Eru clipped her case closed and let out a sigh. Once again she found herself wishing that she could stay in this place and not move on. This constant tension that came with being on the run from the Organization was exhausting and it felt unnatural to her to even move from place to place so frequently. Even those rich folk who loved to visit different moons didn't move this often—and they always had a home to come back to and commodities to make them feel more at home anyway. She wondered if Irisu felt just as disconnected as she did. I suppose this is part of the brain washing too, she thought, that's what everyone else would say…

"Ah!" Mayaka came in stretching her arms behind her head. "It'll be good to get off this ship and back out into space! This place gives me the creeps." She turned to Eru with a broad smile, "All ready to go? You're the last one!"

"You seem very happy," Eru noted in a subdued manner as Mayaka picked up the other case of supplies that sat on the floor by the door.

"Sure, why wouldn't I be? We got a whole bunch a clothes and food and projects to work on, so I'm happy! Aren't you happy?" she adjusted the case to lean on her chest then turned with her back towards Eru, "Let's go!"

Eru took her case in her hands and followed behind Mayaka. She didn't want to ruin Mayaka's good mood with her own melancholy thoughts so she kept it to herself as she fell in-step behind her friend. After turning down several hallways they reached the hanger of the ship, a place that felt very far away from everywhere else in the ship. Satoshi took Eru's case from her and lead the girls down the stairs and onto the computerized platform. A small machine buzzed its way over to Satoshi who placed Eru's case as well as Mayaka's on its carrying tray. From there it hummed away and placed the packages into Hotarou's smaller ship. He turned back to the girls with a glimmer in his eye.

"Aren't techy ships like this so cool? That little robot takes care of everything without you even telling it to!" Mayaka shook her head and Eru gave a small smile. The three walked out to the ship and stood next to it. "Watch this!" Satoshi tapped his foot twice on the floor and the ground suddenly began to move upwards until it was level with the door to the cockpit. The startled girls jumped quickly into the ship for fear that the platform would drop suddenly.

Hotarou was on the opposite side doing some quick checks with another member of Suzie's crew. He tossed a quick glance over his shoulder to see who all had entered, but quickly turned back to his discussion. Satoshi went to join the conversation while Mayaka and Eru moved further into the ship to look around. The living room was the same as they had left it, perhaps a little cleaner, so they moved on to their own rooms. All of the doors were open, but upon looking in, they could see their cases were on bed that were made with colored sheets, such as the colors Suzie picked out for all for them to wear.

Mayaka opened the case on her bed and shook her head. "I don't even like yellow. So why did she always associate that with me? Everything Suzie gave me is yellow!" Mayaka whipped around holding a dress that was bright yellow with while polka dots. "This would suit you!"

Eru laughed lightly, "Purple is a better color for me…"

"Just because Suzie said that doesn't mean that you have to follow it! Yellow would make your eyes stand out!" Mayaka put the dress on Eru's purple velvet sheets, "besides, we used to share clothes all the time when we were little."

"Did we?" Eru wondered with a confused look at Mayaka.

"We did when our parents didn't catch us!" she giggled in response. "But I don't know if we actually can do that anymore. You are a little…bigger than I am."

Eru waved her hand to dismiss the cold atmosphere that started to form, "Don't worry about it right now, we'll see later. Let's go find Fuyumi." Eru leaned out of the doorway and saw Irisu approaching from her bedroom. She stepped out as Irisu walked by and walked with her. Neither said anything but Eru realized that she hadn't seen Irisu very often while they were on the Suzie's ship. She decided not to mention that now.

…

"Now," Suzie's voice rang clearly in the hanger as she announced in rough English so that all, her crew and the other alike, could understand, "It has been good to have you all here. But now you must leave. Farewell and do not forget what you have learned, it may be of some use to you." Then she turned and looked at each one in the crew with the same enrapturing gaze as she did when she first met them, but the gaze seemed less intimidating than it had before. She placed her hand on Hotarou's shoulder, who happened to be closer to her, then murmured, "In the words on my people, veda ve veda."

