"Commander, are you sure these things are edible, nya?"
In the mountains, Akashi held one of the girl's hands as she stood beside Su Luo.
Looking at the bizarre fruits growing on the tree before them—fruits that had absolutely nothing to do with the word "pretty"—Akashi truly had no appetite.
"This thing looks rather distinctive. No matter how I look at it... it doesn't seem edible."
As she spoke, Akashi looked at the little girl beside her.
"Azi, have you eaten this kind of fruit before?"
Neither Akashi nor Su Luo knew the girl's name. She could not speak yet, and perhaps because she had been unable to attend school in this remote mountain valley—or perhaps because the civilization here was not advanced enough for education to be widespread—she could not convey any information to Akashi and Su Luo through writing either. Fortunately, the girl could understand the Eastern Faction language they spoke. That made communication between them much easier.
For convenience, Akashi decided to give the girl something to call her. She had originally wanted to ask Su Luo for help and have her commander give the child a nice name, but her commander said he was terrible at naming things. Left with no choice, Akashi could only do it herself. In the end, based on the girl's gemstone-like purple color, she gave her the nickname Azi.
As for why Akashi, a Heavy Sakura ship girl, spoke the Eastern Faction language...
In fact, before Su Luo returned to the port, Akashi and most of the other ship girls spoke the languages of their respective factions. Thanks to the unique nature of ship girls, communication among them had never been a problem.
After Su Luo returned to the port, perhaps because he was the Commander and shared a special connection with the ship girls, he could understand everything they said as well. However, the ship girls perceptively noticed that in his daily interactions with them, the Commander always spoke Eastern Faction. Moreover, compared to the other ship girls, the Commander was clearly closer to the Eastern Faction ship girls who spoke the same language as him.
That discovery sparked a craze for learning Eastern Faction language throughout the port. Akashi had learned it at that time as well. She had even tried to seize the business opportunity by contacting Eastern Faction ship girls like Yixian and Zhenhai, hoping to negotiate the opening of an Eastern Faction language tutoring class. The profits would be split eighty-twenty: twenty for the Eastern Faction, eighty for Akashi!
To Akashi's regret, Yixian and the others had refused to cooperate. Instead, while everyone was learning Eastern Faction language, they had taken the chance to steal her business...
Azi looked at Akashi, who had called her, then at the bizarre fruit Akashi was pointing at. Under Akashi's solemn gaze, Azi nodded, indicating that she had indeed eaten it before!
"You've eaten it? This thing is really edible?!!!"
Akashi found it hard to believe, because the fruit truly did not look edible. As the fruit of a terrestrial plant, it somehow looked like the tentacles of jellyfish in the water. Akashi felt that the sailing ship girls would probably love this thing. After all, their riggings were full of these strange things!
"Akashi, don't let its ugly appearance fool you. This thing isn't poisonous, and it should taste pretty good too!"
Su Luo added from the side.
Akashi blinked, her eyes carrying a trace of doubt as she looked at her Commander.
"Commander, you haven't eaten it either, nya. How do you know it isn't poisonous and tastes good, nya?"
Su Luo shrugged and tilted his chin toward the tree before them.
"I haven't eaten it, but the tree told me all that!"
"The tree, nya?"
Akashi looked the tree over from top to bottom and side to side, but failed to spot anything unusual.
"Stop looking, Akashi. This is Momo's ability. Did you forget that Momo can communicate with plants?"
Su Luo pointed at the tree before them, a smile appearing on his lips.
"This tree is quite kind. I just told it that Azi was hungry and wanted to look around nearby for something nonpoisonous and edible to fill her stomach. The tree voluntarily recommended its own fruit. According to it, the villagers at the foot of the mountain used to come here often to pick its fruit!"
"Princess Momo's ability, nya..."
Akashi thought back to when Momo had arrived at the port and introduced herself to everyone, mentioning that she could communicate with plants. In their later interactions, everyone discovered that Princess Momo could also control plant growth. Because of that, the Eastern Faction ship girls had become the most familiar with Momo. The port cafeteria had recently gained noticeably more dishes! They were all fresh, out-of-season vegetables...
"If that's the case, then there's no problem. But Commander, isn't there anything else to eat, nya? This really is... I can't bring myself to eat it, nya!"
Akashi looked at the fruits that closely resembled octopus tentacles. As a Heavy Sakura ship girl, she had some unusual knowledge in certain areas. After all, as the port's unscrupulous merchant, it was not as if she had never sold erotic magazines before.
Miss Nagato was even one of her important customers!
The fruit was ugly, and it reminded her of those special comics she had read before... She truly could not bring herself to eat it.
Seeing Akashi's resistant expression, Su Luo did not force her. He looked at the tree before him and asked about the surrounding area.
Perhaps because it felt its fruit had been disliked, the tree became a little angry. It merely pointed Su Luo in a direction, and no matter how Su Luo questioned it afterward, it ignored him.
Cold-shouldered by a tree, Su Luo sighed and could only head in the direction it had indicated.
As they walked, they asked around. At last, Su Luo found the food the tree had pointed them toward... a huge group of animals that looked like rabbits, but were larger than rabbits and appeared extremely ferocious! Su Luo roughly counted them. There were at least a hundred!
Su Luo looked at the horn-like thing on the heads of those "rabbits" and clicked his tongue. These "rabbits" did not look like the sort that would obediently let themselves be eaten!
But it did not matter. Su Luo had Nana's ability to communicate with animals and even control them.
After switching abilities, he felt that it consumed far more energy than the skill that merely allowed communication before, and he frowned. Not much energy remained in that energy stone!
Fortunately, calling over just one "rabbit" was still no problem.
Su Luo and Akashi worked together smoothly. Su Luo called over a "rabbit," and Akashi struck it with a stick. One blow was enough to knock the "rabbit" unconscious.
They looked quite ferocious, but they were actually easy to deal with!
"Commander, catch a few more, nya. We don't know how long we'll be staying here, nya. We can try raising some first, so we won't have to come here and catch them so often, nya!"
Su Luo nodded in approval of Akashi's suggestion, then continued the same process.
After catching nearly twenty of them, Su Luo shook his head at Akashi.
"Akashi, it's time to go. That energy stone is almost depleted!"
Akashi raised her brows, disbelief written across her face. The energy contained in that energy stone had seemed quite substantial. How long had the Commander been using it for it to already run out?!!!
Had she misjudged the energy density contained within the stone? Or had the Commander deliberately wasted energy? Or perhaps... the energy utilization efficiency of this so-called genetic system was inherently low?
Akashi felt that she needed to study it carefully later.
Before you continue