I awoke the next day feeling refreshed and happier than I'd been in years. I was practically humming as I went about my daily routine, looking forward to getting the exercise underway, and to spending more time with Mikasa. The memories of last night were still fresh in my head, and I swore I could still taste her on my lips. And while I have to admit, part of me was sad that I had kept everyone else at arm's length for so long, another part, the greater part of me was glad I had waited for someone like Mikasa to come into my life. We fit so well together, and I was happy I could give her the love and affection she deserved.

As I made my way to the CIC, I noted just how quiet the base was that morning. With so many kansen participating in the exercise, and the rest out on patrol to make sure the exercise isn't interrupted by a Siren attack, the streets were virtually empty. A gust of wind picked up, blowing a cloud of cherry blossoms past me, and I glanced over at the orchard with a warm smile. It seemed like just about everything this morning was reminding me of Mikasa.

It wasn't long though before I reached the CIC where Mikasa was already waiting for me with a smile and a cup of coffee. Along with Mikasa, two other shipgirls were also awaiting my arrival. Odin, as reserved and taciturn as ever, greeted us with a simple nod, and Bremerton, who, in contrast with the Iron Blood kansen, gave us a bright smile and an eager wave.

"Good morning, everyone," I said, taking the cup of coffee from Mikasa with a bright smile, which she eagerly returned. As much as I wanted to give her a good morning kiss, I decided to make an attempt at decorum and restrain myself, and I could see the same decision playing out in her amber eyes. "What's our status?"

Mikasa continued to smile up at me lovingly for another half-second before she turned and pulled up the holomap to answer my question. While it remains a mystery if Odin noticed(or indeed, even cared), the subtle pause didn't escape Bremerton's vigilant gaze. Her eyes flicked between Mikasa and me before giving me a smug, knowing grin. I felt the blood suddenly rush to my cheeks, but tried to keep a cool, professional expression as I quickly directed my attention back to my partner.

"All fleets have been assembled, and all fleet and squadron commanders report ready," Mikasa announced. "Patrols are also reporting all-quiet, and nothing on radar or sonar pickets. We await your order, Admiral."

I stepped forward, standing beside Mikasa as I surveyed the holomap. Both fleets had taken up station at their respective starting areas for this phase of the exercise. As agreed upon, each fleet would assault the port, with the opposing fleet defending it. Once the attackers had been driven off or the defenders subdued, they would switch off. The fleet that had the highest combined score would be crowned the winner. By luck of the draw, Shokaku's fleet had been selected to go first.

Satisfied that everything was ready, I flipped the radio on. "Good luck, good hunting, and may the best team win. Commence the operation!"

A chorus of acknowledgment flooded the airwaves before switching off as the commanders began issuing orders. One by one, the various kansen on the holomap moved out, taking up their assigned positions. As the defender, Hood moved her carriers into the harbor proper, and set up a line of submarines at the entrance, ready to ambush anyone foolish enough to simply charge in. Meanwhile, Shokaku had begun probing with her aircraft, keeping her surface and submarine forces in reserve for the time being.

Hood quickly began to counter these recon flights with fighters of her own, and while she managed to blind the Sakura and Eagle Union forces in a few places, it wasn't enough to stop the overwhelming aerial superiority that they possessed. Hood withdrew her surviving fighters, ceding the skies to Shokaku in order to maintain some cover for the bombers and torpedo bombers when she would need them. In an attempt to conceal her fleet's locations, she had her destroyers begin to lay smokescreens, both around her ships and in areas where there were none.

In a shrewd move, the elder crane sent out her submarines, quietly approaching beneath the waves to listen in with their hydrophones and report back. For the most part, they were successful, although Dace, in her usual reckless fashion, loosed a volley of torpedoes when she discovered a large formation. In response, Grenville rapidly depth-charged her out of the match, but not before two of her torpedoes found Hermione and knocked her out of this round as well.

"Fascinating."

We all glanced up at Odin, who was still peering intently down at the ongoing battle. For a moment, we waited for her to elaborate, and when she continued to silently stare, I spoke up. "What's fascinating?"

Without tearing her eyes away from the holograms, she answered, "Shokaku's use of submarines as scouts. While we had considered the possibility, we had assumed she would have used them to attempt to sneak into the harbor and attack our carriers."

"Interesting," I murmured and turned my attention to Bremerton, who was watching the entire thing play out with a sly grin. "Bremerton, your thoughts?"

"It's goin' about how we expected," she chirped happily. "We've got control of the skies, the initiative, and now we're gonna give 'em a good old-fashioned pounding!"

I couldn't help but grin at her energetic appraisal of the situation. "Let's see if Shokaku can live up to your hype," I cautioned.

Bremerton merely grinned back and gestured towards the holomap. "Well, feast your eyes, Commander, because it's about to begin!"

