Rhodes Island was two days away from Lungman, Yua still had mixed feelings about going there. On one hand, she was going to the place that her grand-uncle was in charge of. On the other hand, however, her parents would be having their first date. This excited the lung, to Yua her parents' relationship was sacred, it was one of the most important things in her life. Unfortunately for Yua over these past few days, several female operators had been trying to get her father's attention. They didn't know that her father was planning to date her mother, so they assumed that the doctor was single. Thankfully, for Yua, her father turned down their advances, but it still rubbed her the wrong way.

"Hopefully, no one tries to interfere with mother and father's date while we are in Lungman; I will keep an eye on it when it happens." Yua thought to herself as she was doing paperwork. She didn't hate any of the operators that were spending time with her father; they must have thought he was fair game. Yua, however, would see to it that her parents would end up together. She knew, though, that it would probably break some hearts, but it was so important to her to see her mother and father together again. Looking up from her paperwork, Yua could see one of said operators talking with her father right now - it was a pink-haired sankta named Ambriel.

"Doctor, do you want to watch a movie with me when we get to Lungman?" Ambriel asked the doctor. Yua immediately stopped writing and nearly snapped her pen when she heard the sankta ask her father that question. "For goodness sake, Ambriel! Could you have been any more obvious with what you are trying to do? At least the others tried to be a bit more subtle! And don't you have more pressing matters to deal with? Like paying your taxes!" Yua mentally screamed. She thought that, given how much the sankta owed in taxes, that would have been more important to deal with, not hitting on her father. The doctor noticed his daughter looking in their direction, and he could tell she was not pleased.

"Yua looks mad; she probably didn't like all these female operators trying to spend time with me. I'm not interested anyway - I've other things to worry about, and I've already promised Ch'en i would go on a date with her." The doctor thought to himself. The doctor then spoke to Ambriel: "I thank you for the offer, Ambriel, but I must decline. I will be too busy when we reach Lungman. I will have much to deal with." Ambriel looked dejected when the doctor said that. "Oh, I see," she replied. "Well, maybe another time, doctor. Just let me know when you are free." Ambriel then turned and left the room, leaving the pair on their own. The two of them continued with paperwork in silence. After some time, the door opened again, and Doctor Kal'tsit walked in.

"I see you two have nearly finished all the paperwork, that is good," Kal'tsit said to the pair. She could see two large stacks of finished paperwork on their desks; Kal'tsit would never admit it, but she was secretly glad Yua was her father's assistant again. When Yua was first appointed as the doctor's assistant, she did struggle with the tasks that were assigned to her, but now she made paperwork look like a breeze. This not only made the doctor's job easier, but hers as well; she was grateful for the help, albeit indirectly. Looking up, the two of them looked at Kal'tsit, and then looked at their paperwork, seeing that they didn't have much left to do. The doctor spoke: "Well, a break wouldn't hurt, would you like to come grab some food with me, Yua? It won't take us long to finish this when we get back." Yua replied: "Yes, Father. Shall we head to the cafeteria?" The doctor replied by nodding. The two then got up to leave, but before they did, Kal'tsit spoke to them: "Just to let you both know, Yua, you are still part of the abyssal hunters. You will not take part in dealing with the relief efforts. You will be on standby in case any church of the deep hideouts are located. I trust you are happy with this?"

Yua nodded that she understood, the doctor however was still apprehensive about his daughter being involved fighting a dangerous organization; he still remembered what happened when she came into contact with them the first time, and he didn't like it. He hoped he could trust Rhodes Island's strongest group of fighters to keep his daughter safe, but he couldn't imagine what would happen if he lost her. The doctor then reluctantly nodded as well, and the two of them left to leave Kal'tsit to carry on with her own work. The two of them then made their way to the cafeteria to grab some food.

Once they arrived, they could see several groups of operators eating and could hear them talking about the upcoming relief efforts; many of them sounded happy that they were returning to Lungman. The pair then walked up to the counter and looked at what to order. "See anything that you like?" the doctor asked her. Yua, however, could see that Matterhorn was on cooking duty; she still didn't trust the man and did her upmost to avoid him whenever she could. The doctor then asked her again, and this time, it grabbed her attention. "Sorry, father," she said, "I was just thinking about something. I would like the steak, is it okay for you to order for the pair of us? I would like to sit down." Yua then left the doctor at the counter while she found a table for the pair of them. "Yua probably isn't looking forward to returning home," the doctor thought. "I can't blame her; I let her and her mother down. I will need to talk to her soon." The doctor knew Yua had been off these past few days; she hadn't been acting her normal self, which was probably why she didn't want to order at the counter.

Once the food was ordered, he went to join Yua at the table she had found for the pair of them to wait for it to arrive. He then began talking to try to get her to open up, asking her what was wrong, but she told him that she was fine and it was nothing to worry about. While the two were talking, however, they didn't know that a pair of eyes were watching them, more specifically Yua. "Should I go up to her? No, I can't, she's with her father, there is no telling how he would react, he's the last person I want to get on the wrong side of." This person was telling himself it was a member of the Aegir race, a chemist by the name of Thorns.

When Yua first arrived on Rhodes Island, Thorns did not take any interest in her; he thought she was just a standard everyday girl. When he found out that she was the doctor's daughter, however, this really piqued his interest, and now that she was training alongside the abyssal hunters, other members of his race, he wanted to find out more about her, get to know her, but she always seemed to be surrounded by people - either her father the doctor, Amiya, the trio from the LGD, or the abyssal hunters. He wanted to walk up to Yua when he saw her today, but seeing she was now with her father, his courage faltered, so he simply kept his distance and kept watching her.

