__________ POV Narration__________
The ships first encounter with the sea monsters had been a complete disaster for the navigation crew.
Their weapons proved effective, but they also proved to attract even more beasts. And their ammunition was not unlimited.
Besides that, it seemed like there were beasts that their radar simply couldn't pick up. They didn't even know why, or how. But it just didn't show. The tentacle beast was a good example.
They quickly informed the people in charge of how things looked, advising a reroute back to Lake Mobius, but they were turned down promptly. Threatened even, they needed to keep their course.
The promise was already made. The ones in charge failed to understand how bad things were.
And losing face was something a lot worse for them than the death of a few thousand people.
They quickly informed the expedition team, the hunters, of the trouble.
They were tasked to try and cover every corner of the ship with their Aura's. As that was the known method to keep the beasts away.
An impossible task, but the arrogant fools didn't understand the limitations of Nen.
And they weren't willing to learn either. They simply gave the order and expected it to get done promptly.
It left poor Cheadle with a huge headache to deal with. She knew there was no feasible way for them to cover the entire ship with the number of hunters they had.
She needed all of the help she could get. So... She once again needed to call up Ashton. The only person that Cheadle thought would have some sort of solution for their predicament.
After all, he was a native of the Dark Continent. He was certainly more knowledgeable in this field than her.
Still, actually reaching him would prove quite difficult... After all, they weren't sure of his whereabouts, and regular phone communications weren't possible right now.
They were far away from any radio tower. The ship did have one, but it only worked for other transmissions. Regular cellphones no longer had any signal.
So, she needed to get creative. She asked the member of the Zodiacs that was most likely to know of his whereabouts. Kurapika, one of their newer members.
She already knew the two had some connection, mainly because Ashton specifically requested for him to come when he was taking down the Phantom Troupe.
So, he was her best bet at reaching Ashton.
"I haven't seen him much since the raid..." He proved not to be as helpful as Cheadle had hoped. But he did give her a new lead.
"But he is the bodyguard of the 12th princess of the Kakin Empire. She should know more about his whereabouts..."
The hunter association's new chairman was quick to go look for the said princess. But she didn't expect the princess to be in an odd depressive state.
She seemed to react oddly when hearing about Ashton too.
"I-I don't know where he is... I-I'm sorry..." That was all she could say. The girl was clearly not in any state to help Cheadle.
The princess had eventually asked Zhang Lei and Tubeppa about how they were recruited into the alliance. She was beyond shocked to hear that Ashton had told her the truth.
She had always considered her brother to be a good person. Even to the point where she wanted to invite him into the alliance on day 1.
The only person that stopped her from doing so at the time was Camilla. As she adamantly refused to be in the same alliance as Tserriednich.
Apparently, it wasn't out of a petty grudge, as the young innocent princess had previously thought. Camilla was already aware of their brother's true self.
Momoze managed to ruin her relationship with Ashton once more. Even worse, she had pushed him away from everybody else near the Alliance.
That's what she thought anyway... She didn't know that Ashton didn't care about anyone else in the alliance.
He just wanted her to remain safe. And building that alliance was his best bet at keeping her mental health in check. He was never really worried about attacks against her.
In her mind, she had made a grave mistake. One that she had no way of correcting either. Ashton had not even passed by her room ever since.
Even going to Camilla directly to start a meeting. Only to break the vase and leave after learning that he was excluded from their meetings...
That, of course, was also not completely right. He had only smashed the vase because they had already agreed to destroy it.
And he didn't feel like waiting around for everyone to gather up just so they could watch him smash a clay pot.
It was all of these misunderstandings that lead to Momoze feeling even more guilty than she should've felt. It didn't help that she was a naturally emotive person...
Still, she proved to be of no help to Cheadle. The chairman was left with a dead-end in her 'investigation'...
Only then, did she realise that she could look up his fake identity. To find out in which room he was supposed to be.
As for why that idea didn't cross her mind first... Ashton didn't bother to use his fake name even once since reaching the ship. Which made Cheadle forget about it entirely.
But now, she not only had a lead. She had his actual location! And she couldn't ask for any better.
She reached his room quickly. She was moving alone during her entire search for Ashton as to not arouse any suspicion.
Now, she was already knocking on his door.
The door swung open, Ashton looked at his visitor with a tired gaze. His hair was messy and his beard somewhat unkempt. His regular suit replaced by a comfortable pair of loose pyjamas.
"What??" His voice didn't hide his displeasure in any way.
The old scientist was clearly sleeping before Cheadle had interrupted him. Leaving the chairman quite flustered.
It was still in the middle of the day, she didn't expect Ashton to have such irregular sleep patterns. But he was, after all, a scientist. Night for him was only when he was truly tired.
After all, one can only feel truly rested when he goes to the bed tired.
"I-I need your help!" Cheadle instantly bowed to him. It was in apology, both for waking him up and for seeking his help so often.
The scientist stared blankly at her.
__________ POV Ashton__________
Would you look at that? She's just like Netero when it comes to asking for help...
So, from her panicked ramblings and constant apologies.
I managed to gather that the people at the top want the hunters to somehow fend off some of the undetectable sea beasts with their Aura.
But doing so would be impossible since the hunters don't have anywhere near enough people to cover the entire ship at all times.
A true predicament. Truly unfortunate. I fail to see how this concerns me in any way.
"So... Why do you want my help?" Outright refusing this will really worsen my already poor public relations...
"W-we need a more effective method to keep the Sea Beasts away... Please, you're my only hope at this point..." Cheadle seems to be quite desperate.
I mean, it's only been around three hours since the ship's close call. I guess I can think of something to keep this ship on the sea...
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