to handle.)
Rhodes Island Operator
(Deep breath)
Rhodes Island Operator
Alright, okay. I understand.
Rhodes Island Operator
If the Doctor has any questions regarding the particulars of your mission, we'll seek confirmation from you again then.
Skadi
...The Doctor?
Rhodes Island Operator
Yes, Dr. Kal'tsit presumed you wouldn't want to hand a report in to her... and she also mentioned Amiya's too soft on you, and it can't go on like this... and so on.
Rhodes Island Operator
So then we filed this mission away on the Doctor's end.
Skadi
That woman. Hmph.
Rhodes Island Operator
Do you want to report directly, then? Looks like the Doctor's out right now, so you can relax for a few days until the Doctor's back.
Rhodes Island Operator
This report of yours, right now, could seriously use some more fleshing out!
Give the files back to me. I've decided, it's okay if I add a few more details.
Rhodes Island Operator
Oh! Of course it's okay! I'll leave it to you, then.
Rhodes Island Operator
(This might go smoother than I anticipated...)
Rhodes Island Operator
That's all from me then. Do head back and get some proper... um?
Skadi
......
Rhodes Island Operator
Your expression just completely changed. Has something happened?
Skadi
In likelihood.
Rhodes Island Operator
Huh? In here? Aboard the ship? An intruder?! I've heard about your acute senses. Could it be...
Rhodes Island Operator
No, that's not right. The alarms should have sounded if there was danger aboard, right?
Skadi
...Singing.
Rhodes Island Operator
Singing? What singing? Er, it's silent all around. I can't hear any...
Skadi
How? Why is there singing here?
Rhodes Island Operator
I suppose there is a sort of droning sound, but that's not a song, is it? There's all kinds of machinery operating aboard Rhodes Island. Is it their vibrations, just maybe? Are you still not fully used to it?
Skadi
No. The scent.
Skadi
The scent of the seawater.
Rhodes Island Operator
...Skadi? You're scaring me a little. What are you tal...
Perhaps she wanted to take a stroll outside after becoming lucid.
Skadi
Wait... what is this?
She picks it up, and rubs it in her fingers.
Skadi
...It looks like hers.
Specter's gold chain had been carelessly thrown to the ground. Or perhaps, deliberately.
Did she despise this item? Then she surely isn't pleased with her current identity.
The affairs of the Church—at least the Church of the sea—are all nefarious ones.
But... something's not right.
Outsider.
Without knowing why, Skadi has abruptly recalled that word.
She realizes that the scent is not Specter's at all.
Compared to the Specter of past, this scent now is too strong, and too callous. Skadi doubts it was simply a surprise that went all too hard to her head.
Skadi
You're here. Who are you? Come out.
An Abyssal Hunter. But not Specter. Of all things, there were still other Abyssal Hunters who survived!
But why here?
...Where has Specter gone?
Skadi
......
Skadi
No matter who, or what, you are. Come out.
She needs to give chase. Something's not right. She senses the other one truly is nearby.
Could... you be the Second Company's—Specter's leader...?
Skadi
You're... Gladiia...?!
Gladiia
It has been some time, Skadi. You are still able to recollect the Ægir's song, which deeply gratifies me.
Skadi cannot pick out even a single trace of 'gratitude' in her expression. This woman, from the first she knew her, has never once shown any change on her face.
The tall woman carries Specter. The one Abyssal Hunter that Skadi understands to have survived the past several years, Specter, now lies on Gladiia's shoulder, dreaming another uncharacteristically tranquil dream.
The instant Specter's leader let slip a word, the singing vanished.
Skadi is dazed for a spell. From the port window rushes arid winds that only dry land could blow, brushing past Skadi's cheeks, almost dry themselves. She thinks to herself—this hunter is still alive, Gladiia is alive. Skadi has finally found another of her own.
No. It is Gladiia who found them. Yet...
Skadi
I thought you were dead. You staked your lives to let us pass. I thought you were all dead.
Gladiia
Life is a precious thing. I am very happy to see that you, too, are alive.
Skadi
Given Specter was still alive, I'd always been wondering whether or not any more of the Second could have made it...
Skadi
How did you find this place? Specter... she's still better off staying in the ward.
Gladiia
......
One of the fiercest hunters in all of Skadi's mind chooses, at this juncture, to say nothing.
In Skadi's heart, doubt burgeons.
Skadi
She's changed a lot. She may not necessarily recognize you now. Her body is still feeble.
Gladiia
Feeble? A hunter could not be feeble.
Skadi
How long have you been on dry land?
Skadi
Disease of the land, of a special kind, has hollowed her body out. The people aboard this ship can stabilize her condition.
