Chapter 14: Blackmail
"What is the meaning of this," Shikikan yelled, standing up, "Who sent you?"
'Whatever do you mean Kommandant," Eugen smiled, "Nobody sent me. I just like your reactions. I must say, it isn't what I entirely expected. No matter. Your expression was priceless."
"Well, there really isn't a point to keeping it now if you are just getting amusement from all this. Delete it," he ordered lightly, trying to suppress his concerns of an unnecessary news break out.
She snickered lightly, "You scared? All I have to do is send this to someone like Aoba or just on my Juustagram. Who knows what will happen. Maybe everyone will see you differently and possibly respect you more."
He released a soft sigh at the matter, brushing his hair back as it journeyed all the way to his nape, rubbing it lightly. In an instant, he abruptly broke his character and dove in for the phone. Eugen, not even being slightly caught off guard, zipped her phone arm away; effortlessly pushing Shikikan back with her forearm as his feeble efforts were on full display to everyone at the beach.
"Give me the damn phone!" He demanded furiously, his hands extended to its fullest not quite reaching.
Eugen nearly took the moment to take a fun selfie with Shikikan in the picture. Watching her in the act just poured more petrol into the fire for him; thus made him more reckless with his actions as his hand tried hopelessly on getting the cruiser's phone
"If you keep trying like that, my hand might slip and…" Eugen focused her phone towards Shikikan; a texting tab was shown with the recording in the text box with her thumb dangling dangerously close to the send button.
"What you have is classified information on me. Delete it," his tone didn't change, telling himself that he is in charge of the situation.
"Classified? It's simply just you saying three harmless words," she pushed the play button on her phone, restating their conversation.
"Answer me truthfully. Do you like us kansens or your work?"
"What?"
A faint grunt can be heard.
"That's not an answer."
"You guys… Obviously…"
The recording ended briefly with the two of them staring each other in the eye; Shikikan giving her the death stare while she smiled wickedly.
"Shikikan, if you don't want this leaked to the public. I ask of you to simply get off me and be a good boy," Eugen threatened, her thumb getting carelessly closer to grazing the screen.
With no other option on the table, he ceased his futile struggles and protests and listened to her. His sights are still glued to the phone as Eugen still has her thumb close to the screen. His mind alternated on refraining to pounce for the phone once again and thinking of ways to punish the Iron Blood cruiser for her actions as he folded his legs, sitting on them with his shoulders relaxed and hands resting on his thighs.
Sitting himself down in front of the cruiser, with her lips now bloomed with a mischievous smile. He on the other hand wasn't as amused as his eyes gave an ice cold glare and his brows pushed together wrinkling between them. His head started to become crowded with the worst of the worst situations and embarrassing performances that she had built up in that unorthodox head of hers.
"What do you want?" He simply questioned.
"My, my would you look at this," she said with a bit of a baffling tinge. "It seems like this one can be tamed after all~"
"Shut up," he looked aside as he tried to suppress his boiling frustration, "Tell me what you want already."
"For starters, you can try to be a bit kinder to us. Do you not see us as humans?"
"First, what do you define as humans? Mammals? Intelligent? Adaptable? Of course, you are human; subspecies at most," Shikikan said as he stared at her in the eyes, "That's all you want? For me to be kinder?"
"And enjoy yourself. I've heard from Bismarck and everyone that you are forced to relax. Yet, look at you. Wasting a perfect summer day by sitting here writing off papers." She shifted closer to his face causing him to withdraw a bit, "Is relaxing that hard for you?"
"Well… I guess I can… Just let me finish this then I will," his hands moved on their own for the papers and when he did, Eugen intervened by fiercely grasping his right wrist prompting him to release an agony filled groan from his throat.
"Let go of me!" He demanded, fighting against her grasp only to be overpowered by the Iron Blood woman's overwhelming strength.
"Come on, Kommandant. If you fight, you know what will happen." Eugen, rising up with the volleyball tucked under her arm, started to forcefully drag Shikikan through the sand.