Almost as soon as she said it, the Sakura Empire and Eagle Union ships began moving out in mixed groups. Sakura destroyers escorted Eagle Union cruisers, providing powerful torpedo salvos to supplement the cruiser's heavy guns, and Eagle Union destroyers escorted Sakura battleships to give them better radar fire control. Each group overlapped and supplemented areas that one faction was lacking in, leaving very few weaknesses in each group for Hood to exploit. While the carriers followed close behind the main fleet, they nevertheless stayed in the rear where they were relatively safe from harm and Shokaku delegated the surface actions to her battleships. Able to get a better front-line view, kansen such as New Jersey and Nagato were able to lay down blistering long-range salvos while directing their escorts against their opposite number.

Their opponents were not easy targets, however, and gave back as good as they were getting. Return salvos from Bismarck, Duke of York, and Warspite soared overhead as a pitched battle began. Although evenly matched on paper, slowly, the synergy between the Sakura Empire and Eagle Union ships began to tilt the balance in their favor. Slowly at first, but one by one, the Royal Navy and Iron Blood kansen were knocked out of action until it was very rapidly becoming a rout. With the antiaircraft on board the surface ships tied up, Shokaku unleashed a combined aerial assault with all of her carriers. Hellcats, Wildcats, Vals, Zeros, Kates, SBDs, Avengers, and Ryuseis darkened the skies over the harbor as they swooped in on the carriers now trapped in the port. They put up a valiant struggle, but in the end, outnumbered and with nowhere to go, they were defeated.

With her carriers gone and not enough ships left to mount any sort of defense, Hood signaled surrender. I sent the all-clear and waited for everyone to stand down before flipping the radio on once more.

"A well fought battle for all involved," I announced. "Return to harbor for repair, refit, and rest. We will begin with Hood as the attacker and Shokaku defending tomorrow."

Again, a chorus of assent echoed across the radio as the various kansen began returning to the port. I waited another minute to ensure everyone was making their way back before shutting down the holomap. "Well," I began, looking up at the two observers. "I hope you both found this informative."

Odin was the first to speak, her voice soft yet commanding. "Quite informative, Commander. I will use what I have learned here to help improve our attack tomorrow. Thank you." With that, she saluted smartly and strode from the CIC, her coat billowing behind her.

Bremerton eyed us with a mischievous grin as she pulled out her phone. "Yep, learned quite a bit. About the exercise and a few other things."

Her tone left little doubt as to what she was referring to, and both Mikasa and I blushed, glancing between each other before we began stammering and tripping over each other's words. Bremerton, to her credit, laughed and shook her head, waving her hand dismissively. "It's alright, I'm not gonna tell anyone. For what it's worth, I think you two make a really cute couple, and I'm glad to see that you both look truly happy with one another."

"That...that's awfully nice of you to say, Bremerton," I finally said, glancing down at Mikasa to smile at her as my hand found hers. "And I appreciate you keeping this quiet. For however long or short a time this might be."

"Don't mention it," she answered, already looking down at her phone, her thumbs flying over the computer screen. "By the way, Mikasa, found a really great boba tea place you two should check out. DM'd it to you on Juustagram. See you two lovebirds tomorrow!"

"See you later!" I waved to her as she strode out of the CIC. As the doors shut behind her, I turned to Mikasa and saw her fumbling with her phone.

"Urgh," she muttered, "How in the world do you use this cellular phone thing? ...Grrrr…"

When I peered more closely at the device in her hand to see what the matter was, I quickly spotted the source of her frustration. "You're wearing gloves."

She stopped and looked up at me, perplexed. "I always wear gloves, you know that."

"Yes, but...you're going to have a hell of a time using a smartphone with those gloves. The touchscreen responds to bare skin or a special stylus. Here." I tapped on her phone screen with a finger and it instantly lit up, awaiting her passcode. "See?"

The grand veteran glared at her phone as if it had just betrayed her before she sighed and held out a hand. "Alright. Just...help me slip this off, please?"

I smiled but decided to refrain from comment as I carefully slipped the immaculate white glove from her hand, revealing her bare skin beneath it. My fingers danced upon her hand as I gingerly finished pulling the glove off, lingering for a moment longer than I otherwise would have. I looked back up and saw her staring at me, as enraptured by the moment as I was until it was shattered by the buzz of her phone. We both jumped, startled, and chuckled as we shared an awkward grin. She tore her eyes away from me and tapped on the screen, successfully punching in her passcode on the first try. With more ease than I'd ever seen from her, she managed to pull up the DM and the address with relatively few mistakes.

She stared intently at the location provided by Bremerton, committing it to memory before slipping the phone back into her pocket. "That's not too far away," she remarked as she pulled her glove back on, the faint hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "We have enough time to stop by during our lunch, perhaps pick up something along the way."

