The ship departed the next day. There was surprisingly little fanfare. Kotori was expecting a scene like out of a movie where people tossed handkerchiefs and other things as they left, but it seems like the Eris camp wasn’t very welcome in the city and they left without much trouble or celebration.

At the very least no one came to see them off. Kotori was confined to her room. For some reason, Fawks had managed to convince Amah that he shouldn’t listen to her every time and have a little more prudence with guarding her.

Amah was surprisingly dense about these sorts of things. He didn’t realize how bad it could’ve been for Kotori to leave the ship alone. He was a good fighter but lacked a bit of common sense.

Of course, if Kotori wanted to leave the ship again she probably could easily overpower him, but since they would leave in a day she didn’t bother.

Layla, Shu, and Umi had also started to grow back into their normal human forms. There was only one problem.

…

They looked like kids.

Although they had enough mana to maintain human forms again through [Spirit Manifestation] it seems like they couldn’t maintain a a fully grown form. Thus, they took more childish and younger looks.

“More music!” Layla said pouting.

Layla had a tomboyish look and wild face. Her features were childish, and she wanted to be back in her main form as soon as possible. She was the spirit who was most against being in this prepubescent form.

“Layla, don’t bother Kotori so much. Didn’t she just play music for us? She must be tired.” Shu said.

Shu looked like the cross between a Shota and a Shounen. He had a tough expression on his face but due to his young look it looked more cute than imposing. It was a look that made Kotori want to spoil him. She had already given him quite a few head pats. Though, Shu seemed to be especially affectionate in this younger form.

Umi was as elegant as she was when in her older form although she was technically a loli, she exuded a graceful aura. To be quite honest, Kotori still found herself acting like Umi was quite the same after all.

Kotori did have to deal with one problem, Seasickness.

You see, Kotori had never actually ridden on a ship before. Why would she? She lived in a world with planes. She hadn’t ever gotten on a ship, and she never found the thought of riding on a ship particularly interesting.

Kotori had gotten a little cocky thinking that she was safer considering she had high defense stats, but those didn’t really make her sense of balance get any better.

Seasickness was caused by an imbalance in the ear and eyes which triggers a nausea response. No amount of defense would change that.

Thankfully they had no problems with a loss of fluids since Umi could use water magic to give a makeshift IV to Kotori.

It was something that Kotori had to explain several times before Umi got the point and even then Umi was acting as if Kotori had just ask for Umi to kill her.

“It’s just a small prick don’t worry”

“But I don’t want to Marr Kotori-sama's beautiful skin.”

“Umi look it’s a pretty normal procedure”

“I refuuuseee”

Or at least that’s how the conversation went. Eventually, after much reassurance, Umi started giving Kotori IV’s much to her relief.

Kotori felt much better after that, the extra fluid helped stave off some of the nausea symptoms. She was finally able to walk after an hour of getting IVs

She spent most of her days still cooped up in her room. Initially, she went out on the ship for walks, but after pacing around on it for a week she realized she didn’t have much in common with the sailors. Even worse it seemed like sailors were even starting a Kotori fan club. So she had Fawks send her meals and she stayed mostly inside her room. It suited her, she liked spending time with her spirits after all.

Thus, she kept herself hidden once again.

It was smooth sailing for a while until Kotori’s felt a rocking on their ship. A rocking that was unlike the normal rocking of a ship.

Then suddenly she heard a loud boom. Kotori stood up

[Eh? Are we being attacked? But there shouldn’t be any pirates after all?] She thought.

They should’ve been far enough from shore that there were no more pirates and even then, Amah could deal with most people easily.

She decided to leave her room for the first time in a week to check what was going on.

Kitsura

I took a long nap and still woke up tired.