Being the absolute potato that she is, the admiral continued the tour of the base for Yamakaze, completely oblivious of what she was about to do previously.
For a start, she showed little Yamakaze the escort fleets' control center, which are basically just a separate computer in the command room. It was a computer that are connected to several channels of radio connections.
Some areas around the map are rich in resources, and Ayumi's navy are able to extract them and ship them back to base. The problem is that regular cargo ships that carry these extracted resources are vulnerable to the abyssals. Thus, the establishment of escort fleets became a necessity.
The computer provides information of exactly that, among other things. Listed on the touchscreen display are the areas where resources are gathered, their threat level, and the members of the fleet guarding the shipments, mostly comprised of light cruisers and destroyers. The computer also connects the interface directly to the escort fleet flagship's radio, enabling Ayumi to relay orders whether to change shifts, retreat, or anything else to the escort fleet.
"T-there's so many ships on duty…" muttered Yamakaze as the brightness of the screen was reflected in her eyes.
At the time, there are six areas that her navy was harvesting resources from. Each were assigned 8 cargo ships and 6 shipgirls guarding them, which means in total, there are 36 shipgirls on active duty even as they speak.
"It's hard coming up with shift schedules for these girls, so I'm thankful Ooyodo can help with that," the admiral chuckled, "I'm also thankful that everyone agreed to help out with this task…you know, knowing that it might be boring."
The task of being an escort ship was very much similar to working as the US Border Patrol. Sometimes there can be blood-pumping action with engine roaring and guns blazing, but some other times, if not most of the times, there's just…nothing.
The girls only had to wait for the resources to be loaded/unloaded to/from the cargo ships and screen them as they sail back and forth, keeping vigilant in case anything happens.
But most of the times, there weren't.
Sure, they are being productive, but Ayumi would understand if they don't feel like they are.
"Don't worry, papa, I'm sure everyone is happy just being able to be as much help for you…" Yamakaze's smile was somehow even brighter than the screen.
The admiral chuckled, "you're good with words, you know that?"
"Maybe I'm good with truth," she replied, "it wasn't flattery, you know?"
Something about Yamakaze had been tugging the admiral's hand toward her head as Ayumi always finds herself unconsciously petting her head from time to time.
On one of the many lists that's on the screen, there's actually one list which was marked differently; it was a fleet led by the light cruiser Nagara.
"This fleet had been marked as "complete", so the girls on that list are on their way back to the port, while the girls listed right next to it are scheduled to be next", explained the admiral, which the little Yamakaze responded with an amazed ooohh! "By switching the tabs on top, you can view the ships out on expedition and those out on a patrol, along with their expedition destination and the patrol route," she said, switching the tab to the expedition tab which lists the ships out and their destination, as well as switching to the patrol tab, which shows a large map of the surrounding waters and several green dots spread around, moving in their respective charted lines. If one was to tap on those green dots, a menu will pop up, showing who are on that fleet.
"Now I know it might take time getting used to it, but one of the secretary's job is to be the one that knows updated information about this, the fleets out on expedition, and the fleets who are out in a patrol. Usually the girls took their time scanning this console to obtain as much information as possible and note it down in the Secretary Notebook, but since I told you to leave it in the office earlier, you don't have to do it now." As the admiral explained, the destroyer kept listening attentively. "As a start I'd like to give you a heads-up; tonight, I'll have a meeting with the flagship of the main fleets to discuss the breach of security last night, so please do what you need to prepare for that."
"I-I'll not disappoint you!"
"I know you won't," again, the admiral found her hands patting the little destroyer's head already. "Do you want to stay here and get the data, or would you like to come again later?"
"Do we have any other important things to do?"
Ayumi racked her brains on that question, finding specific things she should be doing, but again, being the forgetful lasagna that she is, she came up with nothing.
"Nothing, really," she said with a soft sigh, "I'm thinking I should return to the office and continue on the paperworks…I should get on that soon, and I'd also like to talk with the girls from the emergency team yesterday."
"D-do you need me to help with those?"
"No," Ayumi replied without hesitation, "like I said, the reason I'm appointing you as the secretary is to introduce you to the systems of the base you otherwise wouldn't get any access to; namely this console in particular, so you shouldn't be doing paperwork yet."
