Part Two; Her Story – Habits

I stretch and yawn as I sit up in my bed before I look to the small window in my room; the sun was just starting to creep its way in. I look down to my right hand and see my string is still there. It had been a couple of days since I had last spoken to the new Commander; he had seemed to take a couple of days to get himself settled into his quarters. I look to my mirror and see that my tails need brushing, along with my hair.

Once I have that all done and I've made myself ready for the day, I exit my room and take my seat at the small table in the shared space in the dorm room I have with my sisters. Looking at each one, in turn, they all seem to have their own thoughts, like normal. And yet as normal as this felt, I still found my mind wandering to Major White. I wanted to know why I seem to be bound to him, but for that, I would need access to Azur Lane records and the only way to get access to them is to work in the office of the command center. I put down my chopsticks and thank my sisters for the meal before I head out on a personal mission to get Major White to allow me to be his secretary.

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As I start to make my way towards the command center, I note that my red string isn't in the direction of the command center nor is it pointing to the direction of the commander's residence, rather it is leading to the main street of the Sakura Empire quarter. I let my curiosity lead me to where it is and I see Major White lift his shirt to wipe his face. My eyes going a little wide when I see the scars on his body on his right side, it looks like he had been hurt badly on that side, at least once. My ears twitch and I hear Aoba ask him "Hey, how'd ya get those scars on your side?"

I watch as he puts the shirt down, his tone being very guarded as he tells her, "I can't talk about that. So, why does this place need a reporter?"

That should be self-evident; we need something to do in this place after all. Almost like Aoba could read my thoughts as she propped herself up with her arms and told him, "Because we need something to read. And I bet if you can't talk about those scars, there must be a story there."

He makes a noise bordering on irritation as his tone becomes a little cold and stand-offish as he sat against the wall while saying to her, "Again, I can't talk about it. What can you tell me about how the different factions get along here?"

I note to myself that he seems rather good at deflecting and changing the subject when asked about his past. I lean against the wall of the building I was beside and watch as Aoba starts to kick her legs in and out as she says to him, "Well enough I guess. I mean most of us never fought one another. Azur Lane tried to avoid putting kansen that fought each other in the same base. Sure I fought some of the Eagle Union kansen, but those ones aren't stationed here, and the EU girls that are, I've got no problems with. Why?"

I see him shake his head and sigh before he tells her, "I'm just trying to get a feel for the dynamics here is all."

A good answer, if a little noncommittal, I feel a slight spark of irritation as Aoba leans forward and fluffs out her hair, I know that she's trying to use her looks to get more information out of him as she asks, "So, what fleet did you serve with, before coming here?"

I sigh inwardly, I already knew he wasn't in a navy, he had said as much. I wonder if this is going to be another question that he shuts down. I get my answer a moment later when he pushes off of the short wall and starts to continue a run, calling over his shoulder to Aoba, "I didn't."

I turn my attention to Aoba as she continues to make notes in her book. I find that my lips compress a little, but I head over and ask, "Aoba, did you learn anything about our new commander?"

She shrugs and closes her notebook, giving me a sideways glance for a moment before opening it again and asking, "Why? Are you interested, Akagi?"

My tails twitch slightly, of course I'm interested, I want to know why I've been bound to him. And I think if I know more about him, I will figure out why. I know better than to give her a story to run with, I shake my head and say to her, "Just curiosity, I am trying to get a better understanding of our new Shikikan."

Aoba shrugs, closing her book again before she says, "He didn't give me much, all I know is he isn't navy."

I bow slightly as I say to her, "I see, thank you for the information Aoba, and have a pleasant day."

She returns the bow, but I don't listen to her expected pleasantries and I head off. I will be Major White's secretary by the end of the day, and then I start digging for the information I seek.

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Later in the day, after I was sure he was in his office and after I was sure he was at a point where he'd need help, I went to his office and knocked on the door. After a moment I slowly push the door open and step in, I see him sitting there, looking in my direction, with a little bow of my head I ask, "Is there something that Akagi could help Shikikan-sama with?"

I look up through my eyelashes at him to see him run a hand down his face before he says a little sharply, "I need someone out front, and I don't know who to pick."

