22.6.2014

Surprisingly, given how hectic our lives have been over the past week, today, the Wedekind household has been able to enjoy a quiet Sunday at home. Gernot and I were truly able to have an eventless morning, afternoon, and early evening with our daughter. Because of the exhaustion and stress accrued on our minds through the busy schedules of the past week, we did not take Retia anywhere or left the house to eat at any restaurants, though such excursions would have been very nice. Instead, we stayed at home, and Gernot and I were able to cook together for once in a very long time. I do not remember the last time we had the time to cook together; it was our favorite pastime as a couple during our time as fiances. We taught Retia further on how to walk, and she has been making quite extensive progress in such a short time and is now somewhat competent in running as well, although she still stumbles and trips over her own feet often. But like her sense of home, she also seems to have understood that this was a process of learning she is going through, and she has not once begun to cry whenever she makes a mistake and falls to the floor. She simply picks herself back up and continues to run and learn. And while she has napped, Gernot and I spent her napping time sitting in our large living room together, drinking Chateau Montrose and reading the Sunday newspaper quietly in the comfort of the summer sun.

Of course, it was only during the daytime that our day was relaxed and calm. Once the sun began to set and the evening began to replace the light, the quietness of our home had to be put aside for another time, hopefully in the near future, as we began to fill our home with new faces.

Firstly, the Japanese ship girls arrived at 22:00 sharp. As it turned out, Oberstabsfeldwebel Jollenbeck, as precise and punctual as ever, was the one who delivered the Japanese ship girls from the Berlin Tegel Airport to our doorstep, revealing his role when we opened the door for him and the newly arrived ship girls. We thanked him for his volunteer work, as we, not knowing that he had been contacted by Seal Team Six to lend a hand in this minor segment of our collaborative effort, could not have known to reimburse him for his time, but we did convince him to accept a tart that I baked with a chocolate-filled crust topped with juicy strawberries while Retia was napping in the afternoon, and he said it would be perfect to share it with his children at home as an apology to them for returning home so late.

After we saw the sergeant off, we turned our attention to our newly received ship girls from Japan. Two of them approached me and Gernot and saluted us and introduced themselves very courteously and politely to us in perfect English. As we had been notified by Seal Team Six prior to their arrival, my husband and I recognized these two girls as the ship girls who hold rank and uniform: the girl with the long blue hair named Samidare, and the girl with the black hair and strange "hair flaps" named Shigure. Both of them now possess the rank of Oberleutnant, or Second Lieutenant in English, and we, despite not being part of the military or having any prior military experience, return their salutes with respectful ones of our own. We thanked them for sacrificing their time and feelings to provide their effort, energy, and expertise to our undertrained and perhaps underpowered fleets and military forces, despite the fact that they could have easily chosen to return home instead. I could tell these young ladies did not seem too happy when I brought this up, so I quickly moved off the topic. I do not wish to press any sore points if we wish to have them be an integral part of our defense against future Abyssal attacks.

Retia was awake at the time Jollenbeck delivered the ship girls, so naturally, she received the new ship girls as well. Retia immediately became fascinated beyond comprehension with them, and we quickly discovered through Retia's apparent obsession with the girls' hairs that our baby was captivated by the bright colors of their hair. To be fair, we too were very surprised to have the pleasure of seeing such girls with such vibrant hair colors for ourselves. It was surprising enough to see them through photos on their profiles, but seeing them in person was almost a life-changing experience. I even dared to ask them the rude question of whether or not their hair was a natural color or simply dyed, and the girls replied that this was the way in which they had all been constructed. The girl named Suzukaze grumbled about how civilians everywhere they went, in the airport security lines and terminals and shops, all stared at them for their looks. Gernot rather bluntly stated that truth be told, these young women could be considered perhaps among the top 0.5% in terms of pure beauty, were they normal human beings, so of course people would stare, especially considering several of them possessed hair colors that simply are not natural, yet look too real to be dyed. This solicited a few awkward chuckles from our guests, so I hissed at my husband to drop the subject before we could successfully alienate them on their very first night in Germany.

Gernot and I, having spent a few hours prior to their arrival arranging our unused guest room for their residence, showed them their room, and they expressed pleasant surprise and happiness at being given such a large room, which took us by surprise. Because we had been told initially to only expect three ship girls from America, we believed that having them use our guest room together would be perfect, because our guest room is meant for that number of occupants, and because all of the other rooms in our home are rooms reserved for our German girls when they arrived. But when we were told that the number would increase to five, Gernot and I became worried that they may voice complaints about the small size of the room in regards to how many of them would need to share it. But it ended up being an unfounded issue of concern, for the girls seemed very content, more than content, even, with this room we had reserved for them. When I questioned them whether or not this really would be enough for all five of them, Shigure replied that they were very used to much more confined living spaces in their dormitories back in their home base in Japan, so having a room this large for all five of them to share together was almost like a daydream come true. Though, because there are only two beds, Shigure asked for our permission to put the two beds together so that all five of them could fit across the two beds at once, and we gave them full permission to rearrange and furnish this guest room however they liked during the duration of their stay here in Germany.