She stepped back as Satoshi tapped the platform and raised the group into the ship. The group dispersed to their seats, Hotarou and Satoshi taking the pilot and co-pilot seats and the girls sitting further back. All strapped on their belts and listened with nervous excitement as the engines began to rumble. The large metal door opened slowly then the ship began to roll forward. The engines were pressed to full throttle then released and the machine launched into space. The maneuvering was tight amongst the asteroids, but manageable. Hotarou turned on the gravity in the ship and mentioned that the girls could go do things elsewhere in the ship if they so choose to. The girls gladly took up his offer and, unstrapping themselves, paced back to the living area.

Eru walked back with Irisu and attempted a conversation.

"Hello Fuyumi, it's exciting isn't it? Leaving and being out on our own again?"

"If that is what you think," Irisu replied somewhat bitterly.

Eru felt that she had to be somewhat cautious about how she approached her at this point. "I feel a little nervous. Either we've been on Earth or with Suzie and her crew, so it's been a while since it's just been us in space…"

Irisu didn't reply. Eru sighed and stopped at the entrance of her room as Irisu continued walking, she turned when the other stopped.

"I'll be in my room, don't worry about me." Irisu said nothing and moved on. Eru moved to open the door but Mayaka opened it from the inside first.

"Oh! Eru! I didn't see you! Satoshi told me they've done some work in some of the other rooms; want to go check it out?"

Eru gratefully accepted; she would be glad to get her mind off of some of the things that bothered her.

Eru and Mayaka went walking down the halls when they suddenly noticed labels on each of the doors. They stepped up to one to look at it closer and noticed that is was written in Japanese and that it said, "World." The two looked at each other then turned the handle to enter to room. It was filled with just as many magnificent things as Suzie's own room had been, but much less plush. What they had never realized about this room, however, was that it had a window that opened up to the black void of space. Earth was constantly becoming smaller, but other objects were coming into view.

"An asteroid…" Mayaka breathed as they both entered the room and saw the giant mass of space rock. It drifted lazily by their ship, and was at least twice the size of it. They turned away as the rock disappeared around the corner of the ship and explored the recently furnished room. "I wonder if they took some things from Suzie's ship," Mayaka commented as she picked up a stick with detailed carvings in it. "They probably did without her noticing."

Eru wondered how badly Mayaka disliked Suzie, it was obvious to her that she had some resentment, but what was it founded on? Sure Suzie wasn't the type to get along with people easily and could perhaps get on their bad sides, but that could be overlooked. It's not like she was specifically offensive to any of them. Eru heard Mayaka breathe a sigh and say something under her breath.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you…" Eru asked as Mayaka rounded the ornate table to stand by her side.

"Oh, it's nothing really…" her fingers traced the designs on the surface. "I-I'm just really glad to be off of that ship and away from Suzie. Whenever she looked at me it was like she expected something…or how do I say…like she was waiting for me to do something. Just sort of peering into my soul almost. She gave me the creeps."

"What about Tomoe?" Eru asked as they both stepped outside of the room to continue exploring the extra rooms. "What do you think of her?"

"Oh, Oreki's sister? She's nice, but pretty weird when you hear some of her stories." Mayaka seemed to be thinking hard, "She's not a very easy person to understand. She gets along with Satoshi really well though. They talk about the same sort of useless facts and make up stories. Satoshi wishes he could travel around so freely like she does."

Eru hummed her interest and tried the handle of the next door to the right. "Locked?" Mayaka observed with a frown. "Why would it need to be locked?" Both glanced up to see what the room was labeled it only read "Private" carved into a brass diamond shape. They rounded the corner after those two rooms and walked towards the next room, as soon as Mayaka touched the door, however, the walls around this room because as transparent as glass. The room seemed huge, mirrors fading into other mirrors; it was a room that neither girl remembered ever being on the ship. The two entered the room and looked outside, the hallway was also seen through the walls but as Mayaka removed her hand from the sliding door, the door appeared solid again while the rest of the walls could still display the hallway. The door closed behind the two automatically and a robotic woman's voice announced, "Ibara Mayaka and Chitanda Eru, recognized." In a moment a tray of weapons and ammo appeared from the polished wooden floor and was ready to be used at their whim.

