We got our daughters dressed up in their clothes again. They really like their Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer uniforms that I had made for them recently, just so that I have the excuse to see the uniform again. Yuudachi herself sometimes wears her own just for laughs, but she's outgrown them long before already, but she still keeps it hanging in our bedroom. Yuudahachi wears the stock uniform, but Sandach, just like her mother after she got her second remodel, has everything, scarf and all. It's their favorite thing to wear, and they rarely wear anything else.

As a result, though, the end of Sandachi's scarf is frayed and chewed out, because our Shiba Inu puppy, Hisashi, used to like chewing on the end of it as it trailed behind Sandachi's shoulder. Unfortunately, that gave Sandachi the terrible idea of grabbing her parents' shirts and pulling them down. One of those instances was when we were shopping at the department store and Sandachi pulled Yuudachi's shirt down so hard that it ripped right off, leaving Yuudachi with only her bra on right in front of me. Yeah, that wasn't awkward at all.

Speaking of which, both of our girls were born with the same kinds of powers that Yuudachi has. The same goes for all the daughters of the ship girls - they, too, have the capability to become ship girls themselves, and the government, realizing this, mandated that all families of the ship girls bring their children to their local naval districts for one month each summer to have them train. Normally you'd think that such an order is unfair and a bit authoritative, but it ended up working out. The daughters of the ship girls got a chance to meet each other and make friends with other girls like themselves, and the ship girls themselves got a chance to see each other at least once a year. Plus, they can shake the rust off their skills as ship girls.

Raising the new generation of ship girls in the most adorable way possible. This world is unreal sometimes.

Yuudahachi and Sandachi burst out of the door with the two puppies close behind them, rearing to go to the park.

"Hey, you two, wait, we need to put the leashes on!" Yuudachi cries after them, but Sandachi just goes on doing her own thing and bolts over to the house next door.

"Kiri-chaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Let's go to the paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!" Sandachi yells as I hurry out the door with the leashes that Yuudachi tosses me so that she can get dressed. I find the twins standing in front of the house next door, looking into the house from outside the quaint little gate. Sandachi's waving her arms over her head, thinking that will attract more attention if she does.

"Girls, you can't just run out here with the puppies with you," I berate them gently, putting the leashes around the puppies' collars. "Here, take these. Mom still needs to get dressed appropriately - "

The door opens to the house we're in front of, and out peeks Kirisame, a girl just one year younger than the twins. Then, the door opens up further, and I see my brother holding the door open.

"Oh, Tora-nii," my brother calls out, "Did the twins want to go to the park today?"

"Yeah...sorry 'bout this, having them make a ruckus first thing in the morning," I grimace awkwardly.

"Nah, it's nothing. Hey, Shigure-chaaaaaan, the twins wanna go to the park!" my younger brother calls into the house, and I hear footsteps hurrying to the door, and Shigure emerges, pouting and pulling on her husband's sleeve.

"Honey, I told you not to call me that when other people are around..." Shigure says in a low voice, but I can still hear. Yuudahachi and Sandachi are, meanwhile, jumping up and down with excitement, waving at Kirisame, who gives a shy smile back. "Oh, Colonel, it's you. Good morning, sir."

"Oh, come off it, Shigure, we're no longer in active service, so don't call me that," I laugh. "Double standards, much?"

Shigure frowns at me too, but not seriously. "But you were our handler. Besides...you know how it is, I just can't get myself to address you by your name. I've tried before, you remember."

"Papa lets Mama call him Colonel too!" Yuudahachi pipes up at the exact wrong moment. "I think he likes it!"

I slap my hand over Yuudahachi's mouth to cover her voice. "Sssshhh, Yuudahachi, you weren't supposed to say that - " I try to stop the bleeding, but it's too late. Shigure gives me a satisfied smile.

"Ooooh? Colonel, what was it about 'double standards', again?" she coos teasingly.

"Alright, alright, fine, I'm caught!" I capitulate. "So anyway, you guys wanna join us for a trip to the park? It shouldn't be long."

"Yeah, Aunty, let Kiri-chan come with us!" Sandachi cheers.

Shigure smiles and nods. "Sure, the weather's nice today. We might even meet some of the others there too. Would you like to come with us, dear?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, 'course, wherever you wanna go," my brother says quickly. I smirk at him.

"Still livin' the dream there, aren't'cha, Taro-chan?" I mock my younger brother, who snaps back immediately.

"Hey, shut up! Just 'cause you were in the navy doesn't make you hot sh - "

Shigure silences him by grabbing his cheek and pinching and pulling at the same time.

"Honey, what did I say about using bad words in front of our daughter?" Shigure asks in her signature don't-make-me-angry voice.

"I-I'm sorry, Shigure-san, I'm really sorry - ow, ow ow ow ow!" my brother gasps, but Shigure lets go of him pretty quick.

"You should've held on for a bit longer, he deserved that one," I fold my arms, disappointed that I didn't get to see him suffer some more. Shigure just smiles back at me as her husband rubs his cheek.

"You know I can't do that," Shigure admits, "he's your brother and my husband. But even still, please watch your language."

"Yes, ma'am..."

Shigure looks down at her daughter. "Come, Kirisame, let's get you ready to go. You want to go, right?"

Kirisame nods really slowly.

"Colonel, just please give us a few minutes, we will be out there shortly," Shigure calls.

"Is it okay for the twins to come in?" I ask back, and my daughters' ears perk up when they hear this and start bouncing around me excitedly, the puppies joining in on the fun too.