"Where are you taking me?" Eugen didn't give him time to get on his feet; it wasn't until halfway to their destination until he got control of his own movement.
"Here we are. Shikikan here opted to play a bit of volleyball with us." She stopped in front of a beach volleyball court.
"I didn't say squat and I'm certainly not going to play just to be humiliated in volleyball," muttering the last part while shaking his now numb wrist and checking for any sort of damage.
Looking over Eugen, there stood a decent sized group of multiple faction girls all cladded in various types of swimwear with some on the sidelines observing the game. Many of them seemed to be glad that Eugen finally decided to come back as they all dropped their conversations and small-scale sandcastle building. Saratoga came stepping up to Eugen.
"Took you long enough, I wasn't having much fun making sandcastles with the others. How did you get the commander here?" The carrier inquired.
"How did I convince him? I simply told him that I would expose a picture of him as a child if he didn't follow along," Eugen made up on the spot, giving a gleaming white smile to everyone.
"Honestly, I wouldn't really care if you—" Eugen shook her phone; this made him quickly change the sentence, "I mean uh shut up…"
"Right… Hey, let's get back to where we left off." She left back to the audience line kicking over her own castle; sprinkling bits of sand to the others who were building, making the lash out at the carrier.
"I really, really have to finish those papers," he pleaded.
"Those papers can always wait, Shikikan. Right now, we are having a game of the century here," Eugen shifted herself out of the way which revealed Graf Zeppelin on one side and Honolulu and Bremerton on the opposing side.
"I couldn't care less about what is about to happen. I don't get paid for fooling around like you guys, but I will only stay due to your conditions."
"I like this part of you more. You should listen to others a bit more," Eugen lightly suggested, moving towards Graf and throwing her the ball; the game kicked off once again.
"You should listen to others a bit more," he muttered, "Try saying that when everyone isn't a human war machine."
He isolated himself by anchored himself near the referee's high chair where Z46 or rather Shiro as most of the people he had heard from called her. He let out a heavy yet silent sigh to relieve himself as watched the game he couldn't leave.
"Shikikan-sama?" A soft yet familiar voice rang behind him but couldn't quite place his finger on it.
"Now I have to be involved in social interactions," he murmured, looking in the direction of the voice, there stood Amagi in an exposing bikini that he would never imagine her to ever wear along with Yorktown in a similar yet a bit less revealing.
"This day just keeps getting better and better," he remarked sarcastically, slightly shaking his head, "Hello you two."
"Hello," Yorktown greeted back, smiling warmly all while waving her hand slightly.
"Shikikan-sama, are you here to watch them play. I must say, it is nice to see you are enjoying yourself," stated Amagi.
The both of them moved closer to his spot, planting themselves next to him. Both of them seemed to be absorbed in the game as Honolulu came in with a save with the volleyball which gave Bremerton the opportunity to spike and score. The crowd of Eagle Union ships let out a high-pitched cheer as Shiro added a point to the Eagle Union team making the score neck and neck.
"That's one way to put it," he replied awkwardly, trying to avoid eye contact.
There was an uncomfortable silence between the two as he finished which was filled with a chipper toon that Yorktown hummed. This went on for a little as the game raged on between the two sides. A slight ocean breeze came by, swaying Amagi's tails as if they were demanding attention which was answered by Shikikan's gaze while looking at Amagi occasionally. However, Amagi caught him in the act when he clearly looked back with a pensive expression.
"Shikikan-sama? Do you still think I'm mad at you," Amagi questioned, turning her head towards him.
He sighed, "Are you mad at me?"
"Not in the slightest. I know that you didn't mean it when you apologized at the end. I was just a bit surprised," stated Amagi, extending her arms behind her as she laid on them staring at the sky.
The silence broke out once again between them. His gaze wandered around from kansen to kansen as he sat idly thinking of the next topic. His mind gave him a spark to distract himself and reminded him about the watch that he had. Looking at it, he was surprised that it had changed. Instead of Atago's head icon with a pink blocky heart, Eugen's head replaced her's and has a blue background with the number 67.