His tone always seems a little harsh when it comes to me and I blink a couple of times in surprise at it before I offer out, "Akagi could do it for you Shikikan-sama."

I see his head tilt to the side, and I get the sense he is debating this before he shrugs and says "Fine, the job is yours."

I can't help but feel like I'm one step closer to finding some information on him now, one of my tails twitches for a moment before I will it to stop as I nod my hand with a little smile on my lips and leave his office. After I close the door behind me, I take a seat at the desk in this office and log into the computer system and go right to the personnel files, I was just about to type in 'Major White' when I stop and think about this for a moment. It hit me that this would likely be logged and if there is something secret about who and what he did in the past, it might trip some alarms. I frown a little before I open a desk drawer and see a notepad; my head tilts sideways as I can see depressions in the paper. I pick up a pencil and start to rub the led back and forth on the paper, what I see come up is the log-in information for Astoria. I feel a smile on my lips, sometimes I'm happy to find someone had made such an error, she likely wrote it down so she wouldn't forget and took it with her when she was done here but didn't think about the paper under it.

Changing out the log in information, I start to search for profiles with the last name of 'White', I feel my insides drop as I see a few hundred entries, none of them have ranks listed, but I can eliminate about a third of them as they are listed as female. Still, that leaves me with around one hundred and fifty entries to search through. Well I know he's from the Maple Monarchy, so that should trim it down some. Looks like I've got about fifteen to go through now. My next step is to eliminate those with a naval service record. Once I eliminate that search parameter, I see zero results. With a heavy sigh, I log out and change back to my profile and sit back in the chair, this doesn't make sense. I should've been able to find something! I look up at the clock and see that it is closing on midday, so I switch to the order system for meals to the command center and look at it. I note that it seems to be themed to the Sakura Empire and my head tilts to the side as I say, "I wonder if this is due to me being logged in?"

With a shrug, I look over the options, I pick my lunch very quickly, rice, grilled salmon, wakame, and some tempura. For him though, I know he is from the Maple Monarchy, but I honestly don't know much about the food preferences from there. I keep scrolling through the menu and then I spot something he might like; sukiyaki ushi udon. It has beef, vegetables, a nice broth and noodles, a little bit of everything. Now I just need to wait for it to arrive and then I can lightly probe him for details, I hope.

It doesn't take that long before the food is delivered by meowfficer to my desk, once they've scampered off, I get out from behind the desk, making a point of locking my computer, before I pick up both trays and start to go to his office. As I balance the trays on one hand and reach for the door, it swings open, surprising me a bit and he's standing there, looking a little confused for a moment before I say to him, "Oh, Shikikan-sama, Akagi brought lunch for us."

He reaches out and takes the top tray and says "Thanks." In such a tone that made me feel like he didn't want any company, without any control on my part, my ears started to droop he adds quickly, "Would you like to join me?"

My ears perk up right away and I start to walk past him, perhaps a little closer than I should've because one of my tails brushed his face and I felt a pleasurable shiver run down a tail and up my spine, it took everything in me not to stumble. It felt so good, like so, so, so good. I wanted to feel that again, I mean when I brush my tails it never feels like that, heck even the few times I let Kaga or Amagi brush my tails did it ever feel like that. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly and quietly as I walk over to his desk and put down my tray and scoot a chair closer to the desk.

Once he comes over with his tray, I wait for him to start to lift off the lid of his, while I do the same. I will admit I did find it amusing to see the confused look on his face and I say to him, "It's called sukiyaki ushi udon. It's good, the manjuu here really do it justice, it's almost as good as Amagi-nee's."

I watch as he slowly nods and starts to look for eating utensils and it dawns on me that perhaps he is not familiar with the usage of chopsticks; I get confirmation of this as he tries to get food in his mouth. I can't help but start to laugh; I can see that he is struggling with this. I put my own down on their rest and get out from behind my meal, crossing around behind him. I lean against him from behind so that I can guide his hand on how to hold the chopsticks and guide him through the motion to get a hold of his lunch. I feel him twist and I find that my face is right next to his, I let go of his hand and lean up, brushing some hair back as I say to him "Sorry, Akagi should have asked first."

