AN: Hey everyone! Here are three different short scenes rolled into one mini chapter! The first two scenes take place after chapter eight while the final scene was a moment that was cut from the previous chapter. Special shout out to skiretehfox on tumblr for the seriously amazing Captain Eli art they did that inspired the first scene of this chapter! Thank you for all views, reviews and favs, it means a lot ;;u;;!
"Before we disperse, there's one final task for today." Eli is giving her usual morning run down to the squad, all of them listening intently and ready to begin their work day.
"Nozomi, I need you to head out of the castle to the Sonoda blacksmith. I commissioned for some equipment back at the beginning of the month, so it should be pretty much done by now." Nozomi smiles.
"Yes Captain." She says with a slight grin. "Is this a task I'll be doing by myself?"
"No, I believe it's only fitting that Umi goes along with you. It is her Father's business after all."
"Me?" Umi says with a frown. "Captain, I have my duties to the Princess. I can't possibly leave them to Honoka with her injury."
"You won't be." Eli smiles warmly at Umi. "I'll cover you while you're gone. You both shouldn't be more than an hour. I've had your horses prepared so you'll both be able to leave right away."
"In that case, we shouldn't keep the blacksmith waiting." Nozomi says, standing up excitedly. Rin had been listening intently to the final request Eli made and the thought of heading out of the castle for a little bit intrigued her. She pushed herself up from her stool and looked towards Eli with an excited smile.
"Captain! Permission to go along with Umi and Nozomi?!" She asks in a bubbly voice. Eli laughs lightly, knowing there was no way she could deny the short haired girl.
"If Umi allows it then I don't see why not."
Rin makes direct eye contact with Umi and the navy haired girl sighs knowing exactly how it would play out if she said no.
"You may come along with us, Rin." She says. Rin cheers, bouncing over to Nozomi excitedly and grabbing her hand.
"I get to join Nozomi-chan on her first trip through town~" She says in a sing song voice. Nozomi laughs, reaching up with her free hand and petting Rin lightly on the head. "Can we show her around the market place Umi?!"
"It isn't a trip for fun, Rin." Umi says in her stern voice. Rin pouts briefly before Nozomi gives her a reassuring smile.
"One day we'll explore the market together when we aren't working. Okay Rin-chan?" Nozomi says. Rin's eyes light up and she beams.
"Alright!" She declares happily.
"Come on, let's go see my Father and pick up the Captain's equipment. Then we can get to the rest of our daily tasks. Understood?" Umi says to the two of them.
Both Rin and Nozomi chorus an agreement, and the three of them depart from the breakfast table to head to the front courtyard where the horses would be waiting. They arrived fairly quickly and two horses were geared up, their reins attached to a small cart. Both Umi and Rin eyed it before glancing over to Nozomi.
"What is it we're picking up, Nozomi?" Rin asks, watching as she too stared at it confused.
"I believe its armour? At least, it's the chest plate. I only know that much." She responds, offering an apologetic smile.
"If it's just a chest plate, my Father would have had that done weeks ago." Umi hums a bit. "It's probably a full suit if it took this long and we need the whole cart for it."
"Eh? What would the Captain need with another suit of armour?" Rin asks.
"We'll have to find out." Nozomi answers with a grin.
The trio soon climb into the cart, making their way out of the gates and into the town. Along the ride Rin pointed excitedly towards different buildings and talked about the many different shops and people who lived in their small castle town. Nozomi listened intently to Rin's stories and Umi smiled to herself, correcting Rin whenever she got a fact wrong and occasionally adding small stories about certain buildings Rin pointed out.
The three of them are soon out front of the Umi's home. They climb out of the cart and Umi sighs contently, already relaxing from the homey atmosphere that little workshop gave off. She walks towards the large door and enters the house with Rin and Nozomi following closely behind her.
