Yuri, Sayori, and our hero find themselves back at the ship, in the medical bay getting patched up. The injuries they sustained during the mission were fairly bad, our hero in particular was in way worse condition than the other two, but with the ship's advanced technology, they're back up on their feet in no time, although they are still a bit sore.

"Damn, I feel a million times better. This medical bay never ceases to amaze me. Thanks, doc." Our hero say with an upbeat tone while flexing his shoulder.

"No problem, but will advise you to not take it for granted. There's only so much we can do." The doctor states as a grim reminder.

"Yeah... I suppose you're right." He says, rubbing the back of his head.

"Anyways, you're free to go." The doctor says.

He then leave the medical bay, and is met Sayori along the hallway.

"There you are. You doing any better?" She asks.

"Yeah, much better. How bout you and Yuri?" He asks her in return. They then begin to walk down the hall together.

"Yeah me and her are just fine. Good job on the mission, by the way."

"Thanks." He says.

"With the data we extracted from that wrecked ship, we were able to decipher the location of Queen Zyria's headquarters. The captain has already handed the info to the Galactic Enforcer's HQ." Sayori explains.

"I see. So we're finally gonna take the fight to her?" He asks with a slight bit of enthusiasm in his voice.

"That's right. They may call upon us for help though. But still, you should save your energy for your bathroom cleaning duties." She says out of the blue.

"Yeah after all it's gonna b- Wait. What?" He asks confused.

"Yeah. You'll be cleaning the bathrooms for the next week or so." She says with a cheeky grin.

"What!? But why?" He asks.

"For breaking the Hyper-space drive of course. What, you didn't think I'd let you completely off the hook for that one, did you?" She says, with an odd smile on her face.

He lets out a sign. "Fine. Whatever." He says, sulking a bit.

"Say: Do you wanna get a bite to eat? I'm starving." He says.

"Sure. I have to attend to a few things first, but it shouldn't take long. I'll meet you in the mess hall in about 10 minutes."

"Okay, see you then." He says.

He makes his way to down the hall, and eventually runs into Yuri.

"Oh hey, Yuri." He says.

"Hello. Good to see you again. How's it going?" She says with her normal upbeat tone, and warm smile.

"It's going alright. I was just on my way to the mess hall." He says.

"I see. I was just on my way to the engine room to preform a scheduled tuneup on the fuel injector, but... um... I can put that on hold if you want to- you know, to join me for lunch." She says twiddling her hair nervously like she normally does.

"Well actually, I was just about to meet Sayori for lunch here in a few minutes." He says, with a nervous tone. "But you're welcome to join us if you want." He adds on.

Yuri then diverts her eyes for a second.

"N-no that's fine, I-I'm good. I should probably got get to work on the fuel injector first anyways." She says, bringing back her smile.

"Okay, if you're sure." He says, picking up on a weird vibe from her, but trying not to let it show.

"I'm good, thank you. Y-you know, an engineer's work is never done." She says.

"Alright. I'll catch you later, then." He says walking off.

"Yeah, see you later." She says looking back at him smiling and waving.

Once he's out of sight, her expression then breaks into on of disappointment, as she begins to make her way towards the engine room.

Later our hero is met with Sayori at the mess hall for lunch. They sit with each other eating their meals, talking to each other about various things, suddenly our hero changes the conversation.

"Hey, Sayori." He says, with a somber tone.

"Um. Yes?"

"Has Yuri been acting... sort of- I don't know, strange lately?" He asks, with a bit of concern in his voice. Sayori is a little caught off guard by this question.

"What do you mean?" She asks.

"Well she just seems a little... I don't know... She just seem like she has something on her mind or something." He says, trying to put it into words.

"Well, I mean- she's been through a lot these last few days; we all have." Sayori says, trying to come up with an answer.

"I suppose." He says. "It's just that she's normally not like this. She's always been quiet, polite, and attentive... things like that. But lately, she seems to be acting a bit moody, I guess." He goes on to explain.

"She seemed okay on the mission." Sayori states.

"I guess..."

"But yeah, I feel like this sour attitude would be more befitting for another crew member." Sayori says out of the blue.

"Another crew member? Like who?" He ask; that sentence piquing his interest.

"Well... I don't know. It just feels like there should be someone here with a sort of sour, mean spirited, attitude, or something." She tries to explain, as if something is missing.

Our hero then stops and thinks for a second.

"Hey Sayroi, have you ever heard of the name 'Natsuki' before?" He asks, not knowing what her response will be.

"Natsuki? I don't-" Before she can finish that thought, a crew member comes over to the table, and addresses our hero.

"Excuse me. I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but the captain wishes to see you." They say to our hero.

"The captain wants to see me? Why?" He asks.

"I don't know. I was only told that you were to report to the captain's chamber as soon as you can." They simply state.

"Okay. I'm pretty much done with lunch anyways. Sayori, I'll catch you later." He says.