"I see…" Yamakaze looked a bit disappointed, but she lightly shook her head as she found out another alternative as to how she could be useful; "I'll spend my time here to get used to the system and I'll get back to you quickly!"
"Ah, I see," the admiral smiled, "Don't push yourself too hard, alright? I'm expecting you to be present for lunch. Also if you have any questions, you can ask me or any of the girls doing the expedition or the escort duty using this push-to-talk button."
"Understood, commander!" with a prideful look, Yamakaze stood up straight and threw a salute with her biggest smile yet.
And thus, the admiral and her secretary parted ways.
After leaving little Yamakaze to her own devices, the admiral took some time to look for the several members that were involved in the rescue mission yesterday, and thankfully, they were all joined together in one room, writing combat reports from yesterday's battle.
It was a short visit to see the progress of the report, but at some point, she was proposed by Gangut who felt their compatibility and witnessed her charisma when she had the admiral on board of her. The admiral managed to refuse her gently and kindly, telling Gangut to cherish herself more which only backfired against her as the battleship chose to only postpone her proposal for another day.
With difficulties, she came back to her office, only to remember what she went out to do after noticing who's in the office.
"Hyuuga…"
"Ah, admiral, welcome back." Hyuuga greeted her with a pile of paper on her hands.
"Welcome back~" Next to Hyuuga was Akashi who held another half of the stack of paper.
"Welcome back, Admiral, I've prepared some tea for you, so I'll be pouring it shortly."
Houshou had seemingly predicted when the admiral is returning and had prepared tea for her; all she had to do is just to pour it on her favorite cup and lay it down on her desk.
The admiral in question, however, was frozen on the door.
She had forgotten that she had set out to notice Hyuuga about her secretarial duty, and despite already meeting her before, she failed to do so.
So the first thing she did was,
"Sorry, Hyuuga!" she swung her torso down and bowed to the battleship. "I—!"
"If it's about the secretarial work, I don't mind," she said in an expression deadpan as an actual pan. "I'm still doing it, whether you agree or not."
"Huh?"
"Me too, by the way," the pink-haired engineer chimed in, "I doubt these stacks of paper are going to be done with by just two people and since I'm free anyways, here I am."
"Umm…I…uh,"
"Well, just have a seat first, admiral. Else the tea is going to get cold."
"Ah…um…okay…"
While still stammering, the admiral was swept by the pace of the three women around her, and she was pushed to sit down on her usual office chair. By the time she did, Hyuuga had already sat down on the secretary desk next to the admiral's and took a deep breath in preparation to go through the mountainous paperwork. Akashi, on the other hand, was standing just between the admiral and Hyuuga, holding some of the papers.
"Here's your tea, miss admiral," said Houshou.
It was the admiral's favorite peppermint tea with slightly extra caffeine and three sugar cubes. She usually had several types of favorite tea depending on the circumstances, but peppermint with extra caffeine and three sugar cubes is what she would request during her time of rigorous work.
Of course, that was an information only Houshou had access to being the closest person to the admiral for the longest period of time, so when it was the time for other shipgirls to be her secretary, she would often not have her tea delivered as she wants to, or she had to do it herself.
Not that she minds doing it, but during rigorous works, she usually didn't have the time to brew herself some tea, so she often missed her wife's delicious tea.
Houshou also poured the same tea for Akashi and Hyuuga and put them on the secretary table, before stepping back with the tray on her hand.
"Okay then, I will excuse myself from here. I will be in the admiral's room to clean up. Please call me if you need anything." With her usual smile, Houshou put down the tray on the beverage corner in the office and walked out to the next room.
Clack, the door closed.
"Shall we begin then, miss Admiral?"
"Ah, alright."
"Then, can you please confirm these documents and give it your stamp of approval?"
Hyuuga passed three pages of documents, mostly regarding expenses, to the admiral who gingerly received them.
"Akashi, can I…"
"Stamps, right? Here you go, miss Admiral!"
Akashi passed a wooden box for the admiral to store her various stamps and official tools.
Thus, their work began.