Eru smiled at Mayaka and said, "This must be the training room. I guess it's voice activated too."

"Well, let's see about that." Mayaka turned to face the length of the mirrored walls. "Target range," she commanded, in an instant the far glass wall became solid and held shooting targets of varying types, for arrows, for guns, and even for those modern weapons which they were given. "I want one for a sword!" Mayaka corrected. The targets were put away and a mannequin rose out of the floor. Mayaka smirked apparently think this was pretty fun. "I want it to duel against me!"

The arms of the mannequin came to an uplifted position as the robotic voice returned to say, "What shall you duel with?" Mayaka looked at Eru, her eyes widened with excitement. "How about…a club!"

"What difficulty level would you like it to be set at?" the voice persisted.

"Easy," Mayaka replied with confidence. The mannequin then drew out a club and posed, ready to fight when ready. "This is so neat!" Mayaka exclaimed to Eru, "But how do you reset it?"

"Generally you just say reset, or clear or something like that…" Eru informed her. "I think they're programmed to respond to many different 'clean up' commands." She glance over her shoulder, "Oh! Fukube!"

Mayaka looked also then smiled brightly, "Let's ask him to join us! I want to spar with him!" she ran over to the door and opened it just as he walked by, startling him.

"Mayaka! Oh, you're checking out the upgrades? Sure I'll come with." A moment late Satoshi was also in the room and was ready to spar with Mayaka. Eru, at this point, decided to dismiss herself from the room and continue looking around.

Across the hall was a room labeled "Workshop" on the plaque, she figured that it was simply for Hotarou, just like the "Private" room a little earlier down the hall. The hall continued its curve up and around a bend then suddenly she noticed the ceiling opened up to a large curved window with white metal ribs as support. On either side were rooms that had plaques, but which all remained unmarked. The doors to these rooms were also open and swung on hinges rather that sliding like the previous doors. Looking ahead down the corridor she saw wooden sliding doors on the left and entering it she found a red curtain on the left and a blue curtain on the right the red with the word "woman" on it and on the blue the word "man". Ah, a full bath! I didn't know we had one of those here! Ibara and Fuyumi should be glad to have these! She passed through this room quickly and glanced at the other hinged door on the opposite side of the hall that was labeled "Cleaning." She didn't bother to look in there.

A frosted glass wall with glass French doors was what she met at the end of the hall. She stepped cautiously, curious about what strange green shapes where hidden behind the wall and pulled open the doors together.

Warm, wet air flowed out as she stepped inside. The doors close automatically behind her to keep in the warmth. Her eyes widened as she observed the various plants that filled this room. Almost all were tropical and some had large, bright flowers and others had fruit. There was also a white metal table sitting to the right of her towards which she walked so she could sit and take it all in, but before she sat down she heard a voice.

"Chitanda, I didn't expect to see you here," Irisu's cool voice surprised Eru so that she stood straight up from her attempt to sit in a chair.

"Fuyumi! I didn't—"

"At least it's you and not someone else," she thought the heard the other girl breathe as she stepped forward removing gloves from her hands. "Some just don't appreciate plants and how important they are." She turned her attention fully to Eru. "I'll make some tea."

After a few minutes of preparation Irisu handed the fragrant water to Eru. "I've been drying herbs for this tea; it's a blend my grandmother taught me. It's been in the family for generations, even before the Exodus from Earth. How is it?"

"A little bitter, to be honest," Eru replied. Irisu added a little milk and sugar then replaced the containers back on the tray.

"I expected it to be a little like that, everyone has a slightly different flavor to their mixture." Irisu rubbed her finger on the lip of the tea cup and appeared thoughtful. "My grandmother's was the best. I still have some experimenting to do. That why I asked Oreki for permission to build this greenhouse. A lot of herbal combinations can cure simple ailments and it can supply oxygen to the ship without having to recycle air and use energy from fuel which could be put to use elsewhere. He liked the idea so while we were on Suzie's ship I lead the design and building of this room."

