Author's Note: This chapter would bring about some backstory about our protagonist. If you don't care about her or not interested, feel free to skip this chapter.

Mainland, approximately the same time.

The lukewarm temperature of a day right around the end of summer wraps the downtown area that doesn't seem all that different from a small town on the edge of Tokyo. Despite being quite far from the naval base (around 30 minutes away by local bus), the salty sea breeze still lingers in the area, giving a unique presentation of the town.

A young, muscular man in about his mid 20s walked into a family restaurant before being quickly escorted to his seat by the nervous and scared waitress that probably just started working part time there yesterday. However, there's no telling if her nervousness was caused by her lack of experience or her scary-looking customer.

The man had a menacing-looking style of being a muscular, bald-headed black man who was clad in a black leather jacket and adorned two golden chains on his neck along with a pair of shades in a set of fashion that would make him look out of date even if he was living in 2000s. His certain but somewhat awkward swagger carries him past the booths containing people who couldn't help but to be severely intimidated and confused seeing the scrawny man that looked like he would bark at anything breathing too close to him walking next to a little girl that looked like she was just about to enter middle school at best. The image of the two of them standing next to each other would give an impression of a good cover for a heartbreaking NTR doujin.

Although, the two was walking hand-in-hand, in a position that seemed closer to a joint lock performed by the ever-smiling girl who looked barely half his age while the man's smirk looked more like a grimace under the mercy of the girl if one were to pay extra attention to it.

Without long, the two arrived at the seat directed by the waitress, which was, unsurprisingly for a busy Sunday afternoon, occupied.

However, it wasn't as if the waitress deliberately sent the two there because the restaurant was full and that the couple had to share seats with other visitors.

"About time", sighed one of the three women sitting in the booth. Her stern and serious, cool expression was slightly offset by a long, plastic spoon meant for parfait as she clearly was just done housing an entire coffee jelly waffle parfait limited edition menu. Her air carries the elegance of a cool beauty as she supports her chin with the back of her hand, her bored expression unchanging.

To her right was a girl of black and white. Her simple-looking attire of a plain black shirt, flat caps and cargo shorts made it seem like she paid no mind to other people's opinion of her sense of fashion and instead slapped on whatever she found on top of her wardrobe that provides enough comfort and cover herself enough and just went with it. She paid little attention to the new guest and instead she seemed to be enjoying a piece of cream puff pastry as she closely and warmly gazes at a picture frame she set on the table, containing what appears to be a picture of a charming woman in the middle of her 20s wiping her sweat with a small towel circled around her neck. Judging from the time of day in the picture and how the woman was wearing tight sports bra that revealed her toned midriff and matching running tights, the woman seemed to be in the middle of a break amidst having a morning jog.

Additionally, the extremely blurred silhouette of what appeared to be patches of leaves in extremely close proximity of whatever captured that picture, it seemed like the photo was taken either illegally taken or at least it was done so without the person in question's consent of the target.

The last woman, sitting on the far right, was the one that paid attention to the approaching man the most. Her mediocre, traditional Japanese garment paired with her mediocre beauty and her mediocre ponytail looked troubled as her guests were barely greeted by the two people accompanying her which made her decide to bow to the grimacing man and little girl with a smile as awkward as a certain Japanese wife trying to hold herself back from acting too shameless in front of her husband.

"Sorry it took a while," said the man, briskly lowering himself to the seat. The little girl accompanying him scurried over to sit next to him confidently, trying to stick as close as possible to the man. "…she ain't here today?" the man asked in his distinct African-American accent.

"No, she's currently out personally training one of the newer ships."

The man scoffed in a rather awkward tone, unlike his brimming confidence he showed only seconds ago. "I guess that's her style" he said, and with a swift, hurried movement, he took off his shades and removed his gold chains and put them into the tote bag he was holding. Afterwards, he quickly ruffled shiny bald head and pulled out a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and put up a nerdy posture that doesn't at all fit his menacing style. As he did, the little girl next to him gave Houshou a kind of light bow a housewife would greet the neighborhood lady with before sitting like a good girl as she browsed through the menu.

"A'ight, which one of you is it?" the man asked.

"…Take a guess. If you can't even come up with that answer I'd question your actual relationship with my admiral" asked the bob-cut girl sitting in the middle, removing the thin spoon from her mouth with a pop. Her intimidating aura that couldn't be suppressed by anything seemed to be easily cut in half by the simple fact that she had bits of chocolate around her lovely lips. Slightly panicked, the woman in the apricot hakama came to wipe the corners of the woman's lip with a fluster.