The outside of the building may have looked like any other villagers house, but on the inside everything was a completely different experience. Hanging from the walls were various weapons that had been forged by the blacksmith. Different types of swords and maces decorated the walls as well as filling different cupboards scattered around the ground floor. There was a long space of nothing in the center of the room, making a clear path from the front door to the workplace. There were three different anvils set up only feet away from the large fireplace, and hammering on one of the anvils was a very tall muscular man who had his back to them. Nozomi took her time to take in everything about the place as Umi shouted a loud greeting.
"Good morning, Father!"
At the sound of the voice, the burly man halts his hammering. He turns his head towards the entrance to reveal a neatly trimmed beard and dark amber eyes that resembled his daughters all too well. A smile quickly appears on his face at the sight of his daughter and he announces his own greeting back to her.
"Umi!" His voice booms loudly. "Welcome home!" He puts his hammer down, moving away from his workspace to greet his daughter. Umi smiled warmly to her Father and accepted his short greeting hug.
"Thank you, Father. I'm sorry I can't stay for an actual visit. I'm here on castle duties." His eyes flash with understanding as he glances over to Nozomi and Rin who stood off to the side with small smiles.
"You're all here for the Captain's commissions then?" Umi nods.
"Yes. We're here to pick up everything she ordered at the beginning of the month."
"Here, come with me. I'll need your assistance for this one." Umi nods, following him into his work area. Both Rin and Nozomi watch as the two of them hoist up a crate the size of another human being. They share a skeptical look as they watch the two of them work together to carry the giant sealed box from the back of the workshop to the front.
"Just what did the Captain order?!" Rin practically shouts. Umi's Father chuckles deeply, getting a better hold on his side of the large crate.
"We had been discussing back and forth about a new set of armour she had wanted to commission. The Princess helped her design it and I set to work completing it. It was quite a change from the armour I normally forge, but it came out wonderfully. That's about it." There's a small drop of sweat trailing down his face and Umi can only hum in concern.
"It feels awful heavy for one set of armour." Umi frowns, deciding not to question it more before looking over to the other two. "Let's not waste any more time then. Rin, you take the other side from my Father. Nozomi, please hold the door open for us while we take these out to the cart."
The both of them nodded and Rin hopped over to the burly man, taking his side from him. Her eyes widened at the heavy weight of the crate and she made eye contact with Umi, who could only give a half-hearted shrug. Nozomi moved to push the door open, keeping it opened widely as Umi and Rin manoeuvred out of the shop and to the cart that now waited for them. They set it down gently in the back and slid it so it sat nicely against the wall of the cart.
"Thank you, Father." Umi smiles at her dad and he nods, reaching out and patting her shoulder.
"Not a problem. Work hard, Umi." Umi only nodded before she walked over to the cart. Both Nozomi and Rin said good bye to her Father and they climbed into the back.
The trip back home was short as Rin went on about the heaviness of what was in that crate. Nozomi eyed it curiously, commenting that a crate the size of another person was pretty large for only a single chest plate. Umi pointed out they would learn soon when Eli would reveal to them all exactly the armour she commissioned from her family's business so their curiosity wouldn't be around for much longer.
Once they arrived back at the castle, Rin hopped out of the back and announced she would go find Eli. That left both Nozomi and Umi to carry the crate inside. The two of them sighed as the energetic girl sprinted off before making the effort to get the heavy package off the card and into the castle.
By the time Rin returned with Eli not far behind her, Umi and Nozomi leant against the crate that now rested in the center of the courtroom. Eli smiled in light amusement as the both of them stood alert as her and Rin walked towards them.
"Welcome back." She greeted. "Were you two just going to drag the crate through the courtroom?"
"Originally we were going to head to the Queen's downstairs study." Umi began. "But there was an accident in the corridor that we didn't want to interrupt, so we decided to make a detour through the courtroom."
"It wasn't a very good detour." Nozomi adds, smiling apologetically at Eli. "But we have your new armour."