A general idea of how this device came to mind but what the numbers meant was still a mystery. He was soon broken out of focus when Yorktown called him.
"Shikikan, what are your thoughts on siblings?"
"Hmm?" his head was still in the clouds, "Oh, they are great sometimes."
"Indeed, I know that you have taken an interest in Enterprise."
"Yeah, yeah. Wait. What?" He raised a brow.
"What I meant is that you see her as a good friend right?" She corrected, "She is a strong individual but sometimes she could lose herself whenever a battle arises."
"Yeah, I know. I've seen her a few times on record before I started working here. Now she is probably one of the top ships that we have so far and she seems to be more aware of others and most importantly herself," he complimented, making Yorktown beam a smile at the compliment.
"She sees you as a great commander you know," she remarked, causing a light brush of rosy blush on his face.
"T-That's great to hear," Shikikan tried his best to not sound flustered, pulling his arms out behind himself, resting on them in a similar fashion as Amagi as a way to suppress his feelings.
"I'm not supposed to say this, but she wishes that you would be a bit more… nicer is a good way to put it," she turned her head towards him, "Can you tell me a bit more about yourself?"
The blush quickly faded when she brought up about himself. His facial muscles tightened and his hands began to ball up into a fist in the sand at the sound of her question. A fit of slight anger started to build up but was quickly shut down when Amagi placed her soft hand on his as she saw him tense up.
"Shikikan-sama, you don't have to answer her if you don't want to. She gets a bit mischievous for spending a bit too much time with Sara," Amagi assured him about her friend.
"Hey, that's not true. Well, only a little bit," the carrier pouted a little.
He let out a sigh, bringing up his balled-up fist to lightly knock on his forehead as if he was thinking. After a few seconds, he finally put his hand back to supporting himself.
"Well, I haven't told anyone about this. But, I trust both of you about this… I wasn't a great person in the past," he closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "I was once part of a group of people that I thought were good despite their image. Back then, I only cared for myself and my family and did whatever I could to keep us moving. The people that I was with did some really bad things and… I turned a blind eye to it with the money they gave me. I kept going until I was…" He paused for a second, evaluating what he was going to say as he reeled back his memories, "I'll just stop there."
"I-I'm sorry I asked, Shikikan," Yorktown apologized sincerely.
"Don't be. It feels good to know there is more than one person that knows about this," he smiled slightly, looking up at the clear sky, closing his eyes momentarily, listening to the waves and the volleyball game, "Maybe I needed this break."
His mind started to go blank as he meditated as the warm sunlight shined upon him. His eyes swiftly opened when he heard a yelp from one of the girls. His face immediately grew warm; seeing Honolulu covering her top due to her triangle top having been snatched by Eugen's monstrous rigging.
"Oh my, sorry about my rigging," Eugen apologized with a slight hint of sarcasm.
"That's just playing dirty," exclaimed Honolulu, who felt the commander's gaze at their argument, "What are you looking at pervert?!"
"Sorry! I saw nothing," Shikikan hastily looked in the opposite direction.
"I can't believe this! First this, now the commander saw me like this," stressed Honolulu, picking up her top from Eugen.
"Well, you shouldn't have let your guard down during a game. Thank you for letting us win," letting out a playful laugh, standing beside a less than amused Graf.
"I need to go to the bathroom," he excused himself, looking directly at Eugen, "I will be back in about fifteen minutes. Eugen, you better not send it."
He got up brushing himself and started heading towards the faculty bathrooms nearby. Finishing up his business, he decided to pay a visit to Akashi's shop in the hopes of finding something that can help him in getting his hands on her phone.
"Nyaaa, welcome to my shop— oh? Welcome back Commander Shikikan. Are you here to buy some tech boxes or tactical books? We have a 10% off on books on our shelves if you are looking for strategy books again," Akashi said with an upbeat attitude.
