No one was surprised when Angron rushed into his room and locked himself in. Shortly afterward, he allowed Sephra in, and then, silence fell over the ship. Serion, Solar, and Daron remained, alternating between studying the map and contemplating.

Daron, in particular, wanted nothing more than to escape. Being alone with someone who had recently threatened to gouge out his eyes and another who had tried to kill him was not reassuring at all.

The girl stared at him again with a smirk.

"What have I done?"

Solar merely grinned. Daron tried not to pay her any mind and returned to examining the map, but he reached up to scratch his shoulder. Suddenly, he froze. He just remembered the tracker they had planted in before setting out for Darella. If it had been discovered, Serion would undoubtedly have gutted him right there or at least chopped off his arm to rid him of the tracker. Neither option appealed to him.

He slowly withdrew his hand from under his shirt, as if nothing had happened. He saw Solar's grin but chose to ignore it.

Serion paid them no attention. He played with the shard and tried to figure out where they should go first. Each time he considered it, Shouta seemed like the best choice. The longer they delayed the trip there, the later Angron would have to deal with it. Now they just had to convince the pilot that it was the best option. It was a task he left to Sephra.

***

The room was once again filled with smoke as Sephra entered. She couldn't breath without coughing.

"I can't go back. You know I can't. I'm sorry, but it's not possible. I'll take you anywhere else, but this..."

Sephra started to cough from the smoke again and then saw where her friend was. She sat down next to him.

"I know how much you're worried, but we'll be there with you. At least four of us will ensure your safety."

"You don't understand. I'm not worried about myself. I almost killed Serion and Solar today. I was so lucky that I came to my senses before... What do you think the ship would be like if I transformed?"

"Stop this!"

"Imagine it! All of you would be dead, torn to pieces."

"I said that's enough!"

"It would be a ghost ship. Maybe after a while, I wouldn't even come to my senses. Perhaps I would start to eat you. I wonder what it would be like once you're gone? Would I survive?"

"Angron!"

"Maybe I would. Can I starve to death? We haven't tried that yet. Maybe someone would come after a while and try to get through. It wouldn't be good. How do you think I'd look if I didn't change back for a long time? How ugly would I get? It's even possible that..."

A slap cut him off. Angron turned in astonishment towards the woman and was even more taken aback when he saw her face. Sephra glared at him in anger.

"I said stop it! This must not happen, understand?"

Angron felt ashamed. The woman was doing her best to help him, and he was behaving like this.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me! I was just desperate. I have avoided Shouta so much that even the mere thought of it upsets me. I thought I'd never have to go back. Maybe you could go down and look for that thing, and I'll stay on the ship..."

"No. Hyraus was an extremely clever man. I don't believe he'd put it in a place where we could easily find it. We'll need you down there. Perhaps he hid it somewhere in the ocean, and only you can go down there, along with other Shoutans. But you can't seriously think that we can entrust such a secret to anyone. You know them."

"True, but I have no idea how I'll behave after all that happened there."

"We'll just go there, find it, and leave. We'll get over it quickly. I'll be with you all the way in the city if you want. You can do it! I believe in you."

"Can we at least go somewhere else first? Let Shouta be the second stop. Maybe by then I can pull myself together. Please."

"No. You have to get over it. The longer you put it off, the harder it will be. I promise, I won't ask you for something like this ever again."

Angron fell silent. No matter how much he tried to avoid the task, he realized that the woman was right. He had no choice. True, he could have run away, but Sephra, as the Grand Admiral, could have taken his license, and he would never have flown again.

"Okay... Let's go..."

Sephra smiled, then got up.

"I'll go inform the others."

Angron lowered his head. If someone had told him yesterday that he would return to Shouta, he would have hit them. But there was someone for whom he would do anything. And behind that someone, the door just closed.