I personally expect the two Admirals to meet latest around Chapter 4 or 6, though as established last time it's not the first time they meet to begin with. Seems like a long time, but traveling from Newport to Kure takes time, especially considering how only US capitol ships have a full throttle speed equal to their flank speed. Nuclear powered ships could likely sustain flank speed longer too, since they don't need refueling. Disclaimer for the (intended) reference to redacted for possible later use ( ;) ): - Please support the original work by Capcom.
December 21st (JST), 2035
Kure Naval Base
Admiral's Office
Three years ago, Rear Admiral Masaru Yamada was appointed Admiral of the Kure Naval Base - formerly known as Kure Naval Academy -, when his father, Admiral Hideaki Yamada decided to retire.
Yamada was a man of average height and measured 171 cm, black hair and no beard or special facial features.
However, the more normal he looked the less normal was his upbringing.
His father was a navy officer with a tendency to imperialistic thinking, while he would suspect his mother of secretly being a mob boss. He had two sisters, one brother in law and one nice, plus several cousins.
Many years ago, his elder sister fell in love with a certain USN Officer, and married him some time later - much to their parent's dismay. While his elder sister died in an Abyssal attack some years later, his younger sister was trapped in the US where she finished her curriculum and became a doctor in the USN, which she probably got thanks to his brother in law whom he usually just called 'Aniki', despite the latter having told Yamada to stop doing that on several occasions.
In contrast to most other admirals around - with only a few, mostly female exceptions - Admiral Yamada ship girls as persons, rather than mere weapons he can treat however he pleases, and even dreamed about marrying one of his ship girls.
Suddenly Yamada smiled 'I wonder how my sister and Aniki are doing'.
'Aniki?' the black haired woman with reddish brown eyes next to him asked.
Yamada looked at the ship girl, in surprise, asking her if she of all people seriously didn't know.
'I'm sorry admiral, but I don't', the girl dressed much like her sister, Mutsu, answered with a stern expression, causing her admiral to get a smart phone out of his picket and swiping around on the display.
'Here, this is my late sister', he said while pointing at a woman in a wedding dress before letting his finger slide over to the man next to her , 'and this is my brother in law, although he should have a scar above his left eye by now.'
The ship girl examined the man on the picture. If she had to guess he was at least as tall as she was, though still smaller than Yamato, and had a rather good build. However she couldn't tell his height and stature for sure, as this was just a picture.
The next thing she realized was that the man was a foreigner, a navy officer no less, making her remember how much time has actually passed. The man on the picture had light brown hair, with a hint of orange.
Then she also saw both her current and her former admiral on the picture. While the latter seemed happy for the couple, the former was probably happier for the bride than the groom. The one next Admiral H. Yamada was probably his wife - Admiral M. Yamada's mother -, while the other younger female was probably her admirals younger sister.
Then he swiped over his screen again a few times and stopped at a picture of his elder sister and his nice. 'That one is rather old too, Yuki is probably a lot taller by now.'
Suddenly his phone vibrated and a message written in Japanese could be seen on the screen:
Tell the old man that he is on my list. - He knows why. - S
'What was that about?' Nagato asked while blinking in confusion.
'No idea, but apparently, father managed to piss off my sister.' the admiral answered not knowing any more than the sender that this message actually didn't concern his father, but rather himself.
The admiral then walked over to the window, looking towards the rising sun.
'Things will get a lot more lively here soon.', he said with his back turned towards his secretary ship.
'How many more people are we going to have?' Nagato asked, wanting to be prepared.
'Let's see... Assuming Aniki's flagship is some kind of new carrier, it will probably have at least 4'600 people on it. Then there is probably at least one more carrier, plus their escorts.
'That's a lot.'
'One of the carriers will probably anchor at Yokosuka - one has always been there before the Abyssals appeared. Other than that there is also the additional base personnel we will get. I just hope the construction parties can get the new buildings done in time.'
'It's been a while since we had base personnel', Nagato said with a happy smile.
