The sound of heels clicking rhythmically echoes on the road. A woman in her mid-20s walked lazily under the late-summer sunlight pouring in between the clouds moving lazily above the port. Her long-braided hair fluttered along with her long military cape as a sudden gust of salty wind blew her slim body that she slightly stumbled.
"Ugh…" the woman grunted with a sour expression. She slumped quite deeply, while holding the white officer hat on her head to prevent it from being flung away from the wind. Her rather beautiful face, decorated with dark swollen bags, her messy hair and her whole demeanor almost does not indicate that she's a proper woman, but her ample breasts that seemed like it could burst out her tightly-fit navy uniform couldn't convince anyone otherwise. Her complexion is also astonishingly beautiful that even though she had bags under her eyes, she could still strike the hearts of men and women alike. "I should've gotten some more sleep…" She grumbled. The woman finally reached a rather building that looked like an office, and after adjusting the large duffel bag hanging on her left shoulder, she reached out her hand and entered the building.
What greeted her after entering the building was a long hallway. There were doors on her right side leading to some administrative room meanwhile there were windows with regular intervals on the left. The cool wind blowing into her eyes and the gentle, warm sunlight seeping from some of the opened windows did not help ease her sleepiness, and instead she thought that this afternoon is too perfect to pass out on a nap. However, it's not like she had a free time.
"The Admiral had returned to the Naval District!" as she walked through the hall, the PA system suddenly blared and gave her a jolt as she struggled into the next hallway. Seemingly felt overworked having to open the door by herself and trying to regulate her breaths from being shocked, the woman tried to hold herself up by leaning towards her large suitcase. "I wish they'd stopped doing that already…" she mumbled to herself before letting out a sigh. The girl announcing her arrival through the loudspeaker somehow sound hasty as the familiar-sounding announcer's voice was accompanied with short breaths.
Finally arriving in the front of the room at the end of the hallway, the woman sighed again. Shrugging her worries away, she opened the door.
"Welco—"
"ADMIRAL!"
"What the—!?"
Before she could manage to enter the room, two girls around the woman's chest height sprung out of the room and tackled her down with force.
"Ow!" She fell flat on her butt with the weight of her own body and the two others'. Thankfully her duffel bag immediately fell on the floor after she was ambushed so it did not add to the weight in which her plump buttocks had to endure.
Not that the duffel bag is at all heavy.
The two girls were not ambushing her in an ill will as a matter of fact, as they hugged their fallen commander tightly as if they haven't seen her in years. They also rubbed her face against her torso violently but playfully, resulting in a ticklish sensation.
"H-hey, Fubuki, Samidare, it's rude to suddenly tackle the commander like that!"
From behind them, a woman donning a light green dougi and a characteristic short twintail called out to the two attackers.
"Can't help it! We haven't seen the Admiral for so long!" yelled the girl with the blue hair meanwhile rubbing her face onto the Admiral's stomach.
"It's just been a week!" the woman in green exclaimed back, approaching her fallen commander before trying to peel off the two girls from burdening her.
"Don't yell at them too much, Shouyuu." Said the Admiral, calmly picking up her fallen hat. Without trying to push away neither Fubuki nor Samidare, she attempted standing up, but as expected, it proves quite difficult to do so.
"Admiral…" the twintail muttered, "WHEN WILL YOU CALL ME BY MY PROPER NAME?!" and finally snapped.
"Aah…sorry, Shouryuuken."
"NOOOOO!"
Seeing her comical reaction, the people of the room laughed.
"Alright, alright, playtime is over girls. It's time for the briefing." After managing to stand up on her feet without much disrupting the two childlike girls clinging to her. "Everyone except the flagship of every Fleet, please leave the room for 5 minutes. Oh also, Akashi and Ooyodo, please stay behind."
"Understood!" the two girls let go of the Admiral and gave her a quick salute, before leaving the room with a patter.
As the two girls—Fubuki and Samidare—left the room, the Admiral picked up her duffel bag and pat the dust off her arse as she walked to her desk; her butt jiggled as she did. Now, there are eight people in the office; the Admiral, Akashi the Repair Ship, Light Cruiser Ooyodo, and the flagships of the five fleets she commands.
"Alright, let's start the roll call." The Admiral said, dropping the duffel bag with a heavy impact sound on the table. "Hammerhead fleet." She started the call without sitting down.
"Present; no issues" A woman clad in dull orange dougi replied curtly. She's the flagship of the First fleet codenamed the Hammerhead fleet; the Light Aircraft Carrier Houshou.
"Tiger Fleet?" the Admiral continued.
