[center] [img]https://i.postimg.cc/DyH88WMW/Kid-s-Hat-Final.png[/img] [color=8258fa]Level:[/color] 7 (17 -> 19/70) [color=8258fa]Location:[/color] Edge of the Blue - Black Bay -> Luma Pools [color=8258fa]Word Count:[/color] 1039 (+2 EXP) [color=8258fa]Hat:[/color] Skull Cap -> Default -> Terry’s Cap -> Default [/center] By a waypoint that only she could see, Hat Kid could confirm to herself that they were just within the final stretch or so of reaching their target destination. All they had to do was make it past the thicker of the Black Fleet. No problem! With Shippy’s suddenly improved condition and slightly improved situation, at which Hat Kid got a better look when Jr. brought the Atomos back around to her and crew, their odds of success began to appear more promising. The expectation of her to thread ballista fire between their allies in Shippy’s defense was unspokenly apparent, and though she wasn’t entirely sure of her ability to manage that, she was keen to give it her best try. She recalled one of the bonus challenges tacked on to one of Snatcher’s contracts, stipulating that she take out scattered Mafia without harming any one of the frankly ridiculous number of birds that swarmed her along the way. How many times had she failed and died doing that? How many [i]more[/i] times during [i]other[/i] contracts? [i]When did she ever die at all? [b]Why was she suddenly remembering this as such a bad time?![/b][/i] Her head began to rapidly fill, or perhaps refill itself with an extensive series of unpleasant, difficult, [i]optional[/i] endeavors under her former employer and all the bad experiences that went with them, filling out a leftover blank space in her that she didn’t know had been there since re-awakening from Gleaming. She had to wonder then if these memories were in fact real, or if they were merely discouraging, debilitating falsehoods incubated within her mind while it slept, waiting for some ‘reminder’ to bring them forth? Either way, it made her stop what she was doing to clutch her temple and squeeze her eyes shut as if it physically pained her to remember any of this. Maybe it did. Now made for a poor time to think about it, as she quickly realized when, in the lapse of her attention, she allowed an errant Abyssal to dolphin jump aboard right at her, causing her to reflexively bail out of the gunner’s seat to spare herself its bite. It continued mindlessly flopping and gnashing her way until she batted its jaw aside with her umbrella, jabbed it with the point, and with her Power cap now equipped, blew it away--Spirit and all--with a shotgun blast of heatless fire, injecting her retaliatory attack with an atypical shot of anger and frustration involuntarily voiced with contact. With her focus pulled back, she took back to the gunner’s (with now a bite taken out of it) and went right back to what she was doing before, painting her excited smile back on as if nothing happened. It quickly fell again with the appearance of the Harbor Demon to make things more difficult for them again, and to remind her just how little she could do here as she was. The child racked her brain for ideas the way she racked rounds through the artillery battery she sat at, mentally probing her skillset, personal arsenal and inventory for anything at all that she could use against it. Fortunately, the Ace Cadet beat her and everyone else to it… after Kamek and Sakura. After the latter two disabled the Demon from afar with their most powerful attacks, the team’s resident giant monster slayer did what she was thus far hesitant/unwilling to do by taking on a Spirit to hit the water and rushing the Demon down to face her head-on, and with her summary demise, Hat Kid was reminded of the reason for being part of a team: [s]so others could could do the harder work for her[/s] [i][b]teamwork![/b][/i] Though the naval battle still wasn’t over, thankfully their part in it was finished, and with scant resistance left between them and the shore, both crews made their retreat for the inlet where they would find rest and reprieve from war… those who would have it anyway. Some, namely Sakura, took their experiences ashore with them, seemingly unable to let go of her freshly-induced trauma. It turned out a lot had happened on Shippy (and everywhere else) while Hat Kid wasn’t looking, between the death of so many now ‘Spiritized’ Azure ship-girls and the apparent loss of Brineybeard. Yet, even more tragic was just how little this singular war in this one particular region of the world mattered in the grand scheme overall; that it was all just a small part of the ever greater war against the Lord of Light, and that so many who died today may not have even been aware of that. Of course, she neglected to remind the despondent Street Fight of that, or that she still carried the Spirit of one of the Navy’s dead sisters within her, or of anything else at all. Similarly, she opted out of any attempt at consoling her or anyone else, considering it to be out of her depth. Moreover, she wasn’t exactly at peace herself. After the Atomos got clear enough of the action for her to comfortably dismount the main ballista, Hat Kid had spent the remainder of their unmolested trip inland gazing blankly, solemnly, forlornly at the celestial tyrant cradled in the sky above the distant center of the world before disembarking to take a short rest that their Highness had so graciously allowed them. She more needed to rest her mind than body, but she wouldn’t waste this chance to do both, sprawling out on her back under the shade of a palm tree with the rim of her top hat to pull over her eyes as a sun blinder. If nothing else, this at least gave her time to sit still long enough to check her Badge for any stray Time Pieces on the island. She was almost hoping she wouldn’t get any hits this time, for she already had make-up work for Inkwell Isle to attend to later. Should she be wrong, happen to find one anywhere nearby, in what proved thus far to be the most difficult place to reach, and end up being unable to retrieve it for some reason, she would rather not have to come back for it later.