Step-Up Celia
"I have something to discuss with Shinosuke today."
Glen suddenly appeared at the new dock, bringing along Aliisa and Merisa.
It didn't seem to be another casual invitation to dig for treasure like their usual catchball routine at the park.
Shinosuke invited the three of them into his office, still not fully cleaned up.
"What's this all about, so suddenly?"
Shinosuke, who had just brought in a guest sofa, offered it, but Glen and the others didn’t sit down. Instead, they bowed deeply to Shinosuke.
"Shinosuke, we’re truly grateful for your help with Aliisa and Merry. Thank you."
It seemed they were referring to the incident in the previous hyperspace.
Aliisa and Merry had been pulled into a sudden rift in hyperspace, and Shinosuke and the others had jumped into hyperspace to rescue them, but during the rescue Shinosuke had lost the internal combustion boat he had aboard Fubuki.
"No, I just made what I thought was the best... no, the wisest choice, given the circumstances, for everyone to survive."
"But because of that, Shinosuke lost his internal combustion boat."
"The measure needed to save the two of them was my judgment as a boatman. Even I can't weigh human lives against an internal combustion vessel like that."
"That may be true, but we've now taken a debt from Shinosuke that we can never repay."
"Now, now, don't be so dramatic. To save Miss Alicia and the others, we had no choice but to seize the Seeker Eye. In that sense, there was no other option available."
"Still, we were helped by Shinnosuke. Thanks to Shinnosuke, we were able to avoid losing our ship."
Apparently, the Seeker Eye owned by Alicia and the others is said to be significantly more expensive than Glen's Big Bear, due to its superior performance.
Although Aliasa and Merisa are excellent operators, losing Seeker Eye would be an enormous loss for Glen and his group, a matter of life and death.
That's why we have to repay Shinnosuke's kindness, and make up for the loss he's suffered! But even if we wanted to buy a replacement fireboat and return it, we don't have any connections to do so. So I thought it best to ask Shinnosuke directly.
Even if you say that, that fireboat was just a bonus for Fubuki—it's convenient to have, but not essential. We'd be fine without it.
The internal combustion boat mounted on Fubuki was actually quite expensive, despite not being used much.
Glen probably checked the market price, but still, buying a fireboat and then returning it felt a bit awkward.
"I expected Shinosuke to say something like that, but this is also about our own feelings. If we don't need the fireboat, we can take any other vessel—or even cash. We want to keep working with Shinosuke in the future, so we don't want to leave behind any awkward resentment. We won't leave until Shinosuke is satisfied."
"Please..."
In a way, this was nothing short of forcing repayment upon him.
"Even so..."
After much deliberation, they followed Milena’s advice heard from beside them, discussed among the group, and agreed to postpone the matter until another day.
Suddenly demanding a large repayment was, after all, too much to ask.
They needed time to consider.
With the repayment issue from Glen’s group temporarily put on hold, Shinosuke set course with Marks, Milena, and Seyra toward a certain region of space, aboard the Fubuki.
She wasn’t taking on a new assignment—she had another purpose in mind.
"Um, please take care of me."
Seyra sat in the integrated operations station.
This time, the goal was to train Seyra in an area off the regular route.
Although Seyra already held qualifications as a navigation and communications operator, she had strongly requested to earn the gunnery control operator certification, with the ultimate goal of obtaining integrated operations operator certification.
As her first step, she is heading toward a region where no other ships are navigating, in order to undergo training for obtaining the gunnery control operator certification.
Though outside regular shipping lanes and lacking navigational information, Seira's route selection as a navigation operator is solid and reliable, and Milena at the co-pilot station is steering the Fukubuki smoothly without any danger.
"Milena, alter course to bearing 11 in five minutes, maintain current speed."
Understood.
This session primarily focuses on Seira's training, but it also serves to accumulate the necessary navigation time for Milena to obtain her captain's certification, so both are operating the Fukubuki manually.
As a result, Shinnosuke is in the position of supervising their training, but for now, there are no issues with either of them, leaving him with nothing specific to do.
Meanwhile, Marks was advancing the setup of the target aircraft to be used in the training zone.
"Miss Millina, good work. We've arrived at the designated area."
"Understood. Serah's navigation was excellent. We were able to proceed with plenty of room to spare."
"Ah, thank you."
Since we've already notified the Free Merchant Fleet, the Space Route Authority, and the Coastal Defense Force about this training zone, we can conduct combat drills without restrictions.
"Alright. Let's begin the training. First, one final check."
Ciel nodded in response to Shinosuke's voice.
Understood. Radar output at maximum. No vessels in the surrounding airspace. Transmitting combat training signal.
After receiving Seira's report, Milina rotates her shoulders in the co-pilot's seat.
Since this is training for Celia as a fire control operator, Milena won't be operating the weapons, but since they'll be performing combat maneuvers against a target aircraft, Milena is fully motivated too.
"Come on, Sera, let's go! Shinnosuke-sama, you're ready at any time!"
Nodding, Shinnosuke signaled to Marks.
"Understood. Releasing the target aircraft."
Twelve target drones launched from Fubuki scattered in all directions.
From now on, the target drones will autonomously act according to Marks' settings, attacking Fubuki under every possible scenario.
That's what we'll do—meet them head-on, with Seira and Milena.
It's Marks' settings, so it won't be simple by any means.