Hayha

A sniper with the Daybreaker fleet.

"That woman's schedule is tighter than a noose on the gallows!" a Sea Hawk deserter complained at the ice bar. "Up on the dot, muster on the dot, then raise the rifle and aim five hundred times over to make sure it's 'exact to the hair'."

Even the sea hamsters listening clicked their tongues in sympathy. The woman had turned herself into a gun, and wanted to turn every recruit into a precision machine too.

"I'd rather hide out in Ottopia as a sea hamster than get extra drills from that woman," the deserter said, still shaken. "Even the gulls resting on the Daybreaker have to practise flapping on her schedule!"

Before she joined the Daybreakers, Hayha, unwilling to just coast along, left the Navy and became a lone sea monster hunter.

With one rifle and one boat, the sharpshooter pulled countless unlucky souls out of the storms.

Every traveller at sea back then had heard her legend, including the Princess, who had only just set sail.

The Princess stood quietly at the rail and watched Hayha calmly drive off a sea monster from a hundred metres away. Then, without hesitating, she offered her a place.

Everyone there assumed a chance so many Sea Hawks dreamed of would be snapped up on the spot.

Instead, Hayha simply pinned up her loose hair and put her rifle away. "Thank you. But I don't want to go back to the Navy."

The Princess wasn't surprised by the refusal, and didn't hold Hayha's coolness against her. "Then until next time."

Hayha's face stayed blank. Leaving every soldier on the Daybreaker fuming, she walked away in silence.

That was the first time the two of them met, and already there was a strange understanding between them.