Of course she'd be happy. Most bases, minus maybe Yokosuka, barely had any human personnel ever since the Abyssals appeared, hence having people around again made her feel rather nostalgic, towards the past as well as the early days of their return.
'Why does Shoukaku-nee have to sail all the way up there?!' the grey haired twin tail complained.
'Stop whining like a little brat the entire time, CarDiv 5. You are going to embarrass us.' a brown haired girl with a ponytail answered in a stoic, yet slightly annoyed tone.
'Huh?! Who is a brat?'
Meanwhile some destroyers on another table were whispering with each other while watching the scene, saying things like 'Are they at it again?', but quickly looked the other way when one of the carriers gave them a glance.
'Hooo, and you think you are going to fare better', the younger carrier said with a cocky smile.
'The admiral said to get along, so that is what we are going to do', the ponytailed carrier said while picking up some rice with her chop-sticks.
'I mean their Admiral is fine, he is some kind of hero - We were all shown the footage of that battle after all - , but does he really have to bring those girls with him?'
'As I said, don't be too boastful with your overconfidence around him, or you are going to embarrass us all.'
'That's rather rich coming from someone who went major damage within just a few minutes the other day', the twin-tailed carrier said back happily.
'Tche.' The ponytail snorted.
'The two of you will probably get along rather well though', Yamada guessed.
'Ho?', his secretary sounded.
'Yeah, you are basically the same person... Minus that you can leave him alone with squirrels.'
'How do you know about that?!', the battleship cried out while blushing heavily, just to cough a second later and returning to her usual professional tone, while still remaining a shade of red on her cheeks.
'More importantly, Admiral', she coughed, 'What are we going to do about the fleets?'
'That's not my decision', he answered back to in his professional tone too.
'Pardon?'
'You heard right - Aniki will handle the operations, I'll be in charge of the base.'
'After all what you have done?' Nagato wondered aloud.
'Well, he does have a higher rank than me, plus more experience and most importantly a mobile command platform that won't sink after getting hit once... I hope.' Yamada answered.
'That is...'
'Oh, that doesn't mean I don't have anything to say at all', Yamada assured her, ' I still get the last word when it comes to our girls. There is really no need to worry though, knowing him he won't treat you any different than his own girls.'
'You sure look up to him', the battleship pointed out, 'Is there any particular reason for this?'
'We are family, that's all the reason I need. Besides he was the one who encouraged me to join the navy.'
Meanwhile, on board of the USN's new ship a white haired girl let out a loud sight while occupying one of the docking facilities.
'Is everything alright Shoukaku-san?' a brown haired, rather bland destroyer asked her.
'Its fine, Fubuki-chan, I'm just worried around how Zuikaku will get along with everyone. - Especially the Admiral and one of their carriers.'
'Huh, why?' another, larger destroyer with light brown hair and braids held together by a trinket looking like a turbine propeller.
'Because she was totally thrilled at that battle from twelve years ago they showed us and...' the carrier paused and then continued in a higher pitched voice 'Moue, do we really need Kaga-Zuikaku exchanges with an admiral involved?'
Fubuki looked up in the air and tried to image what Shoukaku just said, but then quickly shook her head and only bought out a slightly uncertain 'ehehehe' instead and instead decided to ask about Shoukaku's worries that her sister might not get along with one of their carriers.
'Well one of their girls actually sank most of us', she answered plainly.
'But isn't it natural that we would meet ships that sank us in the past?' the taller destroyer asked a bit confused, ' I mean you two probably sank a ton of them too, Shoukaku-san. - Your sister must realize that.'
'She does, Terzuki-chan... But that girl is a bit different to her', Shoukaku sighted, 'That girl basically sank Zuikaku... And Kaga and Akagi... And Hiryuu and Souryuu, and probably helped sinking me too... And we all know how competitive my sister can be.'
'Eh?! Even Akagi and Kaga?!' Fubuki jumped up in disbelieve.
