"You're serious. All right, I acknowledge this as an order from the Commander. Engine Room, reverse rotation. Emergency brake." Seeing Ritsuka's resolute expression, Captain Nemo immediately understood that she was serious and promptly ordered the Nemo Sailors to stop the Nautilus. Though he felt Ritsuka was being overly cautious, she had only just been appointed the vessel's highest-ranking commander. He could hardly disobey her very first order. Stopping the Nautilus was no great matter, anyway.
"Tch, we're making an emergency stop when there's nothing there? Triton's Wheel, reverse rotation." Hearing the order in the engine room, the Nemo Engine activated the machinery while grumbling under his breath.
"Yes, understood."
The other Nemo Sailors responded in unison. Among the Nemo series, the Nemo Engine, Nurse Nemo, Professor Nemo, and Nemo Bakery possessed noticeably greater intelligence than the Nemo Sailors, along with more complete personalities.
"There'll be some shaking. Everyone, hold on to the handrails." An emergency stop naturally would not be gentle.
Boom.
But at that moment, a tremendous crash rang out, and the Nautilus began to shake violently. The disturbance seemed far too severe.
"Captain, wasn't that a little too violent for an emergency brake?" After catching Ritsuka, who had nearly been flung away in her surprise, Mash immediately asked.
"No, we struck a reef. How is that possible?"
Captain Nemo did not answer Mash's question. At that moment, his heart was filled with confusion and shock. The impact had not been caused by the emergency brake, but by striking a reef. As captain of the Nautilus, he was intimately familiar with ships and the sea. He could tell what had happened merely by hearing the sound.
That was precisely why he was so confused and shocked. This was the Sea of Imaginary Numbers—where could a hidden reef have come