Skadi
In all these years, she's never come back to sanity. The current Specter is another person entirely. I don't know what it was that made her like this.
Gladiia does not speak, and the breeze blows through, her hair drifting in its wakes, covering her eye.
Skadi has realized where the problem lies.
Skadi
Gladiia. Yes, you're Gladiia. There is no mistake. But what do you intend to do?
Skadi
Where are you planning to take her?
Gladiia
I believed that upon dry land, the hunters were free. Have I misunderstood something?
Skadi
No, Gladiia... she's still asleep. You never asked her... whether or not she wants to go.
Skadi
You want to take her away from here.
Gladiia
You seem to show a great deal of interest in these new colleagues of yours. Do they not treat you too in kind? It would be but a passing motion for you to pinch their spines to dust, yet how is it you do not instill dread in them?
Skadi
For these people of dry land to treat us with enmity is normal, but not for the ones aboard this ship. The ones I have met would not.
Gladiia
I still cannot fathom why you drop your guard.
Skadi
No... I don't want to get them mixed up in this matter. The problem doesn't lie with me, nor them.
The problem lies in you.
Skadi takes a step toward.
Skadi
What is your intent in doing this? You had best explain.
Gladiia
Hunter Skadi.
Gladiia
—On dry land, I will not constrain you with my rank of Consul.
Skadi
Hm...
Gladiia
Yet neither do I have any obligation to explain myself to you.
Gladiia
I simply believe that I should have you know. It was I who took her, a member of my own company. This suffices.
Skadi
......
Skadi
Why?
Gladiia
You need not know the reason yet this evening.
Skadi
But Specter!
Gladiia
—(Two Iberian words)—
Before the name fully reaches Skadi's ears, Gladiia has already slipped from the ship's window into the moonlight outside, Specter's limp body disappearing with her.
Skadi does not reach out. She does not even move.
She knows well that if Gladiia wants to leave, she has no hope of ever catching her; yet, if Gladiia only wanted to escape, then she would not have left any information behind.
She was seeking help, or she was hoodwinking herself. Skadi half-believes it, half doesn't, yet has no other alternative. At the least, she did not order Skadi to do anything, or not to do anything.
Hey, see, she responded... and look at her face. That really is Skadi!
Bounty Hunter A
Still remember the 'Captain,' Skadi? We've got his money, and now we're gonna avenge him with your life!
Bounty Hunter B
You crackbrained idiot... you crackbrained idiot! I said this was a rotten idea!
Bounty Hunter B
Didn't we say using his money to run some cons would be enough?! Avenge my ass, bounty my ass! What chance in hell?!
Bounty Hunter B
Remember the rumors! If that's really her, you think there's a single cent in this for us? It'll cost our lives!
Bounty Hunter B
We'd better scram before it's too late! Grab your dumb scrap and run!
Bounty Hunter A
Pah.
Bounty Hunter A
You go crawling back to your shitheap bed cuddling burdenbeast piss and yelling mamá. You lose your nerve the moment a single long-haired girl says something to you. You want ME to go home empty-handed? No goddamn way!
Bounty Hunter C
You're right! Even if she really is Skadi, even if, what the hell can she do? She's all alone right now, isn't she?
Bounty Hunter C
We've got one, two... yeah, a bunch of guys!
Bounty Hunter B
But all those powerhouse bounty hunters are rotting in the ground, aren't they? She was alone then too!
Bounty Hunter B
And think about it, every time you say you have so many guys, does anything good ever come of it?
Bounty Hunter A
And who saw that? If you ask me, those guys? Maybe they just got drunk off their asses one night and all went into the same pretty little Kuranta's room.
Bounty Hunter A
Then she got her crossbows out her pants, went free-for-all, blew their brains to mush.
Bounty Hunter A
That's what rumors are! If all those wandering singers or whoever went around singing and playing without puffing their stories up a little, you think they'd make enough money to eat?
Bounty Hunter A
Splitting fifty mountains with a single sword, yeah, right... and I can punch a hole straight through Londinium with one fist!
Bounty Hunter A
Listen to me, brothers! If you wanna eat, come with me!
Bounty Hunter A
Skadi, Schmadi, we can put her down right here, and nobody can pinch our gold after! Add the bounty the others put on her head, we'll be set for the rest of our lives plus retirement!
Skadi
I'll give you a choice. Run now, and you can live. I have no time to waste with you people.
Bounty Hunter C
Charge! Kill her dead!
Skadi
......
Skadi
(Ægirian) It's the rotted seagrass that clings most to one's leg.
Skadi
I never thought it would be the annoyance of worthless bounty hunters that remained ever unchanging.