The black man was famous by his peers as a thickheaded idiot, but currently, he wasn't totally at fault for not knowing the answer he seeks.

"All y'all look equally attractive and I can tell y'all hold the same strong feelings."

"Listen, first of all," cut the parfait woman, "having you comment on our appearance is disgusting so stop. Second of all, I'd say I have stronger feelings than this wannabe shinobi stalker."

"Uh, excuse me? The term is stealth photography" barked the girl in monochrome.

All the while, the woman on the far-right hand side of the man kept looking like she wanted to apologize repeatedly.

Looking at her, the man arrived at a conclusion. Pointing at the ponytailed woman, he briskly said, "It's you, ain't it?" before he was replied with a tongue click from the other two.

"Y-yes," the woman pointed by the man said, "I-I'm Houshou, thank you for taking care of Ashikaga-san for me, Yamamoto-san..."

"Yuuji's fine," the man scoffed, not used to being called with such respect, "Or you can always opt to call me by my real name. Yuuji is something Ayu's slapped to my name since she can't be bothered."

The three girls glanced at the black man, their eyes shouting you mean Yuuji isn't even your real name!?

"My real name's Eugene. Y'see? Eugene? Yuuji?"

And then the three's face turned flat as a landing strip, silently doubting their currently absent commander. In response, the man chuckled, witnessing what the inexperienced eyes think of his best friend's sense of humor or lack thereof.

In the end, the one who looked most mature between the three girls shook her head. "Forgive me for the late introduction. This is miss Hyuuga and Shigure-chan from our naval base. My apologies for their rudeness."

"Naw you don't need to apologize" said the man, met immediately with a complete agreement from the two girls introduced.

"That's right, you don't have to apologize, Houshou-san."

"Why'd you have to apologize mom?"

Faced with such question, Houshou flustered, clearly not knowing what to say.

"This here's my wife, Inazuma. Take care of us will ya."

The loli wife bowed one more time. She then asked the big man for something as she pointed at the menu before pushing the button to call for the waiter.

My finger is itching to call the police Hyuuga thought.

"Anyways," cut the battleship, "How'd you know? You didn't see her ring since her hands were covered and all."

"Ah, Ayu's always been weak for the meek an' motherly type" he said, his eyes softening with a hint of nostalgia. "She always said that when she sees 'em taking care of others it makes her wanna take care of 'em instead."

"Pretty much what she said when she proposed, isn't it, Houshou-san?"

"Nooo don't say itt!"

The woman bashfully hid her now beet red face along with the ceaseless smile the memory never failed to bring.

"…moving on. You said you have something to talk about?"

"True," replied the man, wiping his hands with a wet towel provided. "I just wanna know what kind of person my buddy is wedded to."

"Why? There's no need for you to know. Are you just jealous of the person that took your childhood sweetheart?"

The man pondered slightly. "…maybe, but at this point, I'm happy if she is, so I wanna know if she's really happy."

"…and why is that?"

"Because she explicitly told me that she could and would never tie the knot."

The girls spontaneously froze hearing the news from their beloved's closest friend.

"…w-what do you mean?"

Just as the man was about to answer, the nervous waitress from earlier appeared once more, summoned by the loli wife's buzzer.

"Grab some drinks, this gon' take a while" said the man, ordering some snacks along with an order for him to use the drink bar.

The man Yamamoto Eugene first met his best friend Ashikaga Ayumi during the fifth year of elementary school. The two were nothing more than strangers who happened to be in the same team for a group project.

"Bein' a blackanese back then ain't really doin' me no good since it only made me stick out like a sore thumb."

"Blackanese?"

"Black Japanese, dawg. My mom's Japanese but my pops' African and 'pparently his whole gene got transferred down. Ain't big a deal right now but 'bout ten years ago me tryna blend in would look like Shaq tryna hide behind an astroturf."

The man paused to feed his wife a spoonful of ice cream.

"Anyways, Ayu's the only friend I got back then, mostly since the other folks would get scared of my black ass, but Ayu wan't like that. First group project we had she straight up lashed on me cus I can't read jack." The man chuckled. "Forty-four kids in that class and over 300 students in that school and to me she's the baddest, meanest, fiercest sonuva bitch who happened to be the prettiest."