Hyuuga, the admiral and sometimes Akashi would fill some paperwork with the necessary data derived from combat reports, various combat and expense/income logs and the ships TROMs[1] and the admiral would give her stamp and signature before wrapping them up to be mailed to Navy HQ.
Sometimes she wondered why they haven't started digitalizing the documents (i.e. using computers), but some would argue that paper-based data are easier to process by human brains, so the best they can use is a typewriter, though some would still prefer using traditional pen and paper to train the dexterity of their fingers. Besides, you can't use a computer or typewriter to make a signature.
At some point in their work, Akashi poked the battleship working on the papers.
The two shortly looked at each other and nodded.
"Admiral, we…actually have a question." Hyuuga said while returning her eyes back to the documents at hand.
"Umm…if it's about your secretary work, I was about to tell you that you didn't have to…"
"No, not that," Hyuuga paused as she stapled two papers together and passed it on to Akashi for her to input some data from the arsenal's logs. "I was about to say something about this…secretary rotation we have for the last few months."
"Alright…I'm listening."
Are there some things they're dissatisfied with? The admiral thought to herself, but the question turned out to be the other way around.
"Admiral, why are you doing this?"
"…hm?" The admiral murmured while tilting her head. "I'm just following the normal secretary rotation that you all suggested?"
"No, not that" Hyuuga interjected, before pointing at the pile of papers, not on Hyuuga's desk, but on the admiral's and said "This."
Ah… the admiral murmured.
Normally she would've played dumb and pretend that she didn't know.
But Akashi aside, she's now also dealing with Hyuuga.
Her eyes looked lazy, but behind that seemingly expressionless, empty eyes, lies a sharp gaze that seems like it could look through anything. The admiral too had the same degree of keen eyes, so if Hyuuga had pointed it out, it must not have been because of trivial issues, and now that she pointed at the stack of paper, she must have an issue about it.
As the admiral didn't remember hearing any of the girls complain about the secretarial work, then she must have been worried about something else, and it it's not about them, then it's about Ayumi herself.
Why are you taking all of this paperwork for yourself?
Of course, Ayumi also understood that she couldn't answer "otherwise no one would do it" since that's not the point.
So she could only answer their question directly. Before that, however, she expressed the one thing she doesn't want the two to do;
"First of all…I don't want you to blame the other girls who had a chance to be my secretary before this."
But instead, that confirmed the speculation of the shipgirls in the room with her, with Hyuuga muttering so it is true.
In summary, thanks to the secretary rotation program, the paperwork the admiral and her secretary had to deal with couldn't keep up with the rate of the rotation.
For example, at one point, the admiral and her secretary had to deal with 5 different paperwork they had to go through, so the admiral took care of three, while the secretary took care of two. After the two scheduled days are up, however, the secretary only managed to finish one of the two paperwork assigned to her, while the other was done only slightly.
Then the next secretary comes in, and normally one would think they could pick up the work that are yet to be finished.
But that was a mere ideal scenario, since the only one who could pick up the slack was either the admiral herself, her wife Houshou and to a certain extent, the few capable girls such as Shouhou, Ooyodo or Hyuuga. The other girls that are less capable in secretarial works could not finish what they did not start, just like you won't be able to finish reading a book from the mid-point your friend left it in.
However, what are the chances of the next secretary being either one of the more capable girls?
She had over a hundred shipgirls stationed at her base, and each one of them would want a chance to sit on the secretary seat. And it was mere several days ago where she could have Houshou in that seat that Hyuuga is sitting on right now.
So during those periods, who could pick up the unfinished work of the girls that had to leave their posts way too early?
Of course, the admiral must, since as she had thought but can't voice it earlier, if she doesn't, then no one would do it.
The consequence is what the three is seeing right now.
A mountain of paperwork the admiral would have to deal with. Herself.
If Hyuuga and Akashi didn't push themselves to work on it just now, she would've worked on it herself while her current secretary Yamakaze familiarize herself with the system of the base.
But it's not like she had to. She could've told the girls to work on the papers they were assigned to, even if they were off their seat as the secretary, but is she the person to do that?
She's someone who will only work on what she's paid for, and so she would only assign onto people the work they signed up for.
But in return, the burden she had to deal with multiplied.