Thankfully, our guests did not come burdened with luggage as most young women traveling or vacationing across the continent would be, instead staying true to their militaristic backgrounds, with the exception of their ordinary civilian clothes, justified due to the fact that Seal Team Six intended for their presence to remain a secret for our convenience and thus ordered them to disguise themselves as civilians. Therefore, after settling into their new room quite comfortably, I asked them if they wanted to partake in a quick repast, for I know from firsthand experience that flights are very exhaustive and draining, and for me personally, I tend to feel very hungry after flights, if, of course, there are no in-flight meals. The ship girl with the very bright red hair and hair flaps that look suspiciously similar to those of Shigure, whose name is Kawakaze, blurted out that she in fact would love to eat, and then stopped herself, feeling that she had said something very rude. Gernot started to laugh as I invited them all down to the dining room so that my husband and I could prepare a meal for them, and altogether, we descended the stairs to fill the dining room, and I suggested to my husband in German that because we had some frozen spaghetti in our refrigerator that would be too much for the two of us and our daughter to eat alone and was taking up a little too much space in our fridge, this would be a perfect time to cook it, and he agreed. Because our dining room is special in that we have a large dining counter directly across from our spacious kitchen where the ship girls could watch the two of us cook, we could hear our newly arrived guests converse quietly in Japanese as they watched us cook. Of course, we could not understand what they were talking about, nor did we dare to ask, but I liked to think that they were discussing our cooking and how good it would be. Sometimes, I can be just a little bit egotistical.

My ego boost was somewhat justified, at least, when we presented our finished products before our guests, all five of whom gasped loudly at the food brought before them. As it is most militarily and politically important to gain great favors with these five girls, Gernot and I did our very best, perhaps our 120% effort, into making the best spaghetti we'd ever made in our lives. Perhaps in the context of politics, this action could be considered bribing, but I am willing to be guilty of bribing these ship girls with good food so long as it will keep the Abyssal threat in this continent at bay. Fusilli spaghetti with parmesan garlic sauce, stuffed with fried bacon slices and sliced bratwurst. For their beverage, I brought out a tall, unopened bottle of the ever-prominent American brand of sparkling apple cider, Martinelli's, from our wine cellar (which I admit whose contents are half-filled with nothing but apple cider of this brand, as it is both my and Gernot's guilty pleasure as far as beverages are concerned). Samidare, Shigure, and their pink-haired sister named Harusame were all very stunned by our culinary skills and timidly asked us if it was really alright for them to partake in what they clearly believed to be a luxurious meal, while Suzukaze and Kawakaze simply began to dig into their food immediately without restraint. My husband and I urged them to eat, for no one could work on empty stomachs. Or, rather, it would be very difficult to do so. All three of them graciously bowed their heads at us, as I suspect they were at a loss for words for what they thought to be a lavishly generous reception and could only express their gratitude with bows - all the while, we kept telling them to eat first and thank us later.

They certainly did not hold back. They ravished their meals, and they cleared their plates within minutes - or, at least, the more aggressive eaters in Suzukaze and Kawakaze did. The rest of the girls ate their food in more controlled, civil manners, very fulfilling of the stereotypical Japanese image. It was a rather amusing sight to see the girls struggle with forks, because we do not have chopsticks in the house, but they became used to them quickly. They set their sights upon the pot of spaghetti from which we had served our guests and consumed the rest of its contents as well, and we even had to bring out another tall bottle of Martinelli's to quench their thirst. Towards the end of our late repast, Samidare was amusingly very frightened at her fellow sisters' enormous appetites because of just how much food and drink they were consuming collectively, but Gernot and I laughed her concerns aside and told them not to worry; we were financially secure enough to be able to provide for our guests with as much good food and drink as they wanted during their stay here. Samidare explained that their meals in Japan were very frugal and perhaps even meager compared to this, so being treated to such a luxurious dinner took all of them by surprise. She thanked us again deeply for our hospitality before she and her sisters retired to their room for the night to recuperate from their long flights.

I am just personally thankful that these guests of ours are such kind and courteous young women. I can only assume that ship girls in general, no matter what their nationality, have been built to be the as perfect of human beings as can be. Perhaps the idea of sentient humanoid fighting machines dwelling among us is not such a bad idea after all, if they will come in the form of these ship girls.

Oh, the doorbell is ringing. That must be our German ship girls, we had gotten a call saying that their flight from England was delayed and that they would be arriving rather late at night. I will answer the door...