'Yes, that's how Zuikaku and I became CarDiv 1 back then... Afterwards that girl continued to haunt us throughout almost the entire war... Every time we thought we had her, she suddenly came back like some sort vengeful ghost.' Shoukaku recalled.
'What does she look like?' Teruzuki wondered.
'If only I knew.' Shoukaku frowned, ' We never really were close enough to one another for me to recall. For all I know we could have passed her a dozen of times on our way to the docking facility.'
Teruzuki put a finger on her lip and raised her head a bit into a thinking position... Going by the description Shoukaku gave, she could only be referring to the Enterprise, so Teruzuki tried thinking back if she saw a carrier that could fit the bill.
'Ooh! I have already seen her', she exclaimed with the other girls looking at her in surprise, 'She was nicknamed 'Big-E', right? So it has to be that girl with the big E on her funnel.'
'Achoo', an orange-brown haired girl in white suddenly sneezed while walking around the ship with the Iowas.
'Huh? Did you catch a cold, Sara?', a blonde star eyed girl asked a bit worried.
'I doubt we can get colds, sis, another girl wearing almost the same uniform as her said.
'Maybe it's some new ship girl only virus!' the star eyed battleship answered.
'Will you please stop causing a ruckus in the hallway?' the orange-brown haired carrier with the big E on her funnel scolded them.
'Yes, mom!' the two battleships said in unison.
'We are going ahead Shoukaku-san.'
'Take care you two', the carrier tried to sound as happily as she could.
Fubuki looked at the timer and let out an inner sight. - 23:28:53 left.
Of course Shoukaku would have to fake her smile.
There was no way Shoukaku's repairs would be done in time for the ceremony tomorrow. It looked like she would have to stay in the dock - all by herself while everyone else would be attending the ceremony tomorrow.
Fubuki felt sorry for the white haired carrier.
It was probably less missing the ceremony itself that bothered her. - Which ship would have fun watching another one getting hit with a bottle after all? No what actually bothered Shoukaku wasn't missing the ceremony but being the only one left out, while all the other Japanese girls would attend without her.
'I'll try asking the Admiral if we can get a bucket for you, OK?' Fubuki smiled.
'Eh? You really don't have to.' the carrier answered, 'I'll be fine.'
'Asking him can't hurt. I'm sure he wouldn't want you to miss it either', she said with confidence.
After Fubuki had set herself that goal, the two destroyers started looking for the Admiral's office on board of the ship, but soon came to realize the gaping hole in their plan.
'Uhm... Fubuki-chan? Do you even know where the Admiral's office is?'
'Aehm...' the destroyer whispered while fumbling sheepishly.
'Oh well can't be that hard, can it?' the Anti-Air destroyer answered.
However, Teruzuki's assessment turned out to be completely wrong. While both of them did notice signs that apparently told them where exactly they were, neither of them could make sense of it, resulting in them getting lost rather soon.
The worst was that even their radars also seemed to malfunction, as they showed a rather small ship, which was as best as big as a light cruiser, while both of them were sure they have been told that this was a battleship earlier.
Both of them were frustrated.
Despite it's supposed size, the ship was currently pretty much empty so no matter what door they tried no one would answer so asking for directions was quickly off the table too and despite having seen several intercom stations on their way, they had no idea how to use them as they looked completely different than their own making them feel like they've landed in some kind of sci-fi movie and by now neither of them was sure they'd find back to the ship girl dock either.
While starting to question whether this quest was really such a good idea, they suddenly came to an abrupt halt when Fubuki bumped into something and fell to the ground.
'Fubuki-chan!' the destroyer said while going over to help her up.
'Can't you look where you are going you fucking tramp', a rather deep and pissed man said.
'I'm so', Fubuki started but was interrupted by another man who seemed to have accompanied the first one'
'Hey Hank, look at that cute light cruiser', he said nodding towards Teruzuki.