"It came out beautifully!" Eru smiled and inhaled the fresh smell of the tea and the plants. "It's also very peaceful." She thought for a moment, sipping the hot tea carefully, and then decided that she could talk to Irisu about what was on her mind. "Fuyumi, I don't know if it's just me, but I feel tired of traveling. When we were on Earth I wish we might have stayed there, perhaps, permanently. And when we stayed with Suzie for those weeks, I felt like we could have just stayed there permanently."

Irisu sighed and blinked thoughtfully. "I understand what you're saying a little bit. Mayaka and Fukube seem restless, like they want to be moving constantly. But I suppose you simply want to stay in one place." Eru nodded. "I feel similarly to you. I dislike moving around because it becomes impossible to take root," she rubbed the leaf of a near-by plant, "and you can't really grow when your roots are torn up."

"What about Oreki though? I can't ever tell what he's thinking about something."

"He's a bit—" Irisu reflected but couldn't think of what to say and so let her thought drop. "Oh, if you want to see everything that's around on the ship, go to the back of the greenhouse and go into that room, it should be last one open to explore on the ship. That's a room Oreki requested from Suzie and his sister. Apparently it's a long-awaited present from Tomoe to him."

Eru stood and gave a bow and thanked Irisu for the tea. She gathered her skirt as the path became more narrowly lined with potted plants she pushed some large leaves out of the way then found a door. She tried it and almost thought it was locked when it suddenly opened from the other side. She was face-to-face with Hotarou who looked somewhat surprised to see her.

"S-sorry…" she began, but he stepped away from the door to let her in. The door closed behind her again and she found herself in a cooler, much less humid room that was cozily furnished with a cast iron chair with red velvet cushions next to a fire place. The small room was lined with books, floor to ceiling, books of varying age, genre, and make. Hotarou moved to the chair and sat down and looked up at her expectantly.

"Is that a chair you made?" Eru asked. Hotarou rubbed the arms on the chair with his fingertips and gave a grunt and a short nod. "It's beautiful," she said with an amount of admiration.

"Did you need something?" he asked settling back in his chair after that had gotten out of the way.

"No, I'm just looking around. Fuyumi said your sister gave this to you as a present?"

"More or less…she promised me that when I struck out on my own she'd give me my own library full of books with room to add more."

"Struck out on your own?" she wondered.

"It's her terminology. I don't know. My family has a history of starting a 'settlement,' somewhat. I don't have any intention of doing that."

Then what are you planning on doing? Where are we going? Eru wanted to inquire, but, for some reason it didn't seem like the right thing to ask. Hotarou seemed to expect that question, but without her asking it he deflected to another subject. "I just came up to briefly look at it again when you popped in. I need to keep an eye on the piloting system so I'm going to head out first."

"I'll go with you," Eru decided quickly.

Hotarou stood and nodded for her to follow, but rather than going out the way she came in, he scooted his chair over a bit and pressed a button on the floor. He slid into the gap that appeared then signaled for her to follow. The two started down a winding staircase in the wall of the ship. "I had Suzie's men a secret tunnel around here for easier access to other places. This one takes us to…" he paused and pushed open a door at which the staircase stopped.

"The map room!" Eru breathed as they squeezed out of the tunnel into the room. "There are others?" Hotarou opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

"The other one is in the living room area which goes into the storage and mechanics area." He stuck his hands in his pockets and started back towards the central area of the ship, Eru caught up to him and they walked side-by-side.

"How far is it to where we're going?" Eru asked as they passed the living quarters.

"It's not too far. But because we're going through the asteroid belt it takes longer because we have to dodge through it. So it'll take about 2 days to get there."

"To where?"

Hotarou didn't feel like responding, but rather than waste energy he replied, "To an asteroid that in the middle of the belt right now."