"You're tired, aren't you?" Akashi asked in a very gentle tone.
"I'm alright," the admiral is not lying, but she isn't telling the truth either. She was functioning, she wasn't sick, she isn't just about to fall over.
But the two shipgirls could see that she was very, very tired. If it's not now, then it was during those nights that the two noticed that the lights were still on in the admiral's quarters as she stayed up all night trying to finish those documents. And that same face she had back then are showing now.
Seeing that face of hers, Akashi was giving her all enduring her urge to just close in on her admiral and give her a hug, and even Hyuuga who was still rather pokerfaced couldn't hide the worry in her eyes.
Hyuuga stood up, and along with Akashi, they walked closer to the admiral's side.
"Admiral, why are you doing this?"
The two kneeled down in front of the admiral's chair and held her hands, naked in comparison to her usual glove-clad hands.
Ayumi herself just realized that she was so out of it that she forgot to put them on since she woke up.
"Because…I can't possibly burden my precious girls for any more chores," she smiled, but for some reason it emphasizes the creases in her face that showed her fatigue. "I've already sent you out to dangerous missions, so I wouldn't want to bother you with paperwork."
"Admiral,"
"Don't get me started with you calling yourself a tool as well. You're not. You're all my precious girls," Admiral's tone and expression turned slightly immature, either because she was getting more out of it due to the fatigue or due to her anger. She forcefully pulled her hands away from the two's gentle grip and placed them on each of their heads. "You're all risking your lives every day, getting hurt every day for all of us, so it would only be rude for me to burden you with a lot more."
"Admiral…"
"Now I get why Yamakaze-chan called you papa…I mean, this is nice too…but…"
The two stopped the admiral's gentle head pats and stood up.
"Admiral, listen to us," said Hyuuga, "We're shipgirls, and I know you don't want to hear me saying we're meant to be broken, so I won't say that."
"But you just did…"
"We're similar in the regards that we could both be hurt, admiral," Akashi said afterwards, "we can all be broken. Me, Hyuuga-san, Houshou-san, and even you…but as talented as I am in repairing things…I cannot repair you."
"…!"
"The abyssals can knock us down all the time, but with time I can repair just about anyone…but I'm not a doctor specialized in human illnesses. If you're broken…we won't be able to get you back."
"And I can protect you from anything that floats on the ocean, but I can't protect you from overworking…and it breaks my heart so much when I see you suffer."
The two said one after another, almost giving the admiral no chance to talk back, but it's not like she wants to talk back.
The two were correct. She was very burdened with her paperworks, and if this keeps up, her body would not be able to stand it. For some nights, her head had been hurting so much that she started to have nosebleeds because of her lack of sleep and intense fatigue.
The admiral sighed as she cast her gaze downwards, unsure what to do.
And then,
Pomf
"It's alright, Admiral," said Hyuuga in the gentlest tone that the admiral had ever witnessed. "Do you not trust us enough to help you with work?"
"m…mm…" Though the admiral couldn't clearly answer her.
As of why, it's simply because Hyuuga had buried her admiral's face into her ample bosom.
Hyuuga's emotion had overflowed, and for once, she was unable to hold herself back and decided to give her overworking admiral the affection and relief that she needs. True, she acknowledges that the admiral's legal wife had also given her affection and it would be rude for her to say that it's insufficient, but Hyuuga also desires to be one of those people who could give her admiral that affection. Especially now that she knows that the admiral had a disproportionate amount of affection she received compared to the enormous work she's doing, it only emboldens her desire to convince the admiral to accept more wives.
Though at that point she noticed that her hug had prevented her admiral to voice her thought and at the same time tickled her chest, she pulled herself back to allow her to speak, but not too far that she could still circle her arms around her.
"It's not that I don't trust you…like I said, I'm hesitant to let you do more work…"
"That means you don't trust us."
"That's…"
Not true, she was about to say, but it was stuck on her throat as she saw Hyuuga's serious gaze. Interpretations from different people might differ, but Hyuuga still thinks that the admiral didn't trust her capabilities enough allow her to deal with the extra secretarial works on top of her deployment, and just by seeing the battleship in the eyes, the admiral noticed her train of thought, so she stopped her words before it came out.
