Happy at the Equator Festival!

***Happy at the Equator Festival!*** (赤道祭でハッピー！ *Romaji: "Sekidōsai de Happī!"*) is the tenth episode of Hai-Furi.

After the Harekaze crosses the equator, Maron insists on holding an Equator Festival to celebrate the occasion, only for the crew to be at a loss as to what it is.

## Episode Summary

As the Harekaze underwent repairs and resupplying, an excited Maron informed the crew that they had crossed the Equator. She suggested holding an Equator Festival. yet not one crewmember, save for Maron and Kuroki, knew about the tradition.

### Preparations

Taking advantage of the ongoing repair and resupply, Akeno agreed to hold an Equator Festival. Kuroki explained the history behind the ceremony, dating back to the Age of Exploration. As ships crossed an area of calm near the Equator, seafarers would pray to the gods for safety during their journey. Other accounts involved merrymaking via short skits.

The festival would be held two days from now, but already most showed little interest. Maron volunteered to oversee the preparations and told the departments to think of a skit they could do on the big day.

Back at Blue Mermaids headquarters, Mashimo and her fellow Blue Mermaids began their own preparations for a major operation called Operation: Perseus. Inspired by the Harekaze's success on the Graf Spee, they intend to replicate that success on the Musashi and the destroyers Suzukaze (hull number Y-513), Amatsukaze (hull number Y-459), Isokaze (hull number Y-460), and Tokitsukaze (hull number Y-461)--the only remaining infected ships.

The Musashi was last seen sailing between Yap Island and Ngulu Atoll, heading for the Philippines. The Blue Mermaids requested cooperation from studentships, to which Principal Munetani reluctantly agreed.

### Light Maron's Fire

Hours before the event, Maron went around the ship to check on the preparations. Instead, she saw others engaged in activities of their own.

Seeing her own department lazing under the sun eventually broke Maron, who ran back to the engine room. Running up to the bridge, Kuroki asked the captain to help her childhood friend.

Hime's secret project, a palanquin (a favorite of Maron), turned out to be the key to get Maron all fired up again. Kuroki led Maron outside to see the spirit of the crew getting into things.

### The Festival

Soon, the festival kicked off with Akeno receiving the key from Neptune, the god of the sea. After which, shrine maidens Rin and Tsugumi (whose family works at the Suwa Shrine) blessed the crew to ward off evil spirits. Mashiro asked to be blessed a lot because of her misfortune. That night, the departments showed their skits in the classroom.

During the skits, Maron thanked Kuroki for looking for her. Maron thought she had lost a good friend, as Kuroki had been stuck on Mashiro since coming aboard. As thanks, Maron came up with one more program: a sumo match rigged in favor of Kuroki, who's already good at the sport.

Minami, who hadn't done anything during the festival, suggesting singing "I am a Child of the Sea" together to end the celebration.

> *I am a child of the sea, of the white waves. In a pine grove, along the seashore with the sound of the waves. A thin trail of smoke rising, drifting in the air. That's the dear old home of mine, where I always belong.*
>
>

The next day, Akeno looked at the sea, wearing the same disturbed face she had three days ago.

## Trivia

* This is the only episode in the series that doesn't use the word "pinch," signifying its role as a breather episode.
* The line-crossing ceremony's origins can be traced back around 500 years ago when French merchant ships regularly crossed the Equator along their trade routes. The ceremony served two roles: first, to give thanks for safely crossing the line; and second, to initiate sailors who haven't done so before.
* The Musashi heading for Philippine waters gave some sort of eerie foreboding. En route to stop the U.S. landings at Leyte, Musashi and the rest of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Center Force were attacked by carrier aircraft from the U.S. Third Fleet. Musashi was hammered to submission and sank to the bottom of the Sibuyan Sea.
* Perseus is a Greek hero known for beheading the famed Gorgon Medusa and slaying the sea monster Cetus. It's implied that Operation: Perseus plans to "slay" the beast known as the Musashi.