I see his cheeks get red before he clears his throat and tells me, "It's alright, I needed the help after all."

I feel him keep his eyes on me as I take a seat again, across from him, he seems to be at a loss for words right now, and our lunch passes mostly in silence. About halfway through the break, he asked me a question, that I hadn't expected, "So, can I ask why you refer to yourself in the third person?"

I put down my chopsticks and lean back in my chair, looking off to the side as I think about why I use this speech pattern around him for a few moments before I decide to tell him, "Our previous Shikikan-sama, liked it. He took an interest in me and wanted me to talk like that. Does it not please you, Shikikan-sama? Would you like Akagi to stop talking like that?"

He shrugs and says to me, "It's not really up to me, if you want to refer to yourself in the third person, that's on you."

I frown on the inside at his answer before I ask him something that might give me a direction to get some answer about who he is, "Shikikan-sama, I saw Aoba talking to you this morning, can Akagi ask the questions she asked of you?"

He takes on an irritated look for a moment before leveling an accusation at me, "Were you following me?"

I know I need to backpedal a little with my question, so I shake my head as I say to him, "No, Akagi… I was on my way here to offer to be your secretary. I just happened across you lifting your shirt and I was wondering about the scars."

For a split second, I can see his mind work, it's almost like he senses I'm seeking information. I see him put down his chopsticks and says to me, "The same thing I told her, it's not something I can talk about."

Again my ears droop a little, not the answer I wanted, but it's the one I'm going to get it seems. After a moment he offers out, "You tell me something and I'll tell you something, alright?"

My ears perk up, perhaps I'm not out of this yet, I can feel my tails flicking back and forth a little as I answer, "Depending on the question."

I see his head tilt to the side as he asks me, "When you came in here with lunch, one of your tails touched me and you shuddered, why?"

I feel my cheeks get extremely hot and I shift around a little on the chair before I figure out a way to say to him, "Like my ears, they are sensitive to touch. Now, how did you get those scars?"

He blinks at me with his green eyes a couple of times before looking uncomfortable, looks like those scars are a touchy subject, after a moment he says to me, "On an operation, I was part of, things went bad and I got hurt, badly. It took me a long time to get better."

So he was hurt in the line of duty then, I wonder what his duty was then? I look down quickly at my right hand as if just to confirm that the string is still there before I return my attention to him. There is more I want to ask, but I get the sense now is not the time to ask him these questions. I put the lid back on my tray and reach across to put the lid on his before I stack them together and say to him, "We best return to our tasks, Shikikan-sama, but thank you for the answers you gave, I found them somewhat informative."

I don't want an answer from him on that right now, as I leave his office, I can almost feel his eyes on me from behind. I remember Atago talking about how male humans like to watch us walk from behind, and that she likes to put an extra sway in her hips when she knows one is looking. I wonder if that could work here? With a very subtle shrug, I put an extra sway in my hips and leave his office.

XXXX

It was late in the day when I noticed the clock strike eighteen hundred; I look to his office door and note that he hasn't stopped working yet. I bite my lower lip for an instant as I debate going and letting him know that the day is over. Yet I don't want to pester him right now, he has a lot to do and a lot to get caught up on. With a sigh, I start to dig around in my desk and I find some red paper. I take out the paper as I think about what to do in regards to trying and getting the information I need from Major White to try and figure out who he is in that list of one hundred and fifty names. I sight a little before I look down and see that without thinking about it, I had made a red origami fox. I place it down in the center of my desk and look at it, I feel a small smile on my face before I tap the paper nose of the fox and leave a note for the Major, asking him if I might be able to learn his name tomorrow.

With both in the center of my desk and my computer turned off, I set the lights to low and leave the office for the day. During my walk to my quarters, I look at my string before I touch it with my left hand and close my eyes as I think about the Major. For the briefest of moments I pick up the hint of gunpowder, my eyes shoot open and I look around trying to see and hear for any explosions or the sound of weapons fire. When I don't pick up anything, I feel more puzzled than before and I ask again, "Who are you? Why am I bound to you?"

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A/N: Well, Akagi is on the trail to find out more about the Major as well as starting to understand her abilities a little more. It should be interesting to see how things go when she stumbles across his past and her sister's connection to it.