Long Journey || ATEEZ

WDIG

"Gather round, crew!" Hongjoong called as his crew assembled in front of him. "I'm announcing the new pairings for shifts for this month!"

"Gods, is it September already?" Yunho asked, to no one in particular as he joined the crowd. "Time really flies, doesn't it?"

"Indeed it does," Hongjoong smiled. "It's already been more than a year since we all met! ATEEZ, I mean."

"Wow, it really doesn't feel like it," Yeosang said. "It feels like just yesterday we gathered for the first time to have a training session with Captain Mariynne."

"Holy Eterna, that's weird if you put it that way – that was so long ago!" Wooyoung said.

Hongjoong smiled, before clapping to get the attention of the rest of the crew.

"Alright! Here are the new pairings for this month!" he announced. "(And yes, Wooyoung, these were completely random, I swear.) Woojae, I'm with you, Seonghwa you're with Seungho, Yunho you're with Mingi, Yeosang with Jongho, San, you're with Shinoko..."

And so on.

Hongjoong finished calling out everybody's names, and the crowd dispersed to fulfil their duties with their new partners.

"Noko-noona!" San called cheerily, waving as he made his way over to the siren girl. "I haven't talked to you in a while – how have you been?"

"I've been doing great, don't worry," Shinoko smiled as San joined her side. "What about you?"

"Never been better!" San grinned. "We're on inspection duty right now, aren't we?"

"Yep!" Shinoko nodded. "Only food storage, though – the others've already been checked."

"Awesome," San grinned, and the two headed belowdecks.

There was silence, only punctuated by a couple of short exchanges regarding the state of the food supply, and the Magik sustaining it. The two were handling a couple of the packages that had fallen or ended up in the wrong places thanks to shoddy organisation, when San finally spoke up.

"So...you know about how you said you wanted to help pull Cezanne out of the darkness she locked herself in..." he started.

Shinoko perked up.

"Mhm?"

"Do you...have any plans? It's inevitable that we're gonna face off against her again, and all we've done so far is fight her. What even was your idea to help her, anyway? Get her to talk? Did you really think she'd listen to us?"

Shinoko recoiled, drooping in disappointment as she realised she really had been rather naïve about the whole matter. What had she been thinking?

"Sorry," San muttered as he quickly slotted a block of cheese into an empty space on the shelf. "I didn't mean to be that blunt."

"It's fine," Shinoko said, "and you're right. I really didn't think this through."

"So any ideas now?"

Shinoko hesitated, bit her lip.

"Can she be redeemed?" the half-siren asked cautiously, staring the demon down with reproachful eyes. "You're the guy who can see auras, after all."

San considered, before reaching into his pocket, and tossing a small, battered notebook over. His aura notebook.

"Check for yourself," he said. "Do you think she can be redeemed?"

Shinoko very carefully turned the book over in her hands, opening the thing gingerly.

"It's the second black tag – that's Cezanne's page," San pointed out helpfully.