"…I get the prettiest, but baddest and meanest?" asked the girl in black.

"People change. Back then she'd bark at things, pick a fight with the bullies…shit, motherfucker's a regular customer of the detention office. Anyways, back then, ain't no other people I ever thought looked as fine as she was. Add the fact that she ain't much to think of me an outsider? Shit I thought if I get together with her, my whole life's set. Heh, yeah I was so simple back then."

Responding to that statement, Inazuma smiled, poking the big man's cheek playfully as she said you still are.

"Got a picture?" snapped the self-proclaimed stealth photographer. Her sharp eyes glinting at the muscular man was greeted by a confident grin.

"Guess the info's true," he scoffed, pulling out a piece of envelope from the inner pocket of his jacket, "If you can listen to the end, I can complete a collection you never thought is real."

Hearing his proposition, Hyuuga squinted with an eye of disgust, and even Houshou couldn't hide her expression of disappointment.

"You're deplorable." Said Hyuuga, only to be replied with a nonchalant attitude. "But give me a copy later. Actually make it three."

However, the man ignored Hyuuga's antics as well as choosing not to think about why she needs exactly three and what she plans to do with it. "So be it. It ain't about me, it's about ya wife, miss Houshou."

"Future wife as well mind you."

"Wives."

Aw look at you, you've got chocolate on your chin. Again, the man ignored the retort by suddenly changing both his target of attention and his tone the second he noticed his wife's blunder. The two would look more like a father and daughter if only the two would look a bit more similar and their eyes weren't glistening with romantic love for each other.

Hyuuga coughed, trying her best not to call the police by reflex. "Continuing the topic," she said, prompting the black man to continue.

"Right, anyways, that's who she was back then" said the man, his gaze back at the three women lined up in front of him. "One thing that hadn't been changed since then though, was the fact she wan't straight, and I'm talkin' bout both sexuality and personality."

"Which I assumed was the reason behind your lack of success in your campaign to win her heart" Hyuuga said, sipping at the cup of water she just poured herself. "So you knew this since the very beginning but you still took up the challenge, huh? I guess your persistence deserves some sort of recognition."

"Yep." Along with the man's answer, the loli wife next to him made a wry smile at the battleship's first remark, as if saying "that's exactly my question" but with a slight hint of a proudful emotion lingering in her eyes. "Either way, she was into girls, and I would be lying if I were to say the girls wan't into her as well, but…well, their way of likin' her wan't really the same way Ayu liked them though."

"She was the prince of some sort. She was violent and brutal to those that deserved it she always tried to stand for the weak ones. 'course it was partly because she wanted to woo them girls to like her, but they end up admirin' her and nothin' more. That's more or less what ended up gettin' her heartbroken time after time."

The big man sighed, assuming a downhearted emotion unbefitting his towering figure.

"Hard for me to say but lotsa times she's been a steppingstone for the girls to get close to the boys they're into 'cus she was one of the boys. Shit, it was hard to see how the girl she's into end up asking her to hook 'er up with the boys."

The three girls across the man's seat were visibly irritated by the man's story. The light in the black-and-white girl's eyes slowly start to fade away, the cup on the battleship girl's hand start to show visible cracks, while their admiral's legal wife hung her face with a mixed emotion of rage and sorrow.

"We even needed to make a rule with them boys without her knowledge to uphold the iron rule of bros before hoes, and most of them end up obeying outta sheer respect of Ayu, but the stream of people coming to her just to get close to us boys could roast a man alive, lemme tell ya."

Hearing the admiral's past that sounded like she was being a sugar daddy with extra heartbreak, the three girls completely froze, trying their best not to imagine what sort of pain she went through. Who knows if they could stand in their own two legs if they imagined that their ever-so-beloved admiral married them only to find out that her feelings were only ruse to get closer to her crush.

"Worst case happened with a girl in high school. Bougie-ass primadonna blessed with erry'thang you could ask for a girl. At first she looked like the meek type too, just about dead center of Ayu's strike range. Motherfucker acted like she's into Ayu for a good 6 months and turns out she's just bidin' her time. Once we cool wit' 'er since we thought finally Ayu's found her soulmate she immediately latched on to our guy Jin. Poor fucker almost got lynched away by that tramp but he ain't even our worst problem. Bitch was tryna get close to each one of us boys, movin' on immediately once she knows we loyal to our homie Ayu, but every time she moved on that's another boot print on Ayu's fuckin' heart" the man grits his teeth and clenched his fists on top of the table. "And the worst thing is, she did end up catching the last of our boy Rahul and end up gettin' successful or some shit…Ayu was actin' all cool an' tough in front of her though, actin' like she ain't interested in her but all the boys knew how much it's killin' 'er. The only reason we ain't gone in there and tune her ass up is cus Ayu'll get sad if we did that and we ain't ones to put salt in her injury."

