A/N: I have strange friends. Thanks very much to everyone who helped me with beta-ing this, and to everyone about to leave a review here.

Shigure stared at the mirror. Once again, she scrutinised her reflection. Silken hair the colour of the darkest chocolate framed wide sapphire blue eyes and a youthful face that belied her true maturity and spirit. As a shipgirl, she was absolutely stunning, capable of turning heads wherever she went. Being a reincarnated ship-spirit also meant that she could perform spectacular physical feats nobody would expect from a girl of her stature.

However, none of her strength or experience could help her in her current predicament, because the problem she currently faced was not one she could solve with simple brute force.

Two tufts of hair proudly stuck up on either side of her head. Shigure closed her eyes and pressed them down, hoping that magically, mysteriously, they would stay down this time. Alas, as she let go and opened her eyes, they bounced back up into position, defying her once more.

They'd been there since she completed her second refitting last night. She had tried to push them down then, but it obviously hadn't worked. A confused Akashi suggested that it could just be a terrible case of bed hair, advice which she took after spending a few minutes trying to force them down, only to have them spring right back up again.

"Nothing seems to work, poi…" sighed Yuudachi from beside her. "It's almost time for breakfast, too…"

Shigure could only agree with her sister. They had tried combs, water, hair gel, blasting the offending hair with a hair dryer, more water, more hair gel, and blasting the hair for even longer. But their hair flaps had resolutely defeated every one of their attempts to tamp them down.

"Oh well!" Yuudachi suddenly exclaimed as she stood up and turned to leave. "It's just a little hair!"

"Wha-" blurted Shigure, surprised by her sister's sudden burst of energy. "But I can't show myself to the Admiral looking like this!"

"It'll be fine, poi! He's pretty cool, I'm sure he won't mind your hair being a little messier than usual! Besides, we gotta get food! Otherwise, we might miss out and then we won't get anything and then we'll be hungry during morning drills until lunch, poi!"

"But-!"

"No buts, poi!"

Shigure could do nothing but submit to Yuudachi's energy as she was somewhat unceremoniously dragged out of their room.

A few hours later...

"Admiral, here are the reports for TorpRon One's exercises today." Shigure said as she entered the Admiral's office, closing the door behind her.

"He hasn't said anything about my hair yet," thought Shigure as she crossed the distance from the door to the Admiral's desk. 'That's pretty strange, since he's usually pretty observ-"

"You're looking fidgety today," said the Admiral, interrupting her thoughts as he raised his head from yet another report to look at her.

"What?" She jumped, clutching the stack of paper closer to her chest. "N-no, I'm fine!"

"Is it because of your hair?"

She froze, her breath catching in her throat as she realised that her game was up.

"Uh… When did you notice?"

"Since this morning actually. I noticed the moment you walked in here. If you're worried about your hair, don't be. It's not as bad as you think. In fact, if you ask me…"

The Admiral lowered his voice to a near whisper, and leaned over his desk, closer to his secretary. Shigure nervously held her breath, not sure of what to expect.

"They look cute on you."

"Ah-!" Shigure nearly lost her grip on the reports she held as she blushed redder than the tips of her Type-93 torpedoes. Of all the possibilities that had run through her mind, being called cute was somehow not one of them! "This is all for now, so I'll take my leave!"

With a quick bow, Shigure dumped the stack of reports on the Admiral's desk and hurried to leave the office, still blushing deeply and very much conscious of her Admiral chuckling at her embarrassment.

Next morning…

"Eh, you're not going to try to do something about your hair, poi?" Yuudachi curiously asked as Shigure was about to leave the room. "You seemed pretty worried about it yesterday, poi."

"Well, it's like you said. It's just hair, right?" Shigure shrugged. "Nobody really noticed yesterday anyway. Except for the Admiral."

"Except for?" Now Yuudachi was curious. She could've sworn she heard her sister say something...

"Huh?" Shigure quickly turned away from Yuudachi to hide her reddening cheeks, trying to pass off the movement as simply leaving the room. "It's nothing. Come on, let's get breakfast or we might be late."

"Wai-wait up, poi!"

As Yuudachi hurried after her, Shigure fervently hoped that her sister would leave this topic alone. If Yuudachi ever got to the bottom of this, she wasn't sure if she could handle the sisterly ribbing that was sure to come.