"…Present…no problem" This time, a woman with a priestess-like outfit responded in a slightly irritated tone. The Aviation Battleship Yamashiro, as she was usually called, would almost always seem like she was upset every time the Admiral tried to talk to her…even though sometimes she doesn't really mean to be too hard on the Admiral.
"Bramble Fleet?"
"Present and Voting! My fleet sends their regards…It is great to have you back, Admiral!" said Shouhou, the Light Aircraft Carrier excitedly. She smiled on her Shouhou's warm welcome and replied with a quick remark, saying 'good to be back' and another saying that her input would be necessary later on.
"Thresher Fleet?"
"H…here." Souryuu, the Carrier who seemingly were still upset of the Admiral playing with her name responded gingerly.
"And lastly…Mako fleet?"
"P-present! W-welcome back, Admiral!" the last fleet is led by the Heavy Cruiser Furutaka, who nervously answered the Admiral's call with butterflies in her stomach.
"Thanks everyone. I think everyone is here?" after she finished the roll call of the whole units under her command, the lady finally pulled her chair to sit down. "Ooyodo?"
"Yes ma'am." The Command Light Cruiser answered the call and handed the Admiral a clipboard filled with reports. Judging by how many papers are stuck on the clipboard, reading through it would take a while, so the Admiral decided to strike up a conversation with her subordinates in the meantime.
"So, how's everyone? I believe everybody is doing fine?" she said, flipping the first page of the report.
"Indeed, we are, Admiral," Houshou replied, bringing a cup of warm green tea to the Admiral's desk. "The destroyer children under my care had shown great progress on their skills, it would seem." She continued.
"Yes, Maya seemed to complain a lot about the training regime that miss Admiral had suggested, but I think she's just being dishonest with herself." Souryuu argued while hugging herself.
"And neither are you, Souryuu," the leader of Bramble fleet said with her arms folded, "You're actually pretty happy when the Admiral called you funny names, aren't you?"
"What!? A-absolutely not! I have a proper name you know!"
"Hmm…" Meanwhile the Admiral in question got her attention centered on the report so she couldn't hear the exact content of what the girls were saying. "Seems like there's weren't any problems when I left."
"A-admiral, please don't be lazy and read the whole report…!" Ooyodo panicked seeing her commander quickly flipping through the papers she worked hard on without even skimming through it.
"Aah, I'm sorry Ooyodo, I'll surely read the rest of the report later, but I'd like the bullet points for now; I need to check on the fleets as well; you know, just show my face around and stuff." The admiral replied as she put the report down on the table. She then turned her face towards the Repair Ship that had been peering at her repeatedly as if expecting something.
"Yes, Akashi?"
"Ma'am!" Akashi closed her legs that was slightly ajar as she was standing easy, while at the same time, she raised her right hand to give a quick salute. The admiral was about to tell her to drop the formality, but Akashi gave her report before the Admiral got the chance. "I've completed that thing you asked me to make!"
"Hoo?" The admiral's eyebrow raised as she heard Akashi mentioned that thing, while others in the room were…
"That thing?"
"That…thing?"
"That thing…?"
"…That thing?"
"What thing?
"Can I have it!?"
The flagships of each fleet who were present in the room tilted their heads while Akashi, still being excited, asked the question.
"Please don't make a big fuss over it, Akashi, I'm still planning on it." The Admiral exhaled shortly while smiling, supporting her chin with her arm on the desk. "Putting that aside, how's our inventory?"
"We are running rather low on most things; Bauxite and Fuel especially, but we can still run the fleet for two weeks at most." Akashi reported after looking at the small note paper she pulled out of her skirt pocket.
"Wow we're running out of things quite quicker than I imagined…" the Admiral muttered, "How are the escort fleets? Are they enjoying their holidays?"
"Absolutely. They have been enjoying their time…they said it's just a shame that the Admiral isn't around just when they finally had their holidays." Akashi replied, and the admiral only sighed in relief.
"Alright, I think that's all I need to know as of now." Said the admiral. "From now on we'll start to slowly move forward again and proceed with the missions, understood?"
""""""Yes ma'am.""""""
"All fleets are to prepare themselves and outfit for a warmup mock battle. We will commence training battle by 1600 hours, 3 hours from now." She said as she checked her watch on her left wrist. "So, until then, go grab lunch and do some warmups. I'll be checking on every single fleet later, okay?"
""""""Understood.""""""
"With that said, you're all dismissed. I'll see you guys later with the details of which fleet is to fight which." The admiral stood up and posed a salute, and in return, the seven shipgirls in the room returned her salute.
And thus, the meeting was concluded, and the five flagships exited the room.