'Hoho - what do we have here', he said while getting uncomfortably close to the large destroyer while throwing his friend a rather dirty grin, 'hey cutie don't cha wanna spend some time with us?'
Teruzuki ruffled her nose a bit.
Going by how his breath reeked of alcohol, it was rather clear that they were drunk, and neither of them looked like they'd accept 'no' as an answer either.
At first Teruzuki tried the nicest thing she could do and asked them what they wanted from her in Japanese, pretending to not understand what they were saying at all.
However, much to Teruzuki's frustration, neither of them appeared to care for her attempts to get out of this awkward situation by feigning ignorance, nor for the clear 'no' she brought forward soon after, so the only thing she could do was retreating further and further backwards, as the two drunkards were closing in on her.
However, much to her misfortune, she suddenly tripped over Fubuki, who was finally about to snap out of being dumbfounded by the situation, resulting in Teruzuki landing on her butt.
'Ouch, ouch, ouch', she said while rubbing her back.
Meanwhile, Fubuki, who finally got up, got in between them and tried smoothing the situation over, which resulted in her getting pushed to the ground by the man named Hank, landing directly next to her.
By now, the two of them had Teruzuki completely encircled, leaving her no way to escape.
'Hey Hank, you gotta share those milk buns', the other man said.
'Fine Joe. Take the pipsqueak while you are waiting', he answered, referring to Fubuki, still grinning like a pig.
Teruzuki looked at her options.
As both of them didn't look like they could run more than 6 meters without getting a heart attack, her first option was trying to get up and the heck out of there, this however would force her to leave Fubuki behind with these two, of whom she wasn't sure whether she could escape on her own.
Her second option seemed worse.
While she was confident that she could put up a fight against a one of them, she certainly couldn't against both, plus she was already on the ground and each of them looked like he'd weight almost as much as her equipment.
The flaw in that plan was the trouble she might get into if she actually managed to hurt them.
While contemplating her options Teruzuki became more and more scared, to a point where she could no longer think clearly and totally forgot about her third option, which was to try summoning her Chojuusenchihou-chans to scare them off.
'Hey, Joe, get your phone cam out - we can use that to make them shut it.'
That moment something inside Teruzuki broke.
By now she, and probably Fubuki too, got so scared that the only thing she could do was pressing eyelids together, hoping she's be just in a bad dream, she would wake up from any moment and find out she just stayed in the bath for too long and passed out. She wanted to shout for help, but couldn't get a tone out.
'Hey you two, get your asses out of their face', a female voice suddenly barked at them.
That moment a bit of light returned to Teruzuki's eyes.
'Hey you two, get your asses out of their face', Enterprise barked at the two while crossing her arms.
The two turned towards her looking perplexed. They clearly didn't anticipate someone being in this part of the ship before tomorrow, and truth to be told, it was sheer coincidence that Enterprise took one of her memory strolls, so she would find her way around the ship better in the future.
Hank's and Joe's surprise quickly turned into anger, when they realized that there was now a witness, making the man named Hank shout, 'what did you little bitch say', back at her.
'Oh... So it was your face after all...' the carrier answered, her sour expression turning into a mischievous smile, 'Sorry, but only an appraiser for abstract art would be able to tell the difference.'
'You little bitch, I'll get you.' Hank and Joe said in unison, now walking towards Enterprise.
'Wow... I thought you two were just drunk as fuck, but you are actually stupid aren't you? So how about this. You go cry to the MPs this instant or you can explain the Admiral why there is an imprint of your asses on the floor of his ship.'
Suddenly the two bursted into laughter, pointing at enterprise while they did so, leaving her dumbfounded.
'Hey Joe, did you hear that? This glorified ghost actually thinks anyone gives a shit about them'
'Yeah that's too epic!', Joe answered and then turned his speech to Enterprise, still laughing so hard that he was almost impossible to understand, 'Please go ahead hurt us, then they'll probably offer us your body to avoid getting sued.'