"Thank you, Umi. Nozomi." Eli says. "But everything in here isn't just for me." An unfamiliar look is on Eli's face as her eyes reflect a triumphant glint and a proud smile on her face. The face of someone who got away with doing something sneaky.
"It isn't..?" Umi asks hesitantly. Eli unsheathes her sword, walking over to the crate and slipping it under the lid. With very little effort the top popped off, revealing the neatly packaged contents.
"While I did commission for a new set of armour, that wasn't the only thing I had ordered." Nozomi and Rin share a glance and Eli bends down, rummaging through the crates contents and pulling out a bright silver chest plate with an incredibly fancy design. She smiled to herself before looking to Nozomi.
"A little birdie told me that on the ninth it was someone's birthday." Umi and Rin share a confused stare, knowing that it wasn't either of theirs. They glance to Nozomi, whose eyes widen as Eli's gaze falls directly onto her. "It's a bit late, but we didn't think you would mind." Eli winks and Nozomi gapes a bit as her stare lingers on the shiny chest plate in Eli's arms.
"That's-" Nozomi is speechless as she steps closer, her eyes going from the armour back up to Eli's face. "That's for me?"
"It's for you." Eli confirms, holding it out to her. Her smile is warm as a faint blush tints her cheeks "Happy belated birthday, Nozomi."
Umi and Rin's confused stares melt into excited smiles as Nozomi covers her mouth. Her attempt to hide her happy grin is useless as she takes the few steps closer to Eli and admires the hand crafted armour that she held. She hesitantly places her hand on it, letting her fingers run over the cool metal. She takes the metal plate from Eli and looks over to Rin and Umi with excitement.
"I have armour!" She says, her voice sounding just like a little kid who had been gifted the most incredible present known to man. Umi chuckles softly and Rin grins, Nozomi's excitement rubbing off on her. Eli's face heats up more and she has to glance away as the tips of her ears turn bright red. This was one of the happiest moments she had seen with Nozomi and if she knew the reaction would be like this, she would have made sure Nico was here to see it.
Nozomi turns back to Eli and without thinking it through; she places the plate down on the ground and leaps on the unsuspecting Captain. Eli was so caught off guard by the sudden hug that she stumbled backwards, the two of them falling ungracefully into the half empty crate. Nozomi laughed loudly as she hugged herself tighter to the blonde, who was now caught between the rest of the crates contents and Nozomi.
"N-Nozomi!" Eli wants to scold her but the laughter that came from her was all too contagious and she wraped her arms around Nozomi, laughing along with her.
Their laughter rang through the courtroom and both Umi and Rin smile to each other. They silently exit as Nozomi and Eli's laughter continues, leaving the two of them to enjoy the blissful moment with one another.
"Gooood morning everybody!" Honoka shouts excitedly, walking with a happy step towards the breakfast table.
Now that the festival was over everyone was back to their regular work duties, except for her. Eli insisted that she could take as long as she needed to rest and let her arm heal properly but the ginger haired girl was confidant she would be able to be of some help during the day. With that in mind, Eli assigned her to the only real duty she could think of: spending time with the Princess.
Honoka had been enjoying every moment of it so far. The last couple days she learnt a bit about how the sewing process worked, she watched Kotori write a thank you notice to the citizens for coming out to the castle events, and she even got to participate a bit in her waltz lesson (but when it turned out Honoka wasn't too much of a good partner with only one arm she switched places with Umi and watched from the sides with Hanayo.)
She was beginning to become a bit irritated. Spending time with Kotori was fun, but she wanted to contribute and help her friends and her princess with their daily tasks. So when she got up this morning, she looked over her arm and decided that today she would ask the captain for new tasks. She knew it was a long shot but she was determined to do something besides staying out of the way today.
"Good morning Honoka-chan!" Rin beams at her friend. "How's your arm?"