"Sure thing." She says.

He then gets up and walks out of the mess hall.

As he walks through the ship, he thinks to himself: He's never met the captain before, he doesn't know what kinda person they could be. They've heard them over communications before, but admittedly, they don't exactly have the best audio equipment in the galaxy, so he can't really decipher anything from what's he's heard. Eventually, he makes it to the door outside the captain's room. He knocks on the door. "Come on in." He hears from the other side of the door. He then enters the room. It's a small office room with a desk. On the far side of the room, there's a wall of monitors on a console of some sort, but none of them seem to be on at the moment. The captain sets facing away from our hero in a chair.

"Glad you could make it." A female voice says. The voice sounds familiar to him. The captain then turns around in her chair to reveal herself.

….

….

….

"Monika?" He says.

"It's been awhile, right?" She replies.

"Yeah, it has." He says. Monika Smiles sweetly. They do know each other- Well they rarely talked, but they were in the same weapons training course. Monika was probably the most popular girl in training. Smart, beautiful, athletic. Basically completely out of his league, so having her smile at him so genuinely feels a little...

"So you're our captain? Er- um... Sir." He says with a hasty salute.

She then giggles a bit at his rushed formality. "At ease." She says simply.

" R-right. So what did you call me in here for?" He asks.

"Oh I just wanted to congratulate you personally for all of your efforts and accomplishments in the name of interstellar peace. " She says.

"Oh-um. Thank you. But really, it was was nothing." He says humbly, knowing that he's not exactly the best Galactic Enforcer in the universe.

"Nonsense." She says. "With your help, we will finally be able to bring Queen Zyria to justice. More to the point though, I was hoping to ask you a few questions. Maybe you would like to... um, share some of your secrets for success with me."

"I mean- It's nothing really. I don't think I really have any 'secrets'. In fact, Yuri and Sayori did most of the work." He states.

"Ah yes. You and them make quite a good team. Tell me, do you know them from somewhere?" Monika asks.

"Well, me and Sayori grew up together. As for Yuri, we only met a few days ago." He says.

"Hmm... I see." She says simply. "Where are you from anyways? I mean- Where were you before you were on this ship?"

"Well before you and me met, I lived on Aries IV, where I grew up with Sayori." He says.

Monika's smile fades a bit.

"Ah- Well you've certainly outdone yourself in combat. You must have some sort of secret." She inquires.

"What do you mean?" He asks

"Well perhaps you have someone at your side, helping you along, supporting you? Maybe like a secret guardian?" She asks.

"I mean... I guess there's Sayori. She's saved me so many times in the pass." He says bluntly.

"Nobody else?" She says, sounding disappointed at that answer.

"Like who?" He asks, not quite knowing where she's going with this.

Monika's smile fades, and her tone all of a sudden changes.

"Who am I talking to? Can you hear me?" She says with a strange sense of desperation in her voice.

"Um... Are you okay?" He asks, now totally confused.

Monika pauses for a second, then regains her composure, and smiles once more. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I was just trying a little... captain's trick is all. Helps keep your crew members on their toes." She explains

"Oooooookay..." He says, not completely convinced that was what was really going on.

"Anyways. You are dismissed for now." She says.

"Y-yes, sir." He says leaving the room.

Once he's gone, Monika lets out a sigh of disappointment. "I guess you're not really them after all." She says with a sad tone. "Oh well. I guess there's nothing else I can do now but move forward."

As he leaves the room he thinks over everything about his situation on this ship. He can't believe Monika is his captain. But thinks some more. Yuri, Sayori, and now Monika. Once he thinks about it he now comes to a conclusion about his fellow crew member: this ship...

….

….

….

IS FULL OF INCREADIBLY CUTE GIRLS! This fact should excite him, yet for some reason, now that he's met the captain, he suddenly feels a deep seeded feeling of dread. As if there's something deep down warning him of something; something bad. He does his best to shake off the feeling and continues onwards with the rest of his day.

Meanwhile, Yuri is in the engine room by herself fixing up the fuel injections system; the thought of Sayori taking our hero away from her festering in the back her mind. She comes across a bolt that she needs to undo. She grabs the appropriate sized wrench, but she can't get a good grip on the bolt. It seems to be stripped out, she tries desperately to get it undone, but can't get it. Eventually she gets frustrated; the thought of Sayori with our hero fueling the the fires of her rage. "GAAAAAH" She lets out an uncharacteristic cry of rage and throws the wrench across the room into a wall, causing it to let out a loud noise.

"Um... is everything okay over here?" A crew member comes in to see what all the commotion was about. "Uh-er.. yeah I'm fine. I-I just accidentally dropped my wrench, that's all; nothing to worry about." Yuri frantically says, regaining her composure. "Okay. I was just checking." They say leaving. Yuri then lets out a sigh through her nose.