After receiving a brand new warship courtesy of Professor Washu, Seina and his crew are tasked with transporting Neju, a girl they met on Jurai, to the Galaxy Academy. However, it won't be an easy voyage, as not only have GP Headquarters explicitly forbidden them from engaging in combat, but Amane, Kiriko, and Ryoko struggle to keep their jealousy under control as Neju quickly grabs the attention of her new "big brother" Seina.
Full Recap
While Kiriko is impressed with the power of Washu's latest invention, Amane is fixated on Neju, believing she'd seen her somewhere before. Kiriko guesses that Neju is from an important family and suggests she could've seen her at a party before. Then, she receives and relays shocking new orders from GP Headquarters: they are ordered not to attack, even in the event of a pirate encounter.
Meanwhile, Alan, Barry, and Cohen find their new GP ship attacked by pirates. While the ship's crew have barricaded themselves in a sealed section, Alan suddenly runs into the halls, and Barry and Cohen follow him, as Barry literally says "the three of us comprise one character".
Neju wants to sleep in the same room as Seina, which irritates Amane, Ryoko Balta, and Kiriko (even as she tries hiding it). Reading the crowd, Seina instead shows Neju to her own room, though she's disappointed. While they're inside, Amane and Ryoko attempt to spy on them through the nonphysical wall separating them despite Kiriko's protest. NB, who let himself inside the ship, calls them amateurs at peeping. He hands a spy camera to Amane and claims that a guy's first instinct is to jump on a girl who calls him "big brother". However, Seina and Neju come out and ask what they're doing, and when NB blankly tells them they were getting ready to watch them "get it on", Amane, Ryoko, and Kiriko all punch him.
They soon find themselves being chased by pirate ships, forcing them to flee as per their non-engagement order. However, as the pirates close in and hit their shields, the ship's computer core, an egg, begins cracking, making Amane think Washu gave them a junk ship. Once the egg shatters, it turns out to be a cabbit inside, and it emits a high-pitched Meow! that dramatically increases the ship's speed and allows them to escape.
Kiriko identifies the cabbit as the same kind of ship as Ryo-Ohki. Neju tells Seina to name her, and Seina decides on "Fuku", derived from the word "Koufuku"; he chooses not to name her "Kou" from the same word because that is also part of the word "Fukou", which has ominous connotations.
Later, Neju and Seina take turns feeding each other, Neju scrubs Seina's back, and she sleeps in Seina room. She tells him that she wants to marry him when she grows up, which embarrasses Seina as no girl has ever told him that before. While Seina lets Neju into his futon, Amane, Ryoko, and Kiriko are spying on them, as they've by now become extremely jealous (especially Kiriko). Thankfully, Kiriko recognizes that Seina can't do anything because he sees Neju as a younger sister figure, though Amane floats the small chance Seina might be into that.
Neju brings Seina to an interdimensional beach, making Seina question if they're still on their ship. They're still being watched by the others, and Amane and Ryoko notice Neju's flat chest in one of the cameras. They've already busted out their swimsuits and plan on showing Seina their adult bodies to win him over, but Kiriko is instead staring at Neju's necklace. She suddenly realizes that it bears the insignia of the Melmas family, thus identifying her as High Priestess Neju Na Melmas, though she's probably just a body double.
The three of them now don their swimsuits and confront Seina and Neju, and Amane and Ryoko tease Neju over not having large breasts. However, NB uses three fishhooks to latch onto their tops and rip them clean off, but Kiriko throws a pail straight through his face and damages his memory bank before he can record the moment, and the three of them chase after him.
After Seina recovers from his nosebleed courtesy of NB, Neju tries kissing him, but Amane and the others stop her and confront her out of Seina's sight about her impure behavior. Neju, however, tells them to keep their hands off Seina, but when they don't take her seriously, she freezes them in place, revealing herself to be the actual High Priestess instead of a body double. She warns them to not tell Seina a word about her being the real priestess, threatening to manipulate their minds otherwise. She now frees them, and Seina is none the wiser as to what happened. Now, they're attacked again by pirates and Seina tells Neju to stay on the beach.
Back on the bridge, Kiriko is unable to increase the ship's power output. As they receive incoming fire, Fuku becomes panicked and independently uses the ship's power to destroy a pirate ship, but Seina tells her that they've been ordered to not attack.
Meanwhile, the captain of Alan, Barry and Cohen's ship is being held hostage by pirates on the bridge alongside Naoko, and he asks her why she didn't escape like the others. She tells him that she can't abandon the ship because she's pregnant with his child, but without hearing this, Alan, Barry and Cohen arrive on the bridge. Alan convinces the pirates to let the two of them go free in exchange for himself and his comrades. He explains that his last captain had taught him "don't run out on your friends", which seems to touch Naoko.
Neju is in the middle of burying NB in the sand to prevent him from leaking any pictures from her, but she decides to go to the bridge as the pirate attack continues. There, she takes hold of a scared Fuku and manages to calm it, which manages to stabilize the ship's power output. Like last time, they're able to go fast enough to outrun the pirates, and this time, the pirates give up on chasing them.
They reach their destination at the Galaxy Academy, but they're surprised to find Lady Seto waiting for them. Seto explains that Neju's time as High Priestess is almost over and that she's now in danger of abduction by those who want to use her absolute political authority during the interval before she designates her successor. Thus, Seto sent Neju along with Seina's crew to act as lures, but in exchange, Neju was to ascertain if Seina's bad luck was similar to that of her powers, as if they were, Seina would be put under strict observation. Thankfully, Neju tells Seto that Seina's powers are different from hers.
Later, Neju is about to leave and tells Seina to remember their promise to marry. Amane and Kiriko are furious, but Ryoko tells them that Neju won't be able to leave her planet once she returns to secular life. However, Seto steps in and tells them that because Neju is still in danger from those who want to use her extensive knowledge, she has allowed her to enroll in the Galaxy Academy.
The realization that Neju will return causes Amane, Kiriko, and Ryoko to buckle to their knees in defeat, but Seina is genuinely confused by what's going on.
Trivia
- During the scene where Seina shows Neju to her room, there is a stuffed toy on the floor that looks exactly like Shinichi Watanabe, the show's director, sporting his distinct red and blue clothes and afro.
- This episode is the first to introduce changes to either the opening or ending sequence; in this case, both. Neju reveals herself to be the first silhouetted figure in the opening sequence, while Ryoko and Mitoto (despite the latter not being one of the main characters) join Amane and Kiriko in the ending sequence, as well as glimpses of Fuku.