"It's great! I can move it and totally feel no pain!" To emphasize her point, Honoka attempted to move her arm. Realizing the sling had kept it tightly in place, she frowned. "Well, I could if the sling was off." She turns her face excitedly to Umi and before she can even ask her question, Umi cuts her off.
"Absolutely not."
"Eh?! But I didn't even ask you anything yet Umi-chan!" Honoka pouts, taking her seat at the table. "Please?! Doing nothing was fun at first but I wanna get back to work."
The whole table is quiet and Umi dramatically stands from her seat, ripping her glove off and pressing her hand against Honoka's forehead. Honoka gasps surprised as Umi's hand stays pressed firmly against her. Everyone at the table waits in silence for Umi's verdict as Honoka stares up confused at the blue haired girls face.
"Nothing. Honoka isn't even burning up. She's completely healthy." She declares to the table, removing her hand off of Honoka's forehead and peering down at her. "Honoka are you sure you don't need more sleep? You're never eager to work." Honoka puffs her cheeks out, clearly offended by the completely true statement Umi had said.
"There are times when I want to work!" She shouts in defence, using her good arm to push Umi away. She turns her body away from her and tries her best to tuck her good arm away to make it look like her arms would be crossed. Her attempt is useless as she ends up hurting her broken arm and with a small grunt of pain; she gives up and lets the arm fall to her side dejectedly.
After a small silence, Maki speaks up.
"Well, she isn't lying. We'd all be blind if we didn't notice how Honoka enjoys the little things in her jobs."
"I agree." Eli says with a nod. "As rare as it is, there have been times where Honoka has been more eager to work than most. But your arm is still in the early stages of its healing process. I don't think it's a good idea if you tried to do your usual everyday tasks on your own."
"Then how about I join her?" Everyone turns surprised to see Kotori had silently made her way over to them. She has an angelic smile and Honoka's eyes sparkle with excitement.
"Kotori-chan, you want to work with me?!" She asks excitedly.
"Yeah! It's Thursday. On Thursday's you're jobs are usually just the after dinner patrol and whatever other miscellaneous task the Captain has assigned you." Kotori looks to Eli with her smile and tilts her head. "Do you have a task Honoka and I could do today, Captain?"
Eli thinks about the jobs for the day before making eye contact with Kotori. It had been her biggest mistake as her warm eyes pleaded her silently and Eli had to look away as she caved into the princess' request.
"The kitchen staff has recently made changes to the setup of the castle's pantry. There's a lot of chaos as the staff tries to get meals cooking on time and organize everything the way they'd like it. I was originally going to have Nozomi head down after lunch, but if you really are sure you want to assist Honoka then I leave this task to you both."
"I object to this idea." Umi says sternly, crossing her arms and looking at Kotori. "Princess, the kitchen is a busy area and you and Honoka might only be in the way of the cooks."
"If you're that worried, why don't you join us then Umi-chan~?" Kotori asks, her smile quickly becoming a grin. The navy haired knight paused for a moment and sighed, shaking her head.
"Alright. Captain, I'll be assisting the Princess and Honoka today before doing my regular duties." Eli only nods at her, smiling lightly as Kotori made her way to both Honoka and Umi.
After eating their breakfast, the three of them said their good byes to the squad and Honoka lead the way towards the kitchen. Umi and Kotori share a glance, having their own silent conversation with each other through their expressions. Umi's eyebrows furrow and Kotori offers an apologetic smile. She leans a bit closer to her knight, whispering in a quiet voice.
"She was miserable yesterday. I thought this might cheer her up. We'll be there to help her and it's all just organizing things in the kitchen. It shouldn't be too hard!" Umi doesn't say a word as she leans away, not wanting to bring down the princess' spirits with a negative comment.
Kotori had thought it would be very simple work, but she couldn't have been more wrong.
The kitchen really was an absolute mess. Stacks upon stacks of cooking utensils were piled on the counter tops and the food storage closet was completely bare as all the food had been scattered and piled up around the kitchen. It was absolute chaos and the head cook Nagayama Minami apologized continuously to Kotori, Honoka and Umi.