I smiled and slipped my arm around hers. "An excellent idea, Mikasa. Lead the way."

Considering how beautiful the weather had been, we opted to sit outside as we ate lunch and chatted.

"So how'd you think Shokaku did?" I asked before popping a bite of chicken katsu in my mouth.

Mikasa nodded as she took a sip of the boba tea to wash down her food before speaking. "About as I expected. Attack was her strong suit, after all. Especially attacking ships in harbors," she said with a wry grin.

"Yes, I know, I was there," I dryly retorted.

She chuckled as she took another sip of her tea. "In any case, she's excellent on the offensive, and I expected her to handily win the assault portion. Defending will be much harder for her. I'm looking forward to seeing how she does."

"As am I. I'm also interested to see how Hood adapts to Shokaku's style. It sounded like Odin was going to relay what she saw and they would reformulate their strategy for tomorrow."

"Do you object to that?" Mikasa asked, eyebrow raised.

"Oh no, not at all!" I emphatically shook my head. "Shokaku sent her own observer, so they're free to make changes as they see fit based on what they saw today. Besides, if I had any objections, I would have brought them up the moment Odin mentioned it. Speaking of, what changes do you think Hood's going to make for tomorrow?"

Mikasa stared out at the sea for a moment, as if she were trying to scry the future from the vast blue surface. "She'll likely attempt to mix her forces together the same way Shokaku did with her Eagle Union and Sakura Empire forces. She'll use her submarines a lot more aggressively and she'll likely rely on her battleship core to do the heavy lifting with her carriers providing fighter cover."

I nodded slowly. It made sense, and it took into account the mistakes Hood made today. "A fair assessment. Think Bremerton'll make any suggestions to Shokaku?"

"Probably not. The battle seemed to progress exactly as they had planned, which is a good sign." She paused, glanced around then asked in a low voice. "Do you think she'll keep her word and keep our relationship a secret?"

I chuckled softly at her concern and nodded. "Absolutely. She's really good about keeping things confidential, so I wouldn't worry about it. Although...how long are we going to keep this...low key?"

She leaned back, somewhat surprised at the question as she pondered it for a moment. "I'm...not sure. How long would someone normally keep it…'low key'?"

I shrugged helplessly. "There's no real guideline to how long one goes before making a relationship public. And it's not like we have to make an official proclamation. It's more of...just being open that we're seeing each other sort of thing."

She nodded slowly as she digested this information. "When do most couples...start being open?"

I leaned back in my chair and let out a long sigh as I thought it over. "Usually around the second or third date, I guess. It's been a while."

"So...about where we are now…" A slow, hopeful smile spreads across her face as she looks up at me with a vulnerable expression. "...would you...would you be okay with our relationship being public knowledge?"

It wasn't even a question for me. I smiled warmly back at her as I took her hand in mine, our fingers interlacing with each other. "More than okay, Mikasa."

Her smile went from hopeful to joyful in a heartbeat, and she nodded in agreement. "Good. I'm...glad. I'm glad that we're taking the next step, and I'm glad you're happy with an old warhorse like me."

"Don't give me that 'old warhorse' nonsense," I admonished her with a grin. "You are an incredibly beautiful woman who is kind, caring, and generous. Anyone would be lucky to have you, and I am doubly lucky that it's me."

"C-commander..." she stammered as her cheeks flushed a deep red. She opened her mouth to speak when the alarm on her phone went off. Whatever else she was about to say was buried by her professionalism. "We'd best get back to work."

"Indeed," I agreed with a twinge of sadness in my voice. "There's a lot of work to do today, but at least I'll be in excellent company…"

As expected, our work kept us at the office well into the night as we tried to handle both the day-to-day operation as well as grade both sides' performance in the exercise. Shokaku had a clear lead, but it could easily swing back to Hood if the Sakura carrier couldn't mount an effective defense. By the time we left, both Mikasa and I were so exhausted it was all we could do to stagger back to our separate quarters and get some rest before the next day.

The following morning, Mikasa, Bremerton, Odin, and I all reconvened at the CIC to oversee the second and final day of the exercise. The holomap flared to life, revealing the starting positions of both sides. As expected, Hood had gone with a traditional fleet composition of destroyers and cruisers screening her battleships, with carriers trailing behind. Her submarines were deployed as far forward as she was allowed, ready to scout or harass as needed.

Shokaku's formation, however, shocked everyone in the room save Bremerton. Instead of massing her firepower, she spread it out over a wide area, little clusters of fleets that, on their own, would be easily obliterated by Hood's concentrated firepower. The most shocking thing, however, was that her carriers were all forward-deployed with the rest of her fleet. Each little battlegroup had a pair of carriers attached, with too few escorts to protect both the battleships and carriers at the same time. I cast a concerned look at Mikasa, who gave me an equally confused look in return. Whatever she had planned, only time would tell.