"And then?"

"And then?" he hesitated for a slight second, when he spoke again his voice had almost turned into a whisper, "I don't know." He mounted the small set of steps into the cockpit and disappeared behind the curtain.

Later that day, everyone was gathered in the eating area munching away on a quickly prepared hotpot made by Eru and Mayaka. The conversation was there, but it wasn't lively so when Hoatrou cleared his throat everyone turned their attention to him.

"I think," he said mildly scanning the others seated, "that it would be, for those of us who have the ability, good to work on using their technique of self-defense…" Hotarou was trying to be polite, especially to Eru; everyone could tell, but he just wasn't the type to be very good at sensitivity. "My point is, from here on out, it's just going to get harder. We have to be ready for unexpected, unplanned events. I don't know how you want to go about doing that, but I think you should all think about that. Or how you want to do that…that's all I wanted to say." He picked up his cup and took a drink then stood to signal that he had finished.

Eru stood and started taking clearing things off of the table then returned to sit with the others. When returned to her seat, Satoshi looked around then smiled. "So how about coming up with a plan?"

"As much as I hate to say it, we should probably take some of the weight off of Oreki's shoulders," Mayaka added, "despite how many times he's up and left us, he's tried to make sure that we're taken care of."

"So you think we should return the favor by being able to take care of ourselves?" Irisu added quietly, "Well, then what do you have in mind?"

"I already thought up a training schedule," Satoshi produced a piece of paper. "Feel free to change it if you'd like, it's not set in stone yet." He shrugged. Eru felt a little uncomfortable being the only one who refused to use a weapon. Satoshi apparently sensed this and nodded his head towards Eru, "Of course, Chitanda, you don't have to take part in this, but the schedule still might be helpful."

"Yeah, if we're all taking turns then maybe you can figure out when to have meals and such," Mayaka agreed. "Don't worry about it."

Eru attempted a smile and nodded. "When you have it done, I'll take a copy of it like you said." She stood and left the room to finish washing all of the dishes.

Despite her friends' attempts at making her feel better, she still felt like she was being a bit of a deadweight. After the dishes, she went into the room she shared with Mayaka and collapsed on her bed with a sigh. If only I could remove myself as a burden from Hotarou's shoulders some other way. Then again, why am I so against at least learning to protect myself? Something inside of me just tells me that it's bad or at least no necessary to fight…she rolled onto her side and squeezed her pillow in her arms. I am a burden, aren't I?

At that point Mayaka came into the room and began shuffling through her things. Eru sat up and watched her childhood friend. "Are you going to go practice today?"

"Yep, Irisu and I are up first, so I'm trying to figure out what to wear…" she pulled out some old yellow pants and over-large shirt. "This should work." She glanced up at Eru then avoided eye-contact, wondering just what to say.

"You know, I'm really thankful we have you around," she said as she stood, having finally thought of something, "I'm sure if anyone else was cooking it'd be gross. Plus you're a really good listener. So you're great to have around!"

Eru knew that this was a Mayaka-style attempt at encouragement; she'd never been very good at comforting, but Eru appreciated her effort. Mayaka offered to have Eru come and watch, but Eru declined. I think I'll go to the garden again, even though there won't be anyone there. After Mayaka changed and went to practice, Eru stepped into the doorway, and then suddenly changed her mind.

Oreki said that there were secret tunnels around here, maybe we can find the one in the living room…she turned to the right and stepped into the room. She doubted it would be on the floor, but still moved around the furniture—as much as she could move—looking for an unusual piece of flooring. However, no matter how hard she looked on the floor, there wasn't a trap door. As she searched her curiosity became more and more piqued. Finally she turned to looking for switches or levers like the one that was in Hotarou's library. She felt along the wall then found a small groove just on wall next to the wall forming Irisu's room. It took a bit of strength, but she managed to pull the door open. Once it was just wide enough for her to squeeze into, she found herself standing on a spiral staircase that was very rickety compared to the one from Hotarou's library. This was made out of cast iron that was somewhat rusted and made her very nervous as she stepped down then because they rattled horribly. On her way down she noticed that it smelled very old and dusty down in this part of the ship at one point she sneezed and a whole cloud of dust billowed up after, causing a fit of dainty sneezes. When she had past the treacherous stairs she found herself on a landing that lead two different directions, one to a closed door from behind which was a she could heard the shifting of gears and other mechanical noises. On the right was a door that was partially opened so she pushed it open further to find shelves filled with boxes some containing tools, others food, and still others contained the supplies which they had used to decorate the ship for Christmas. She had wondered where everything went after the ship was re-modeled because the rooms looked so completely different.

