As Mutsu walked up to meet her new friends, she would be lying if she if she didn't admit she was feeling the pressure. She'd assumed official command of the entire district only the previous night, and already she was expected to make a speech to everyone that would detail everything that would be changing now that she was in charge. Mutsu had prepared a speech earlier that morning, and was planning on running what she'd written by Bismarck and Kaga to get their opinions.
Mutsu reached for the door and wrung her hands. Before she had a chance to knock on the door, it opened for her. "Oh, Mutsu. You're here," Kaga turned and called back over her shoulder to Zuikaku to get ready to go. Mutsu could hear Bismarck saying something in German to either Graf or Eugen. Within a few moments, Kaga was joined by Zuikaku and the Germans. Nodding, they began to make their way down to the old dorms that had been repurposed as a meeting hall. Mutsu made small talk for a while, before going quiet again.
"She's feeling the pressure," Eugen murmured, glancing over at Bismarck. Bismarck nodded with a small smile, but assured Eugen that everything would be fine. Eugen returned the smile nervously. She knew that Mutsu was much more well liked that Nagato; she'd gotten that impression from not a few girls she'd talked to. However, since Mutsu had proposed so many radical changes, there was no guarantee that everything would go over smoothly.
Once the five of them had gathered to discuss how to go about presenting all the new changes that Mutsu planned to make, Kaga realised that most of the changes wouldn't catch too many people by surprise. Most of the changes took place at the executive level, which wouldn't interfere with too many daily schedules in a negative way. Having a larger group of people working with her directly should help improve relations between Mutsu and the rest of those in charge.
Mutsu glanced at the clock on the was getting close to the time she had agreed on for the meeting. As more and more people entered the room, the level of side chatter began to increase when everyone also noticed that Nagato was nowhere to be seen. A few calls from the crowd had gone unanswered, and Mutsu was keen to get everything moving and get this over with. She'd never been a huge fan of speeches, leaving them to her sister whenever possible.
She gripped the mic and turned with a nervous laugh to Bismarck, who patted her shoulder, and followed Kaga off the stage. Mutsu turned to the crowd, and began to speak. Graf and Zuikaku had slipped into the back, and were watching Mutsu as she explained how she planned to employ several more people to work in a public relations, in an attempt to improve opinion of her and avoid any more potential incidents similar to those that had occured over the past month.
Zuikaku shot a glance at Graf as Bismarck and Kaga joined them. "What are you thinking? Is she making herself clear and approachable enough?" Zuikaku seemed a bit worried, but Kaga waved off her concerns.
"She's doing fine. I think that if she can get a few good people working with her then I there shouldn't been too many more issues with who's in charge." As Kaga turned back to see what Mutsu was talking about now, she realised that she was finishing up and had moved onto her recap. Given that there was almost no outcries from the crowd, Mutsu seemed to be making a decent impression.
As Mutsu finished her speech, she was greeted with cheering and whistling. She scanned the crowd, found Zuikaku and Bismarck standing with Kaga off to the side. Mutsu locked eyes with the group, nervous about their reactions. Zuikaku grinned and gave her a thumbs up. Bismarck smiled reassuringly. Mutsu heaved a sigh and seemed to relax. She turned to address the crowd one last time. "If you have any questions, you can come see me tomorrow. But for right, please hold off on them, because I have some other things I must attend to." As Mutsu waved and left the stage, her three backers hurried to meet her backstage. They bumped into Akagi along the way. Kaga opened her mouth to ask her something, but Akagi waved her off.
"Ask me later," Akagi panted. "Where are you all going?"
"To find Mutsu," Kaga grabbed her partner's arm and pulled her along with them.
Backstage, Mutsu had taken a seat in a chair, and was taking a drink of water. She stood as the four entered. Without saying anything, she walked over and gave all of them a hug. As she stepped back, she smirked at their bewildered faces. "I'm saying thank you. For everything."
Bismarck smiled. "Of course. You'd do the same for any of us if we were in your situation." The others nodded in agreement. Mutsu nodded. She knew she would, even if she'd never brought up such a scenario to any of them.