Shut it
'You two are really asking for it, don't you? You better shut up before I'll it off. If I there is one to begin with.' Enterprise scoffed back, 'No context. I mean exactly what you think I do.'
'Listen up you dumb bitch! Get it already, your Admiral doesn't give a shit about you! Do you really think that admiral gives a fuck about you?! I mean he doesn't even want to fuck you to begin with', Hank growled while laughing hard.
Shut your goddamn traps, or Ill kill you.
'So listen up, because this what's going to happen - we are first going to fuck them and then you. Unless you want us to upload everything on the inter-'
Thwack
Before he could even finish his sentence, two heavy objects smashed against the metal wall only a few meters away from the still shaken destroyers.
Both Hank and Joe cried out in agony, but the only thing that could be heard from them was unintelligible babbling, which was probably related to the blood flowing out of both assailants mouths.
There was blood flowing out of their mouths and by the way the latter held his shoulder it was probably broken.
Enterprise then stepped closer to them, gently pushing them sideways, causing them to pass out almost instant after the spirit touched them.
'Wow... and they actually thought they could rape them...' I thought out loud before turning her heels towards the destroyers.
But suddenly, E stopped, and turned her head back to the two unconscious men and said,'Oh and by the way, they are both destroyers, you dumbasses.', before she would continue her way towards the two destroyers.
And when Dr. Yamada and a few more people in lab coats arrived, all they could see next to the bloodbath was their carrier, kneeling down next to the two destroyers, comforting and hugging them tightly. - The two destroyers crying into her chest.
'Seriously, why didn't you two go straight to your quarters', Mutsu scolded Teruzuki and Fubuki who were currently sitting on a leather couch inside the Admiral Smith's office, still tightly clued to Enterprise who was sitting in the middle.
'We just wanted to get a bucket for Shoukaku and got lost and couldn't figure out how the intercoms worked.' Fubuki answered.
'And why didn't you just use your radios to contact one of us?' Mutsu asked angrily, 'you two absolutely didn't belong several decks lower than you were supposed to go'
There was an awkward silence. It was obvious that neither of the destroyers actually thought about that.
Enterprise continued to pet the two destroyers while their flagship scolded them. She felt really sorry for them.
By Fubuki's reactions to Mutsu's annoyed tone while questioning them, as well as the few moments she could see the Battleships usual self, she could easily guess, that the destroyer has probably never seen her flagship angry before.
And Enterprise was in fact right.
Usually both destroyers only knew Mutsu as the nice and caring elder sister type, who had a bit too much fun teasing others - especially Rear Admiral Yamada and her sister, Nagato.
'It's fine really', Enterprise interjected, 'She is a big girl and it's easy to get lost if you don't know the way. Besides, it's totally those two assholes fault.'
'I am grateful to you for helping them, but this is something between me and my escorts. Besides, aren't YOU the one who is in trouble thanks to their plunder?' Mutsu answered a tad irritated.
'I'll be fine...' Enterprise said, turned her head away a bit and then added, 'Maybe.'
'You just said ''maybe'', didn't you?' Mutsu deadpanned, ' Its fine that you want to get along with us, but there was no need to break someone's jaw to proof it! ~ At least you used your radio.'
Then she sighted, and started petting Fubuki's and Teruzuki's heads: 'Still. Thank you for protecting them.'
Just as Mutsu was done scolding them and went from scolding superior to comforting elder sister mode towards the two destroyers, the door opened and Admiral Smith, followed by the red-haired girl with the 'E' on her hair piece entered.
Admiral Smith, who looked rather exhausted, sat down behind his desk, shutting Enterprise up with a glare before she could even say something in her defense.
'I'm tired so I'll cut right to the case:', he started off, 'First of all, even if I had been on the ship, l wouldn't have listened to anything you had to say. So next time you need something, please bring it up with your flagship instead. They can decide whether it's worth bringing it up with me to begin with then. '
Enterprise had a bit of a bitter smile on her face upon hearing that.