"Oh, come off it, Tora-nii, your daughters knocked over one of our bookshelves the other day, and you said you'd ground them from coming over to our place!" my brother reminds me.

"That was, like, a month ago! Geez, are you still upset over that?"

"He's right, honey, let them inside," Shigure says gently. "Yuudahachi-chan, Sandachi-chan, come on in!"

I unlock the small gate for the twins, since they aren't tall enough to reach over to lift up the gate lock for themselves, and I take the leashes from them to keep the puppies with me as they bolt inside, tackling Kirisame when they reach her like they're long-lost friends finally reuniting for the first time in decades. Only thing is, they do that every single time they see her.


I was the handler for the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyers who were stationed at Yokosuka Naval District, who were Shigure, Yuudachi, and Harusame. Normally, the handlers get one or two ship girls whom they're in charge of, but I got assigned to three for some reason. I did my best taking care of them, and by doing so, all three of them got quite attached to me, Yuudachi the most out of those three.

It was a difficult situation, back then. Shigure and Yuudachi were sort of like love rivals, competing to see who'd get me first. But I think it was pretty obvious from the beginning whom I would eventually dedicate my life to in marriage. The problem was that Shigure didn't seem to be totally fine with that, even though she said that she would be okay. I didn't want to leave her sad - I was her handler, after all. So after the war was over and we got discharged, I brought Shigure and Yuudachi to my parents' place and introduced Shigure to my brother with the wild and far-fetched hopes that she'd hook up with him.

My brother, Shintaro, is two years younger than me. He's not a military guy at all - unlike me, he got great grades in school and went to Todai, or Tokyo University. But when he got there and saw what the university had to offer, he didn't really think staying there for more than a few years was worth the money that would have to be paid and the debt that he'd accrue, so being the smart guy that he is, he got a simple degree in communications and graduated in two years, just before the war was over. For my brother, as soon as he saw Shigure, according to him, anyway, it was love at first sight, which sounds really corny coming from someone like him. He immediately asked Shigure out, which totally surprised her, and she ended up accepting. And after their first date, Shintaro told me about how badly he regretted not building a significant enough social life during school, because his first date with Shigure was full of awkwardness. Basically, just put a glasses nerd together with a quiet, polite girl like Shigure, and that's what they were.

But their relationship developed really quick when Shigure said that she'd recognized a lot of the qualities that she saw in me in my brother, so she agreed to marry him and have our weddings together on the same exact day. I asked her if she wasn't rushing this decision, but she said that she'd feel terrible for rejecting someone like my brother who obviously really liked her and was fully capable of taking care of her and the family that they would have together, and everything turned out alright. Who would've thought, right? They had a daughter who was born just a year after our twins. Shigure recalled that she didn't want our child to be left alone when it was born (this was before we learned that we'd have twin daughters), so she started preparing for her own pregnancy too.

Kirisame is their daughter's name. She isn't registered with the naval list yet, because she hasn't exhibited any qualities that a normal ship girl should have. Yuudahachi and Sandachi have already demonstrated their insane strength and their energetic behavior plenty of times, but Kirisame hasn't yet. She's very shy, like Shigure was when I'd met her for the first time. But around Yuudahachi and Sandachi, she opens up a tiny bit. The only time I've ever seen her smiling is around her parents or around my daughters. She also looks exactly like her mother. Not much of a surprise there, though, considering how my own daughters turned out.

Yuudachi comes out of our house, locking the door behind her and meeting me out in front of Shigure's place.

"Are they inside?" she asks, referring to our daughters.

"Yeah, Shigure let them in."

Yuudachi smirks a bit. "Oh, your brother isn't gonna be too happy with that, is he?"

"Yeah, he wasn't."

"But Shigure made him come in, right?"

"Basically."

Yuudachi giggles.

"Seriously, honey, your brother's so funny."

"Well...he's your brother-in-law twice over, so...plus, we've been living side-by-side in the same houses for seven years!"

Yuudachi puckers her lips. "But I like calling him your brother, though."

"I wasn't saying that you had to call him 'Brother-in-Law'."

"I know..."

Yuudachi stoops to pick up Ishii, taking her leash from me. "Ishii-chan, you wanna go to the park too, don't'cha? Don't'cha? Awwww, we'll be there soon, okaaayyy?" My wife rubs her face into Ishii's, who barks excitedly and starts licking her face all over, which, unlike most normal people, Yuudachi doesn't mind at all. Hisashi starts whining when she sees Ishii getting attention from Mom (I call my wife "Mom" whenever I'm talking to the dogs, so to our puppies, Yuudachi is "Mom" to them too), so I pick her up and rub my cheek against her face too, which she makes herself content with.

Shigure, Shintaro, and Kirisame emerge from their house, and the twins dash back out to us again. Shigure is holding the leash to their own pet dog, a St. Bernard puppy. Behind Kirisame walks their cat, Marisa.

"Is Mari-chan gonna come along with us today?" I ask, grinning as I stoop down to pet Marisa the cat, a gray and white tabby cat. She's the world's most chill chat who, like Sandachi, does whatever the heck she feels like, just in a more calm and chill manner that cats are known for. She purrs as I rub her head, since she knows who we are and even walks around in our backyard if she feels like it, seeing that our backyards are only separated by a single brick wall.

"Yeah, looks like she feels like coming with us," my brother grins. "Well, let's get going, yeah?"

The children and the puppies bark in excitement, and even Kiri-chan smiles shyly.