"T-The mess has gotten a bit out of hand. We only wanted to rearrange the spices and how the food was stored but it quickly evolved into completely changing out whole set up." She said exasperatedly. "We only have an hour before we need to start the preparations for today's lunch but at this rate we might have to start it later and have a late dinner."
"This shouldn't be a problem at all!" Honoka says as she scans over everything. She walked over to a large sack of flour, patting it with her good arm. "Do you have any plans for the new set up?"
The blonde haired girl nodded, grabbing a folded piece of paper from her apron pocket. Kotori held her hand out and took a look over it all, nodding as she understood just exactly what the cooks had wanted to do.
"I think we should be done in about an hour." She says with confidence, holding the paper out to Umi. The blue haired girl scans over it herself before nodding and smiling at the chef.
"Alright, that seems simple enough. I'm assuming you want to start moving the top shelf things into the pantry first, correct?" She asks.
"Ah, yes! That would be the easiest-"
"HONOKA-CHAN!" Kotori's voice alarms both Umi and Minami as they look worriedly over to the ginger haired girl, who had begun attempting to drag the large sack of flour back towards the pantry. She looks up in slight alarm to Kotori before grinning sheepishly.
"Honoka-chan you should be paying attention to the instructions from the cook!" Kotori scolds and Honoka reluctantly lets go of the flour bag. "We're moving the items for the top shelf in first!"
"Ehh? But I can't reach the top shelf". Honoka says with a pout, looking down at the flour bags. Her pout isn't there long before she bounces back up, looking at the confused chef excitedly.
"Well, I can always just bring everything into the pantry while Umi puts it away, right?!"
"Yes yes, you can do that Honoka. Just listen while we discuss what will go in first." Umi says pleadingly. "I know you're excited to get to work but we need to do it properly and you need to be careful of your arm."
"Okay Umi-chan!" Honoka agrees happily, not caring that she got in trouble. Her thoughts only lingered on doing the work with Umi and Kotori and she didn't mind waiting a bit longer.
After a small discussion of how the organization of the pantry would go, the three set to work. Honoka was so excited she had gotten a bit careless. She was determined to show both Kotori and Umi she could do simple tasks and be useful, and in the beginning it had been pretty easy for her. Everything she grabbed was light and easy and sometimes she even got to assist Kotori in lifting a heavier item. Her excitement began to take over as she enthusiastically began to dash back and forth from the pantry to the other items in the kitchen carelessly
It was at that point that Kotori went from assisting Honoka with moving the food to guiding her away from tables and making sure she didn't trip over her own feet. Honoka was oblivious to the danger she had been putting herself and her arm in when she sped by the fire with a hot cauldron sitting atop it. She had accidentally nudged one of the spikes that kept the hot pot over the fire and in swung dangerously over the flames. With quick thinking Kotori grabbed the large heat protecting gloves and steadied it carefully over the flames. She pulled away, sighing relieved that no mess had happened until the sound of a crate smashing on the floor startled her. The ash haired girl turned around quickly to find that another cook had accidentally knocked something down from across where Honoka was. She sighed for a second time before quickly scurrying to the pantry.
"Umi-chan, why don't you help me and Honoka-chan with the heavier things now?" Kotori hopes that Umi's great instincts pick up the plea to help her keep Honoka safe in her voice.
Umi stares towards Kotori before nodding, not taking long to catch on to Kotori's true request.
"Of course, Princess."
When the two of them exited the pantry their eyes widened in horror as Honoka had one of the cooks assist her in getting a sack of rice lifted. Honoka leant forward, her hand tightly gripping the top of the bag and her back supporting most of the weight. She grinned, turning herself and saying thanks to the person who helped her. The sack of rice on her back slid into the stacked food behind her and Umi had to sprint from her spot at the pantry to the counter top in order to prevent it all from toppling straight to the floor.
