It's a little unconventional for an Eve to come bursting out of the trash shoot. But Hiyori stepped out proudly, showing the plant to the occupants of the room. Captain Tenjin stared with wide eyes, jaw dropping a little more every second. Beside him, a Pr-T dressed in pink with short black hair asked what the meaning of the rude disturbance was. Tenjin waved at the other woman, a beautiful cyborg with the ends of her long hair tied at the waist. She leaned forward to hear his words.
"Tsuyu, take Mayu and leave. Not a word of this." Tenjin look at Mayu as well. Both woman nodded in compliance, quickly taking their leave. Once the door slid shut behind them, the captain drifted forward.
"You found it." Tenjin leaned forward to take it from Hiyori, holding it in his hands like a poor man who was just given gold.
"Yes sir, but there's something I have to tell you. I think-"
"-What was it like?" Tenjin questioned. Hiyori blinked, thrown off her train of thought.
"What was what-?"
"The planet. What was Earth like? The 'skyscrapers'? What of the libraries? The 'Gothic Architecture' and art?" Tenjin got louder with his inquiries, sounding like a king making declarations. He hovered away from the Eve, trading the plant in either hand as he flung his arms up towards the sky. Hiyori stepped forward, hands out and ready to dive to catch the glass bottle.
The captain came back to stop where he was before, in front of the halo-screen of his computer. Now, Hiyori could see why the room was dimmed. The computer showed overlapping pictures of agriculture under a blue sky, thin humans in old clothing dancing in a line, and framed smudgy images. Tenjin grew quiet. Hiyori choose to stay silent, somberness settling in the room.
"We lost so much," Tenjin looked at the plant, "We ran away from the responsibility of care, in favor of being softened by comfort." The captain of Heaven's Sun turned to look at Hiyori with a truly mournful expression.
"It's not the same, is it?" Tenjin drove his chair back towards Hiyori, eyes downcast. In his other hand, he held a stick-like device. A helmet projector. He held it to her, barley noticing when she took it and plugged it into the side of her helmet.
Tenjin took a sharp breath at the first couple seconds of the flat, brown landscape. His lips pressed together as her camera pointed down when she scanned the ground, the pieces of glass and plastic clear as stars. Tenjin saw the ship leave the dull blanket of pollution clouds through the hole it first made, before the camera turned to the skeleton outline of the city. He turned away, gazing out the window at the stars
Hiyori looked sadly after her captain, feeling the slightest guilt at having to be the one to show him the reality of her mission. Hiyori looked meekly back at the recording, smiling slightly at the part where she was introduced to Nora. Next came the movie night, to Hiyori's embarrassment, in which the opening song started to play.
"I recognize that tune," Tenjin said from behind the chair, "it's from that cartoon franchise?" He leaned heavily on the arm of the chair, rubbing his face and eyes. The captain then looked at the baby cherry blossom and smiled.
"I should probably get you some water." Tenjin said, making his way to the sink in the corner. At this point, the recording showed her stepping into the pod, laying down as the glass door shut over her. Smoke filled her screen, then the recording went black.
Hiyori looked down at her hands, twisting her fingers together. Earth wasn't so bad. Not much different than the other dessert planets the ship passed. At the very least, she thought with a smile, Yato was very fond of Earth. He said he had things he wanted to do with her.