"What a foolish admiral I have," Despite her words, it was clear that she didn't mean that as an insult but as a sign of admiration. Hyuuga sighed at her admiral's kindness and smiled, "How about a proposition then?"
"…?"
"You can schedule less expedition or deployment for me, but I'll work extra time as your secretary."
"H-Hyuuga-san!?" Akashi's yelp was directed at Hyuuga mostly because she thought that Hyuuga would stop the secretary rotation as she took the place of a permanent secretary, but of course, there are other concerns that she had in her mind.
Hyuuga is an Ise-class super-dreadnought that are capable of being fitted by up to 6 main guns and 16 secondary guns, which means that aside from the Fusou sisters and the Yamato, the sisters are one of the ships capable of sending the largest and heaviest broadside fire in a salvo. Stripping her out from the main fleet would surely prove to have devastating effect in their firepower. Not to mention, finding a replacement for her would be difficult since both Fusou and Yamashiro is already assigned to a fleet of their own and Yamato is still in her respite period under the admiral's direct order.
Obviously, Akashi stated her dissatisfaction, both personally and professionally.
"We still have the Nagato-class who's been on support expedition most of the time. They've been in the main fleet for some times, but the two felt more at ease with support expeditions, so our foolish admiral allowed them to do so," said Hyuuga sternly, "And if they choose to go back to doing support expeditions, we can have them do it until Yamato-san is fit for duty."
Obviously, the admiral was the person who brought up the Nagato sisters' love for support expeditions. Several years ago, when the naval base had managed to build the two sisters simultaneously through a large splurge of resources in the Large-Scale Construction yard, the admiral introduced them to active combat (regular deployments, assaulting the Abyssals) and passive combat (support expeditions of supporting the army on a land-based attacks against the abyssal emplacements and supporting the main fleets with long-range attacks, utilizing their enormous firing range and high caliber guns). The admiral went with them for their first support expedition, in which they noticed that they liked supporting people more than obtaining the glories of victorious battles, and thus they requested if they can be assigned more support expeditions, escort or even patrol duty than deployment as the main fleet.
At times they'll return and take several days of break in which they'll give the admiral souvenirs from their deployments such as jewelries (at one point both of them gave Ayumi rings as they low-key proposed to her, but the admiral was too dense to understand them at that point) and spend time with her.
Of course, they were shocked when they return back home and noticed that there was a ring on their admiral's finger, but they too thought that Ayumi had ten fingers for a reason.
"B-But what about the rotation?", cried Akashi, understandably so since her turn should be coming up very soon.
"I don't mind if we still do that, but I'll be a secondary secretary along with them. Besides, if the girls really mean to stay by her side to help her and not just want to stay alone with her, they shouldn't mind it."
"Whaaat?"
"At least until miss Admiral could catch up with the paperworks."
"I…I see…"
The admiral in question was silent, but it was not because she was hesitant or confused. From her position, she had to look up to Hyuuga who held her close to her bosom, and all she felt was…gratitude and admiration.
"…You're such a good woman, do you know that?" as she spaced out, Ayumi inadvertently spoke her mind.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Hyuuga replied again with a chuckle, "haven't I been good for the rest of the time as well?"
"I didn't say that you weren't." The admiral closed her eyes, and Hyuuga inched closer once again, tightening her hug. "So be it then. I'll allow you to work with me temporarily, until the paperworks are done or until someone raise a concern about it."
"I understand," Hyuuga said calmly, but her right hand was doing an energetic victory pose behind the admiral's back which went unnoticed by the admiral.
"B-But my time alone with the admiral…"
"Ah, just to make it fair, I'll think of some ways to deal with it." The admiral peeked over at Akashi from behind Hyuuga's arms. "You don't mind if I make some adjustments, right Hyuuga?"
"Yeah, sure." At this point, Hyuuga would agree to anything now that she's gotten what she wanted, so her answer was immediate.
"Good girl," once again, the Admiral put her palm on top of Hyuuga's head and caresses her gently. Despite her maturity, however, Hyuuga thoroughly enjoyed the experience. "Also, isn't it about time you get off my lap though?"