"No, I'm here to see if you have any tech that can do signal jamming or can hack into a phone," Shikikan stated, browsing through the shelves that Akashi mentioned.
"Nya? You up to no good, Shikikan," giving him a scheming smile, poorly hiding it under her paw, "Well, it's a shame that we don't have that kind of tech here."
"Hmm… can I ask you a question," he rolled up towards her, resting his arms on the counter.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Do you know anything about this?" He handed over his watch to Akashi.
Picking it up in her paws, she examined it carefully. Looking at the screen, she tilted her head before shaking it as she set it down, "I'm sorry, but this thing is beyond my understanding. Where did you find such a thing?"
"Our lab team made it while studying the cubes," Shikikan put his watch back on, "We don't know what this counter is for, nor do we understand the technology that was used to put this together."
"Well, this might be siren technology."
The buzzword he heard before caught his attention.
"What exactly are these sirens?" He inquired, "I've heard about them, but not much else."
"Well, I don't know much either," Akashi answered truthfully, scratching her head, "All I know is that they are ahead of the technology that we have. What they have in mind and their goals are still a mystery."
"I see, I'm sorry for wasting your time," he placed a book on the counter, "I'll be buying this."
"Thank you for your patronage," she spouted, eagerly scanning out the item.
Moving back towards the volleyball court, as he read about moving tactics to only be interrupted once again by another shipgirl.
"Hello, Shikikan."
Putting down his book, he was greeted by Hood and Wales under their beach umbrella enjoying a few Royal Navy cakes and the such.
"Miss Hood, Lady Wales," he politely greeted back.
"Belfast was looking for you. You left her by herself," Wales stated.
"Oh… Right. That… You know where she went?"
"I think she is… Oh never mind," Hood smiled.
"What do you mean by—" He shifted his head to see a mildly infuriated maid behind him, "Oh, Bel… I was looking for you."
"Funny, I was looking for you after you left me without your notice," Belfast stated calmly, still containing her composure.
"You got to believe me on this one. I was blackmailed and I had to watch a volleyball game," Shikikan pleaded.
A heavy sigh answered him by the cruiser, "Well, I'll let it slide since you are practically the only man that operates this entire base. Next time, be sure to inform me about where you are going."
"Thank you for— Wait a minute! I'm not that type of guy," Shikikan argued strongly.
"Whatever you say, Master. You still have a few more pages to finish for the day."
"That can wait. I need to get back before Eugen notices that I'm gone for too long."
"If that is what you wish to do then complete your duties. Then I won't stop you."
"I told you. I'm forced to watch this. Why won't you believe me?"
"It's a bit hard to believe that you are forced to watch a game of volleyball. But, if you would like me to help you complete your duties then please ask."
"Thank you, Bel. I knew I can count on you," Shikikan left scurrying away, stumbling in the process.
"Do you really believe that he is forced to watch a game of volleyball?" Asked Wales.
"No, but if that is what the Master says then it might be true."
"I'm back!" Shikikan announced steadying his breathing.
"You are a bit late. You know what that means~" Eugen sang in a teasing tone.
"Please, don't send it," Shikikan pleaded, kneeling in front of her.
Eugen chuckled at the pathetic sight of the commander as he postured himself in a Dogeza manner as she opened up, "Well, I can't say no to that. How about a wager. A one versus one volleyball game. If you win, I'll delete the recording. If I win, I'll still delete the recording, but you have to treat me and the rest of the Iron Blood here for some drinks."
"Fine you have a deal," Shikikan said, rising up to meet her face to face, "I'll make you regret challenging me."
"Oh~? Do you think you can beat me? This will be interesting~"
"Long live the Iron Blood!" The Iron Blood Ships clanked their beer mugs together.
Fuck me, she destroyed me...
Heyo, this one took longer due to being a bit difficult to write. Hope you enjoyed this entertaining chapter. Also thank you all very much for the triple digit follows and favorites. I have something special planned later down the line, so stay tuned for that. The rating of this will change soon due to stuff that you will have to read soon. Anyways, cya next week.