True, this method has proven to be far more effective, as she had already lost count of all the requests her escorts asked her to forward to the admiral, which she outright declined. At first, this rule was only set to target destroyers as theirs were usually the more ridiculous ones, but got soon extended to all non capitol ships, until eventually Admiral Smith would only listen to requests the flagships deemed worthy enough. - Enterprise or Saratoga in case the flagship wasn't at least a heavy cruiser.
Still it wasn't always like this.
True, Pearl was still the best base to be stationed on for any ship girl and each newcomer was totally happy about how much their living circumstances had improved, even if it was just temporary, but even that still paled to what it used to be in the past.
Back then, the Admiral was really kind and always polite to them, even when his wife and later his new fiancé died.
He would also always have candy as a reward for the younger and the more sweet toothed girls when they came back from an expedition.
But one day something happened, and everything, their Admiral included, had changed.
That is why, she snapped when those two bastards said the Admiral wouldn't care for them at all. Because deep down, she was afraid, that he really didn't, and never did. That everything was just a job he started getting tired of. - His relationship with the late Ari included.
'Second, I'd like to apologize for what has transpired, as this was completely our fault', the Admiral continued.
Enterprise looked up in surprise and even Mutsu couldn't resist losing her famous 'ara'.
'Those two were apparently fired yesterday already, and the shipyard forgot to rescind their security clearance. Not to mention all the data about the ship we found on their Smartphone's storage devices. In other words: Security fucked up, which makes it my fault.'
'But they were still loitering around on the ship', Mutsu pointed out, making Enterprise wonder on whose side she actually was.
'They got lost, in an over 1083ft long steel giant (~330m) with over 25 decks, that appears MUCH smaller on any radar too - heck they probably couldn't even tell if they were in the fore or aft section. That's really nothing I can hold against them.' he said as he was opening his drawer frowning as he remembered that he stopped that.
Suddenly both Saratoga and Enterprise both pulled a piece of candy, making Admiral Smith frown as he took them: 'I won't ask you two who signed the requisition form for that.', before he handed them to the two destroyers and patted their heads in Mutsu's stead.
'What don't destroyers eat candy in Japan?' he said to the two confused destroyers.
With this, even Teruzuki had finally snapped out of it.
In fact she found it surprisingly comforting, despite having been initially scared of the American, especially after what happened with the other two. - And Fubuki seemed to share that opinion. Why wouldn't she? Neither of them could feel malice or ulterior motives.
'Thanks', both destroyers said while enjoying their head-padding while the two capitol ships used the chance to remove the rest of the destroyers tears from the corners of their eyes.
'Really you two, next time just kick them and run or something, it's not like any of these two bastards could have caught you anyway. - As long as you don't go on a ball crushing spree every time some drunk that tries to flirt with you, no one will complain.', he said before returning to his seat, not before Enterprise, who gave him a 'what about me', look a warning glare not to actually ask.
In fact, if the two weren't ship girls, patting their heads or even standing up would be something he'd consider something far beyond a bad idea.
Destroyers in particular though, were best treated and cheered up as if they were one's own daughter - and that was how he used to cheer his own kid up when she was smaller. - Although the larger destroyer was definitely far beyond the age Yuki was, when Admiral Smith last patted her on her head, to cheer her up.
Another side effect of doing that from time to time was it being good way to distract the ship girls from the fact that he couldn't actually touch most of them, although really large destroyers without a too memorable history like Teruzuki were probably the utter limit before he would start feeling effects. - Destroyers with a bit more memorable history on the other hand might be an entirely different story. - Something he definitely had no intention of finding out.
'And now to you.' he continued with a sigh towards Enterprise, 'seriously, as both a human being and as a father I'd give you another battle star for this. But as your commanding officer...'
Suddenly the door opened and Dr. Shizuka Yamada, the ship's chief medical officer, entered Bruce Smith's office.
'How are they?' Admiral Smith asked without ado, putting what he wanted to say a moment before on hold.