With butterflies in my stomach, I thumbed on the radio once more. "Fleet commanders, are you ready?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Hai!"

"Very well. The second half of the fleet exercise starts...now!"

Both sides leaped into action. Hood began inexorably moving forward, her submarines fanning out to act as her advanced scouts while Shokaku's forces began to move out in a less cohesive fashion, the groups at either end of her line moving forward faster than those in the center. Both sides were already launching fighters to serve as both screen and scout. For the Sakura and Eagle Union fighters, their job was much easier, quickly spotting Hood's armada and returning to base. On the other hand, Hood's aircraft had only spotted about half of Shokaku's flotillas, and she slowed her fleet even further to avoid sailing into an ambush.

Shokaku was quick to react as her flotillas began to encircle Hood's main force, but rather than pressing the attack, they continued to stay just at the edge of weapons range. A few shots were traded between the battleships, but aside from what appeared to be a rather heated duel between Jean Bart and Massachusetts, no real fighting ensued.

Now thoroughly confused, I looked over at Mikasa, who shot me an equally confused look and a helpless shrug before we both turned to face Bremerton. The cruiser had a smug grin on her face as if she knew we'd turn to her eventually.

"Alright, Bremerton," I grumbled, "What's going on?"

Her smile became even smugger as she cryptically answered, "Watch the enemy carriers."

When she provided no further explanation, we turned back to the holographic kansen on the holomap, and waited for something, anything to happen. Mikasa spotted it first and eagerly tapped me on the shoulder, gesturing to the southeast of the carriers. "There!" she whispered excitedly, and I followed her finger to a flotilla bearing down on their enemies. Intrepid, Shangri-La, Alabama, Mogami, Mikuma, Takao, Atago, and about half of the Little Beavers were charging headlong towards the carrier group.

It didn't take much longer before the carriers spotted the attackers as well and immediately began backing away, launching fighters and recalling those providing cover for Hood's main force. In addition, Hood quickly reversed course to try and protect her vulnerable ships, but in doing so, exposed her back to Shokaku's flotillas, who promptly surged forward. When she tried to reverse course again, Intrepid and her group pressed home their attack, Hellcats merging with Martlets, Fulmars, and 109s in a desperate, swirling melee.

Little by little, the flotillas closed in, tightening the perimeter, as command and control began to break down in Hood's fleet. Ever the impulsive one, Scharnhorst led her sister and a pair of cruisers in an attempt to break out, only to be swiftly cut down by Taihou and Ryuuho. In the end, they were slowly squeezed by the encircling ships, and without proper escort, the carriers were dispatched through a combination of gunfire, torpedoes, and aircraft.

With Hood's carriers gone, taking their fighter cover with them, there was nothing to stop Shokaku's fleet from launching a massive, coordinated airstrike. It was a coup de gras that had all the hallmarks of the Sakura Empire. After the first wave, the few surviving Royal Navy and Iron Blood ships signaled surrender. The battle was over, and Hood hadn't even come close to the harbor.

I nodded to myself, happy for Shokaku as I glanced around the room. Odin stared at the Holomap, still working out how they had been bested. Bremerton was grinning like a Cheshire cat, and Mikasa was looking up at me with the proudest smile.

"She did good," she assessed.

"She did, indeed," I concurred as I activated the microphone.

"All ships, stand down and return to port. The naval exercise is now over, well done to all who took part. Debriefing and score results will follow in two day's time. In the-" My speech was interrupted by a sudden insistent blinking blip off the northwestern coast of the base, and a voice cut in on the emergency channel.

"Th-this is Karlsruhe!" the voice sputtered, "Emergency assistance needed! White squall! White squ-" There was a sudden crash as if she were overtaken by a massive wave, and the line suddenly went silent.

"Karlsruhe! Karlsruhe, come in!" I desperately shouted into the microphone. Only the static answered my panicked calls. "All patrols, rendezvous at the distress coordinates." I flicked off the radio and glanced over at Mikasa. "Who was patrolling with Karlsruhe?"

She flipped through the patrol logs until she quickly spotted them. "Ryuujo, Myoko, and Nachi."

I glanced back at the holomap and did the math in my head. "It'll take time for the other patrol fleets to reach them, and the exercise forces are too tired…" I looked around at the three assembled kansen. "I'm going out there to find them, and I'd like at least some of you to come with me. We're the closest, freshest group, and they need our help ASAP."

There wasn't even a moment's hesitation between any of them. Odin nodded curtly, Bremerton gave me a broad smile and a thumbs-up, and Mikasa laid her hand on mine.

"We're with you, Commander."

A/N-Oh, boy. Here we go again. Only one, final, chapter remaining. The poll for the next shipgirl will remain open until next week, at which point I will announce the winner and the roadmap going forward. Until next time, fair winds and following seas!