She slipped into the storage room further, curious about just how deep the room was. The last row of boxes was full of different metals and even some glass. She recalled seeing some similar objects in Houtarou's shop back on Dione. Wait, if he had these objects here and there was that one room labeled workshop, does that mean he's made a similar workshop to continue his work? I'm curious! Eru felt the need to ask Hotarou about this matter and was making her way back out of the storage room when her hand touched something on the wall. She barely had time to catch herself before a deep hole opened up before her. She knelt down in front of it and looked inside. It was too shaded by her shadow to see too far down so she pulled out her watch to see if she could see deeper with its light. She pulled up the tool on her watch then let the beam shine down into the space. The cold air from the space surprised her and all she could see was a short set of steps leading off towards the back of the storage room, but under the ground. Now her curiosity was split. The hidden trapdoor or Oreki's workshop…? She wavered but decided to return to the upper levels when a cold rush of air pushed up through the door and made her shiver. She pushed the button and decided to explore later. Just then her watch beeped and a picture of Mayaka popped up, "Eru! Where are you? we've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Sorry! I'll be right up!" Eru exclaimed jumping up to her feet and weaving through the boxes.

"Up?" Mayaka echoed, "Where are you?"

"Down in the…"

"Never mind," Hotarou's voice cut her off and his image suddenly appeared on the hologram. "I'll come to get you; I need to check something anyway."

"Oreki—" the transmission was cut off just as Mayaka was about to lay into Hotarou for interrupting her.

As Eru starting climbing the stairs Hotarou met her at the top just as he closed the door behind himself, apparently having managed to escape Mayaka's wrath fairly quickly. "There's a reason that they're called secret tunnels, you know," Hotarou sighed as he moved past her.

"Why shouldn't the others know?"

"Because I don't want then sneaking around popping up in places they don't need to be in."

"Then why did you tell me?" Hotarou hesitated for a split second then sighed and turned the knob to the mechanical room.

"Because once you've gotten curiosity out of your system, you won't terrorize anyone with your knowledge." Eru followed him into the room and watched as he moved to the electrical panel and adjusted some switches. "Did you find something down here?"

The extra question was something he didn't usually bother to ask. Usually he wanted to keep everything short, but the fact that he asked a question almost to see if he could give her an answer…Eru, sort of liked it.

"Yes! I meant to ask you, the 'workshop' room, are you still making your metal work?"

"I suppose."

"Why?" she asked wondering at his proactive work.

"Why…?" he turned back to her then jerked back at realizing how close she was to him. He glanced away, "Well, I was schooled to be one of those poor workers, so I have the need to work. Just like Satoshi and Ibara."

"But if you were raised in a wealthy family then…"

"I was five, remember," he said with sudden annoyance. "I only had five years of rich schooling and the rest of my life has been like that of poor folk, education likewise."

Eru heard the small slip in his words, saying 'that of poor folk' was certainly phrasing that the poor folk were not likely to use. These slips were rare for him, but it still showed her that the breeding was still there, just lying dormant. But pointing this out to him would only make him angry and start an unnecessary fight; she backed out of the way to let him pass then fell in-step behind him as he mounted the stairs.

"Oreki?" She began he closed the door behind her.

"Hmm?"

"If you do your metal work…can I watch you again sometime?"

Hotarou straightened up and scratched his head. "If you're careful, I don't see why not."