'They will live - somehow. But seriously two broken jaws, ten fractured rips and one dislocated and one broken shoulder - you really can't say they didn't get their just deserts. If we'd come one moment later they'd leave sickbay in a bag tomorrow.' Shizuka said, in a rather professional tone, although her looks towards Enterprise gave off a slight hint of approval.
Smith sighted annoyed at his CMO's antics, and winked her over.
'So, did you make it hurt?' Smith whispered to her, once she arrived at his desk.
'Well you know how it is, the launching is tomorrow, so we were unfortunately missing the right amount of pain killers and had to substitute them with weaker ones, until some were brought over', Shizuka 'lied' silently.
'Atta girl.'
Shizuka smiled a bit and then looked to Enterprise and spoke up in a normal tone.
'Really now, next time you decide to go Batman on someone, do it at a time where I won't miss dinner.'
The Admiral frowned, telling his CMO off, as he was just about to scold his secretary ship when Shizuka entered.
Shizuka excused herself, and walked out of the door, but not without making one more cynical comment. 'Oh by the by Bruce. A certain LA Aquarium called - They want their killer whale back.'
Shizuka's comment left the room with a number of different reactions as the door closed.
While the destroyers and Smith were speechless Enterprise blushed. Mutsu and Saratoga on the other hand both formed an open fist to muffle their chuckling until Smith stared both of them into silence.
In the end, Enterprise punishment was postponed until further notice.
'So what got you so agitated?' Saratoga asked Enterprise while water from the shower rained down on the two carriers.
'You mean besides those two cute destroyers almost getting raped by those bastards?' Enterprise answered while shampooing her hair.
'Yes, aside from that. Because even though you are overprotective when it comes to destroyers, losing your cool like that was totally unlike you.' Sara chirped back.
'In a nutshell, according to them the Admiral doesn't give a shit about us because his secretary isn't fuckable enough to him. Also who is overprotective'
'Ouch'
There was a brief moment of silence as the sound of the other shower died and Enterprise suddenly got hugged from behind and groped up.
'They must have thought the Admiral must be blind then.'
'Hey, stop that!' Enterprise cried out in surprise, 'don't suddenly grab me like that. I also don't swing that way.'
'And neither do I. Also don't worry, I think I got enough displacement to take on our great killer whale if it suddenly decided to attack.' Sara laughed back briefly before getting more serious again, 'But yes, that would have pissed me too. As well as a lot of other girls for that matter.'
'Oh shut up, you mafia princess.'
Both started laughing together.
'But E, shouldn't you know better than listening to those two.' Sara said in a bit melancholic tone, 'Or are you seriously worried the admiral doesn't know how beautiful his girls are?' Sara continued with slight hint self-conceitedness. - Not that she was wrong though. Neither Enterprise nor Saratoga would be able to name a ship girl whose looks weren't far above the ordinary.
'It was more the other part.', E said leaning her head to the side with an expression that was a mixture of sadness and uncertainty.
Sara sighted and patted Enterprise head.
'You really think he would have wanted to marry Ari if he didn't care? He was also rather good with the destroyers earlier, remember?'
'It's hard not to think about it when she was so different from his wife. Maybe he had to because there was another one of those stupid laws or something. And the destroyers? Come on we both know that was damage control.' she said before brushing the other carriers hand away gently, 'Also stop that.'
'Hm? You really looked like you wanted to be patted on the head too back there though.'
m sorry E.
On one hand Enterprise was right, no one knew that one better than Saratoga, who has lost her sister to the very same law Enterprise referred to.
Countries usually tried keeping their ship girls as happy as possible, in the US, of all countries, however something went terribly wrong during the legislation and the girls could effectively even rip families apart if they wanted to, resulting in a lot of people avoiding them to begin with and only talking to them if they really had to.
Between that, a lot of people fainting from as much as a touch, and each single one of them being several times stronger than a human, most people were actually too scared, leaving many of them lonely.
