The ‘Battery Bucket’ flies through space, a few hundred kilometres above the surface of Theia.

  Raiden leans back in his chair: “Ahh~ autopilot engaged.”

  Shurui replies: “You do remember that it’s just me flying? You’re too poor for a separate AI system that flies for you.”

  “Mostly I didn’t buy one because you’re just so good at this, Shurui-chan.”, Raiden tries to persuade Shurui who replies, “Fuck off already! I know that’s not true!”

  Raiden giggles and leaves the cockpit, entering the big living space.

  It’s just one room, split into four corners, each belonging to a crewmember. Erika sits at her workshop desk, already welding things together while Ketsuki sleeps and Atsume isn’t there.

  Raiden asks whispering: “Hey Erika, how do you like your corner?”

  Erika finishes a weld, turns around and speaks normally: “No need to whisper. This guy sleeps like a rock. And I love this corner although I wish I had more space. My workshop in Sarseia was bigger so I couldn’t even bring everything.”

  Raiden explains: “Well this ship was originally designed with a crew of one person and a robot in mind. …By the way, where’s Atsume?”

  Erika replies: “By the big window. I think she likes the view.”

  Raiden raves a little: “Right, the big window. I love the big window. Definitely one of my most underrated ideas.”

  His cheeky smile quickly fades as Erika announces obliviously: “You know what? I think I’m gonna take apart and improve the machine room.”

  She gets up and Raiden gets a shock: “While we’re flying?!”

  Erika tries calming him: “Unlike you, I’m no bungler. I’m a genius mechanic of Sarseia. You know that Sarseia is a bit on the famous side in the mechanic community?”

  Raiden replies: “Firstly, no, I didn’t know that. And secondly, this self-proclaimed genius mechanic couldn’t handle her own invention.”

  Erika is caught: “H- hey it seemed like you didn’t care about that!”

  Raiden explains: “Yeah, until I could use it as a trump card.”

  Erika is a little triggered until her mood switches completely and she walks past Raiden without a care in the world: “Well, doesn’t matter, I’m still gonna rummage around in your D-level engineering and maybe I end up pimping the ship.”

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  Raiden feels a little frustrated and sighs.

  “Well, maybe Atsume’ll be nicer to me.”

  Raiden enters a little area for chilling and disconnecting. There’s a big window, a couch and two plants. Atsume sits right at the window on the floor and presses her entire face against it. She’s completely mesmerized and doesn’t notice him.

  He inspects her before speaking: “Seems you like this view.”, he sits down, right next to her, “Do you also like your corner?”

  Atsume slowly but steadily turns her head and asks: “What is this? Are you asking everyone how they like it after just an hour of flight?”

  Raiden explains: “Well, I’m kind of your leader now. I figured knowing if everyone’s happy is part of that.”

  A few seconds pass and Atsume asks: “So, where are we going now? It doesn’t seem like we’re leaving the planet.”

  Raiden says: “You got a keen eye young lady. We actually fuelled up on the wrong fuel for that, intentionally. There’s cheaper fuel for flights that stay below orbit. We’re going to Kaishi City to make some money there and then we’re going to leave Theia behind.”

  Ketsuki quietly joins the conversation without them noticing as Atsume asks: “And do you have a goal for your journey?”

  Raiden’s smile gets really wide as he says: “Well, to make it short, I want to find a certain man called ‘The man from Nowhere’. I also once heard of some device called ‘Godfather’s Key’ which could teleport you anywhere in the universe in an instant. I think it could be a lead on ‘The man from Nowhere’ so I added it to my list of goals.”

  Atsume keeps digging: “And to make it long?”

  Raiden takes a second and then tells Atsume, and unknowingly Ketsuki, the story he also told Erika.

  After he finishes his story, Raiden says: “We can talk dreams later when we’re all together. I really just wanted to check up on everyone. …Now on to Ketsuki, although I’ll need to wake him up.”

  Atsume asks: “He’s sleeping and nobody told me that? I bet he’s super cute when sleeping! I would’ve instantly ditched this window if I knew that!”

  They turn around and scare up.

  Atsume blushes and Raiden asks: “You’re here? How much did you hear?”

  Ketsuki replies: “Your story. Nothing more.”

  Raiden stands up and says: “Please come into the cockpit with me. We’ve got something to talk about.”

  Raiden sits down in his pilot chair and says: “Sorry I don’t have a chair for you. I hope you don’t mind standing.”

  Ketsuki replies: “I don’t mind.”

  Raiden explains: “I’ve decided to respect the opinions of the others.”, “What’s that mean?”, “That I’ll let you be part of the crew.”, “But I thought you had a problem with me.”, “Well, yeah, I do, but the others don’t, so you can stay with us.”

  Ketsuki’s heartrate goes up: “You don’t have to this, you know. You can still leave me at the next stop.”

  Raiden takes a moment to respond: “I appreciate that you try to be understanding but I’m trying to do the same thing here. All of a sudden, I’m confronted with so many things I don’t know anything about. How to be a captain or you as a person for example. Erika told me that we don’t know why you’re like this so… If you ever feel like it, please tell me your story.”

  Ketsuki is overwhelmed and confused and Raiden adds: “Of course you can also not tell us. That’s up to you to decide. For now, everything important is…”, he stands up and reaches out with his hand, “Welcome to the crew.”

  Ketsuki’s expression stays as neutral as possible and he bows: “Thank you.”

  Raiden pulls away his hand confused and Ketsuki stands up straight again.

  Ketsuki then leaves and Raiden thinks: “Just how will I ever understand him?”