"Honoka-chan! You nearly knocked over all the things on this counter!" Kotori says as she approaches her with a frown.
"Eh?! AH! Sorry Umi-chan!" Honoka apologizes. Umi replies with a simple grunt, pushing everything carefully back onto the counter.
As she turned to give Honoka a piece of her mind, Umi quickly realized Honoka had moved forward and was heading directly towards the pantry. She moved with slow steps, completely unaware of how close she was walking between different cooks and counters stacked with cooking utensils. Umi and Kotori moved quickly, blocking cooks who hadn't seen Honoka heading towards them and stealthily shoving all obstacles out of Honoka's way so she wouldn't trip or knock anything over.
Once Honoka was there, she dropped the rice with a satisfied grunt. She turned around to announce she had done it but was surprised to find a heavy breathing Kotori and Umi just outside the pantry. She tilted her head in confusion, rubbing the back of her neck before voicing her question.
"Are you two okay?"
Kotori lets out a nervous laugh, only nodding.
"O-Of course Honoka-chan!"
"Hmmm," Honoka examined the both of them carefully before shrugging, a smile on her face. "Well, if you say so! Let's hurry and get the rest of the heavy stuff put away now!" Honoka moved forward with an exited step and Umi and Kotori sigh quietly to themselves.
The rest of the kitchen work was completed later than predicted, but Honoka was still pleased. The cooks thanked the trio as they left and Honoka walked down the halls a few paces ahead of the other two, humming happily to herself.
"If we didn't have to monitor Honoka that whole time, we may have gotten it all done in time." Umi mumbles to Kotori. Kotori sighs lightly, turning to Umi and giving her a small smile.
"That's true." She begins, linking her arm with Umi's slowly. "But she's happy, and that makes me happy too. What about you, Umi-chan?" Kotori looks to her partner and watches the smile grow on Umi's face as she stared at their ginger haired companion.
"It truly does make me happy as well, Kotori." She says with fondness as Honoka turns around, smiling brightly to the two of them.
"Captain, you were really spooked before that final match." Mikoto greets Hitomi rather rudely and Hitomi doesn't focus on her as she walks directly past her. Mikoto follows closely, continuing to speak. "Were you that thrown off by what you did to that Kousaka knight?"
"Of course not! No. I've done worse. Breaking a girls arm wouldn't sway me even slightly." Hitomi responded, stopping and looking around to make sure it was only the two of them. "No, it was after that when those knights stepped in."
"The blonde? That was the captain. The blue haired one was the archery champion from the day before; I'm told she's the other right hand knight to the Captain. I don't know anything about that other broad who blocked you though." Mikoto shrugged and Hitomi's whipped her head around, glaring at her subordinate.
"It was HER." Mikoto furrows her eyebrows in confusion.
"Her? Wait-" Her eyes widen in realization and she turns her head back into the ring in hopes that she might be able to see the purple haired girl who blocked Hitomi's sword before the final match. "You can't possibly mean..." Her voice trails off and Hitomi hums.
"That's exactly who I mean."
"Impossible." Mikoto says, shaking her head as if trying to convince herself that her captain was wrong. "A-Rise has been searching all over Akiba for her. There's no possible way that she could have gotten out here and become a part of their knights in the few months she's been gone."
"Well she has and it looks like A-Rise is in for a long search for nothing since she isn't in Akiba anymore." Mikoto turns to Hitomi, locking their eyes.
"Are you positive, Captain?" She asks lowly. "Are you absolutely positive that was her out there?"
"Of course I am. I have no doubts about it. I'd know those green eyes anywhere." The sound of the crowd moving to leave the stands becomes loud and Hitomi begins to walk out of the arena. Mikoto follows her quickly with wide eyes.
"But if she's here, then does that mean...?" Mikoto lets her voice trail off again and Hitomi nods.
"Yes." Hitomi answers the unsaid question. "It means there's a good chance that Captain Yazawa is here too."