Unlike Enterprise and the other Pearl-Girls, Saratoga knew exactly what the problem with their Admiral was. I
It was simply obvious, and the reason she hated the Abyssals that much.
Back then Sara saw it rather clearly.
There were exactly two moments the Admiral felt that sick and had to hold back trembling when they saved him years ago.
The first was when Enterprise wanted to carry him back home.
The other time was shortly after, while they sailed back when Iowa patted Admiral Smith's back while he was lying down on her turret, which he choose over skiing together with his Secretary back then.
Yet, even though she knew, there was no way she could tell her friend.
It wasn't that she didn't want to, especially now that she needed cheering.
It was for the same reason she didn't even tell the person in question himself that she figured it out a long time ago. - Out of respect for the man she once knew.
'I'm going out now', Sara said, and added, 'Just don't forget to clean up properly afterwards, l if you want to continue thinking about missed chances...Orla.' with a mischievous smile.
'Oh shut up, you mafia princess!' Enterprise blushed.
The girl standing in front of Admiral Smith was perplexed. She had literally no idea why her admiral would call her into his office at such an hour, nor why he was still awake to begin with, considering tomorrow's ceremony and the following passage over the Pacific Ocean.
She looked at him, sitting there in his chair, his hands folded and wearing a grim grimace.
'It's late, so I'll make this short.' he eventually started, 'You are going to throw the bottle tomorrow.'
'Heh? Why would I want to do that? Its unpleasant and humiliating.' the girl hissed back, which was rather unusual for her.
'Listen up, even if it's not your fault - I've had enough you girl's ship girl bullshit for one day, so you will just shut the fuck up and do what I tell you to, understood?! It is not she will get hurt, anyway.'
'Yes, Admiral', the ship girl frowned.
December 21st (JST), 2035
Kure Naval District
Admiral's Office
'AAADDDMIRAAALLL!' an overly existed ship girl's voice.
The voice belonged to a dark haired light cruiser, dressed like a weird mixture of a female ninja and an idol in her uniform.
'Up early for a change, Sendai.' Nagato sighed.
'Yeah yeah more but more importantly', she said while rushing towards the Admiral's desk, and looking at him with an exited sparkle in her eyes, 'Is it true that the American carriers night battle?!'
'Who told you that?' Admiral Yamada frowned, having told Nagato to deliberately leaving this small detail out during the gatherings.
'Zuikaku-san said so!', the girl still sparkled towards him.
'Zuikaku...', both Yamada and Nagato dispraised.
At least both now knew why it was so silent last night. Usually it was upon Nagato to finally enforce order when Sendai shouted 'Yaaasseeeen', the entire night, but last night it was awfully silent - too silent for the battleships liking.
In other words, Zuikaku wanted to shut Sendai up and probably told her something like 'Go bother the Americans next week, their carriers love night battles!'
Yamada and Nagato sighted.
It looked like, they had two very long weeks ahead of them - Thanks to Zuikaku.
A/N:
Ad grey/gray: tbh I was pretty surprised when Nimble said that I misspelled grey while the spelling was completely right. It's apparently an AE/BE thing, so please bear with me in cases like that. - In conversations I'll probably make it dependent on whether an American or a European is talking.
On that note I apparently misspelled Yuki's name, as I was under the impression she'd be written with the Japanese u (you know the one with a line above it). I will correct that one for the first chapter as soon as I find the time.
The rage scene inspired by a really annoying 'Mission Fail' image haunting the English wiki, - that I really didn't want to play out like that. - That being said, special thanks to the English wiki for the correct spelling of Teruzuki's turrets.
As you probably saw by now, some ship girls got more description than others, this is mainly due to the fact that they have already been introduced into the game.
It would kind of bother me to think up a design now and have it completely overthrown by their CGs later in a way that 'remodel' won't cut it as and explanation anymore. - Plus, there is always the chance of E getting implemented during the Okinawa-campaign event. (Whenever that will be).