As if having enough of this sickening tale, Hyuuga heaved a massive, trembling sigh as her hands that almost crushed the glass cup relaxed, finally allowing blood to pass through them.

"So this is why you questioned her decision to get married?"

"Obviously" the man exhaled audibly through his nose, unknown to his spectators if it's a chuckle or a brisk sigh. "She was my childhood sweetheart but even if someone else owns my heart right now, it ain't changed the fact that she still a homie, so y'all best sit up and listen."

Even the usually rude Hyuuga couldn't' help but to pay attention seeing how dead serious the man looks. The man's eyes contain a level of seriousness one could only see from a tough guy who got their little brother bullied.

"If y'all do something against her I swear Ayumi's gonna have her revenge and that's a promise, no threat."

"Us doing something against her? That's not going to happen" asserted Houshou confidently.

"Try saying that again when you ain't like this. People say anger always reveals one's true face. What if Ayumi were to cheat on you?"

"Not going to happen." Houshou said, closing her eyes, not even entertaining the possibility

"You sure? You've got tons of girls in love with her just in your naval base, haven't ya?"

"True she'll eventually get married with all of us" said Hyuuga, shocking even the legal wife sitting next to her, "but even if she did, that won't count as cheating. I'm sure she'll love us all equally just as much as she loves miss Houshou right now."

In response, the legal wife in question only showed a strained expression, as if suffering from the fact but acknowledging it as something she loved about her lover.

"How about if someone other from your base came and seduced her?"

"We'll understand", said Shigure without a delay, "but they'll have to get in line like all of us have, and at this point we have hammered our feelings into our thickheaded admiral's head so much that she should know we are priority."

Stumped, the black man didn't even know what to say. Surely he had realized that perhaps engulfed in their strong feelings and being something that doesn't truly follow human's logic in love, the girls had a level of persistence that Yuuji couldn't muster himself.

In the end, he could only let out a scoff.

"Y'all gonna go through a rough sea with her, but if that's what y'all want, then so be it" he said, his thick lips curving into a smile "I'll leave Ayu to all y'all. Pretty sure I don't gotta say what'll happen if I ever hear a whisper about her suffering in y'all's hands."

Although, the one responding to his comment was surprisingly the lady that was silently listening, "Your concerns are unnecessary. We'll gladly lay down our lives for her happiness."

"She definitely ain't gon' be happy hearin' that though."

"True, I guess you know a thing or two about our admiral" commented Hyuuga. "Remember the day she proposed to you, Houshou-san."

"I would never forget, but…" Houshou paused, before turning towards the girls with a determined look "There are some things you just have to…no, I suppose it's something I want do for my beloved."

Half-astonished, the girls widened her eyes, before their surprise was interrupted by a hearty laugh.

"Ya got me. Just keep in mind what I said. Me and my boys gonna help y'all's base as a favor for this and for Ayu's sake too, so let us know if she starts pushin' herself too fuckin' far again." Yuuji wiped his hands, sticky with a bit of chocolate and cream with the wet towel provided, before finishing his message with another message. "Here's a hint about Ayumi; she's weak to pressure. She builds a strong front in tryna fend off pressure but once you bust through that wall, she'll be dancin' in y'all finger."

"So you're saying once she accepts a second wife, it won't be hard for her to accept a third and so on?"

"...funny that's what ya immediately thought of, but...yeah, basically that's what it boils down to."

With that remark, the two girls smiled as if satisfied and pumped, while the legal wife herself puffed her cheeks, half in anger, half in concern.

"Alright then, our naval bases should work closely from this point onwards. For our admiral," Shigure said, expressing something rare for her personality "But don't you dare try to steal the admiral away from me. You look like someone who'll try to NTR someone away."

"S-Shigure, that's offensive!"

"Eh, I'm used to it," said Yuuji, brushing off Houshou's concerned cry with a dry smile, "But in all honesty though, y'all's admiral always had a bigger chance of being Ms. Steal-yo-Girl than I do, so be worried about that instead."