When the food arrived, the doctor and Yua began to eat, partway through eating her meal. However, Yua could feel she was being watched. "Okay, someone has been watching me for a while now. Who is it and why? What do they want?" Yua thought to herself. Taking a break from eating, she scanned the room. At first, she couldn't find anyone, but her eyes eventually settled on Thorns as he was watching her. "Isn't that Operator Thorns? What does he want? Why is he looking at me?" Yua questioned herself. She didn't know Thorns that well from the future; all she remembered was that he was helping her father to look for a cure for oripathy before he disappeared. They managed to create a medicine that helped stabilize the condition, but never a cure, which vanished along with her father.

Having Thorns looking at her was making Yua uncomfortable; deciding that she wanted to find out what Thorns wanted, Yua told her father that she wouldn't be gone long, and then left to ask the aegir why he was watching her.Yua started to head in his direction, seeing that she was approaching, Thorns began to panic. "Damn! She's heading my way! I'd best make myself scarce before this starts a commotion." He told himself. Hastily getting up out of his seat and heading towards the exit, Thorns hoped that Yua would not catch up to him. Unfortunately for Thorns, as soon as he just passed the exit, Yua had managed to catch up to him and stopped him from going any further.

"Hey! What's the big idea! Why were you looking at me in the cafeteria?" Yua questioned the man. Looking around, Thorns could see that no one had caught Yua interrogating him; he saw this as an opportunity. Steadying himself, he then spoke to her. "My apologies, Yua. I did not mean to upset you. Allow me to formally introduce myself; my name is Thorns. I am a chemist from Iberia. I have wanted to speak to you for some time, but I have never had the right opportunity until now." Seeing that Thorns did not mean any harm, Yua spoke. "Apology accepted. But why didn't you speak to me earlier? I have seen you around Rhodes Island; you had the opportunity to talk to me before."

Thorns paused for a few seconds and then replied, "Again, I apologize, but you always seemed to be surrounded by people, so it was never the right time. When you first came here, I will admit I didn't think much of you; I thought you were just another blade for Rhodes Island." Yua was confused as to where he was going with this, but she let him continue. "When I found out you were the doctor's daughter, that caught me by surprise. I didn't expect that. And now you are training with the Abyssal Hunters, Rhodes Island's strongest group, this has really got me interested in you; I find you quite fascinating, really." Thorns told her.

"Thank you for the compliment, Thorns, but I really don't understand the direction you are going with this; could you please explain it to me?" Yua asked the man. "She seems a bit dense. She really doesn't understand," Thorns told himself. Deciding to lay his cards on the table, he spoke again: "Yua, I do find you an amazing individual, from what I've seen and heard, you look out for others, people horribly misjudged you when they found out the doctor was your father, I misjudged you as well. What I am trying to say is I would like to get to know you better, that is, if you want." After a few seconds, everything then clicked for Yua. "Wait! Is he asking me what I think he is? Is he asking me on a date? You can't be serious!" Yua thought to herself.

Yua then started to turn bright red; this was something she did not expect. In the future, she never had time for dates or romance; her life consisted of fighting Seaborn, helping whomever she could when she could, and surviving. Being asked on a date right now, especially by a younger version of someone she knew, was causing her to nearly have a complete meltdown. "This is too much! I know he's not the Thorns I know, but still! It's awkward! I don't know what to say! This is strange! And what would Father think? Somebody help!" Yua's mind was going haywire. Seeing that Yua was having an internal crisis, Thorns decided to speak. "It's okay if you can't decide right now, Yua," he said. "I know you didn't expect me to drop this on you; you don't have to rush your decision. Whatever you decide, I will respect it." Thorns told her.

Thorns then left to return to his workshop to continue with his experiments, leaving Yua a bumbling mess. After some time, she returned to the table where her father was still sitting. The doctor looked up and was about to speak to Yua but noticed she had a far-off stare on her face; she looked completely out of it. "Terra to Yua, are you there? Do you copy?" the doctor said to her while waving his hand in front of her face, but all he got was a nod from Yua. The doctor then decided to get up and leave the cafeteria, telling Yua to follow him. She did so but had her head down and was completely silent on the way back to his office.

Yua hardly spoke by the time it was nightfall, and they had finished. Once she was done, she gave a quick goodbye to her father, and Kal'tsit and left to go back to her room. Once she was in her room, she flopped onto her bed and started screaming into her pillow, "Stupid Thorns! Dropping that on me! How am I supposed to respond to that? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!". Yua clearly did not know how to deal with what Thorns had said to her earlier; it was driving her nuts. After a while, she calmed down and decided to think about it rationally. "Okay, Yua," she told herself, "pull yourself together. Thorns didn't mean any harm by this. Just try talking to him, get to know him slowly. Don't rush into anything. Find out what other people think of him as well. If all else fails, ask Father." Yua decided on her plan of action. Tomorrow, she would find him and talk to him. She didn't know him that well, but in the future, she would try to change that. She wouldn't rush anything and would see where it would go. She would also ask operators who worked with him what he was like.

One thing was for sure; both her and her father were having love troubles right now, she knew it would be a minefield, but it was one she was determined to navigate through...