Hyuuga had embraced her commander so closely that she sat on her admiral's lap as her arms were circled around her, and as the admiral pointed it out, Hyuuga smiled;
"Well, I couldn't help it," Hyuuga moved slightly, but that slight movement caused the admiral to feel a slightly wet yet soft sensation to the right of her lips. "I'm in love with you after all."
The day continued as scheduled with no major changes, though it's not like there aren't any minor changes.
First of all, for the first time in the naval base, there are two secretaries; Hyuuga being an assistant secretary while Yamakaze being the official one. Obviously, their duties vary greatly, but the admiral admitted them both as acting secretaries.
The other change was more to the mental state of the admiral.
The burdens on her shoulders had been lifted even if it's just slightly. After Hyuuga's brazen confession and sudden kiss, she along with Akashi and Houshou had stayed for hours shut in the admiral's office, mowing through stacks after stacks of paperworks they must finish, be it regarding the three new transfers, their incomplete report along with investigation efforts into their previous naval base, the exercise attempt the previous day and finally the security breach they had to face at the same time. The documents regarding the transfers was not a big deal since the admiral had finished some of them, but the documents regarding the security breach was the most urgent one they need to finish since they would need all the information they can have to prepare for the meeting they would be having that evening.
Another change had unfolded on how the admiral saw Hyuuga, and to a certain extent, Akashi and the other shipgirls as well.
Obviously, the admiral are more aware of Hyuuga's feelings towards her, especially given how straightforward Hyuuga showed it in her office, so it's hard not to get embarrassed when her eyes met Hyuuga and the latter showed her a loving smile, but the change might have been deeper than that.
"Hyuuga, can you please bring these documents to the meeting room? In the meantime, Akashi, please inform all flagships to gather in meeting room 3 in 15 minutes."
"Understood."
"Got it."
"Shall I prepare some drinks for the meeting, Admiral?"
"Wait, I'll..." The admiral hesitated. Clearly in deep thought, it took the admiral another 10 seconds before she could come to a decision and reply to her wife. "You know what, we can do that together," the admiral smiled after a light sigh, "shall we go?"
Seeing her husband's outstretched hand, Houshou showed shocked expression for a split second before breaking into a warm smile herself.
"Really…I'm kind of jealous of Hyuuga-san."
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
Houshou took her admiral's hand and lightly wrestled her way to hug her loved one's arm before replying; "I'm jealous that she could change you so much in such a short time."
Usually the admiral would have done everything she just told the ladies in the room herself. Bringing the documents, announcing the meeting and making drinks and snacks to bring to the meeting. But today was different. She felt more confident passing the orders to her subordinates than she was before, and now that Houshou had told her so, the admiral could only avert her gaze with a blush.
Normally she would feel bad giving the girls some more things to do, but after her exchange with Hyuuga, she definitely felt more comfortable in giving the girls more responsibility. Of course, the change does not happen over just a few hours. Despite the admiral being comfortable of giving mundane orders such as bringing documents from one place to another, she would probably still feel very hesitant to give the girls any complicated requests.
It was a positive change in Houshou's mind as well. In the beginning, it was her who had consulted with Hyuuga over her concerns about the admiral's actions, yet she felt that she wasn't straightforward enough to convince her loved one to change her behavior, thus she was the one who called upon Akashi and Hyuuga to have the talk they just did as she listened closely from the admiral's bedroom
On the opposite side, Hyuuga and Akashi felt elated receiving their mundane orders. Reading between the lines might not have been their expertise, but they want to believe that it's a sign that the admiral finally stopped seeing them as children; someone under her intensive care, but as a woman, as someone more in her level, and possibly a target of romantic affection.
Hyuuga herself probably had gotten what she wanted primarily by seeing how the admiral are obviously more conscious of her from just now.
"But miss Admiral?"
"Aren't we alone right now?"
"mm…Ayumi-san?"
"What is it, honey?"
"You allowed Hyuuga-san to kiss you, didn't you?"
That day, the admiral showed up on the meeting with her cheeks red from being pinched (and kissed).
[1] Tabular Record of Movement
Author's note: Yeah it's been a long while but I've came to a block and repeatedly wrote stuff that I deem "this ain't it" for so long but for now, this'll do.
Thanks for reading