Chapter Three: New girls and sorties

I woke up to the room being a bit more crowded than it felt last night. When I sat up, I looked over to see Fubuki's bunk being crowded by two thin figures. One with a white outfit and brown hair, the other with a black outfit and purple hair.

"Hey!" I said, getting up and walking over.

"Aaaah, he's got no shirt, kuma!" The brown haired girl squealed, pointing at me. I looked at myself and realized I was shirtless, damn my sleeping habits.

"Ah, shit!" I ran back to get my shirt, not even thinking. I guess I was too focused on my friend.

"What a weirdo." The purple haired girl smirked, looking back towards Fubuki.

"Move." I ordered, and they did. I looked to see if anything was wrong, and there wasn't. She was just sleeping.

"What're you doing, kuma?" Was what I heard, but I didn't turn around.

"You guys scared me, sorry." I thought something might have happened to her, so I was kinda spooked.

"Who're you, kuma?" The same voice, so I figured it was Kuma; the brown haired girl.

"I'm Ezra, Commander of this base." I told them, folding my arms.

"Oh, good to meet you, Commander! I'm Hagikaze!" The purple haired girl exclaimed, rather excitedly.

"I'm Kuma, kuma!" She had some sort of strange tic, I think. It's not annoying yet, so I won't say anything.

"Good to have you." I folded my hands and bowed my head to them, I was glad we got some cool people, these girls looked nice.

"Commander..?" Spoke the faint voice of my friend, she was getting up in her bed.

"Hey, Fubuki." I responded, turning away and going to help her up.

"Morning..." She smiled, yawning and wiping the tired from her eyes. Her hair was messy so she looked kinda goofy.

"Well, all of you get situated, I have things to do." I walked to the door, and left to do Commander things.

[FUBUKI]

I looked at the two girls before me, and scratched my head.

"Ah… Good to meet you, I'm Fubuki." I introduced, bowing my head.

"I'm Hagikaze, and this Kuma." The taller of the two said, returning the gesture to me.

"Let's go battle, Kuma!" Kuma suggested, grabbing our hands and pulling us with brute strength.

"I'm not ready yet!" I shouted, trying to pull away, but it was futile; she was too powerful. I ended up on a sortie without my underwear. It was cold, too!

"We'll get some cool stuff for the commander!" Hagikaze told me, easing me up a bit.

"Let's go!" I smirked, moving ahead of our little triangle formation, Kuma taking her place behind me. We encountered about 1 abyssal every 100 meters, I was glad there weren't too many, and that none of them were human shaped. Just the weird whale things. It only took about two shots from each of us to bring one down. But, after a bit, we started encountering more, we had to maneuver carefully, but urgently to not get hit by the 6+ things firing us at once. We were out there for hours, and it felt like we were just fighting basic things, until they just stopped. We were moving for a long time without even the slightest of engagements. Just then, we saw bubbles fly past us. A torpedo!

"Where's it coming from, kuma?!" Yours truly yelled, sounding worried.

"Submarine!" I responded, jetting forward and making a handsign to scatter. They listened, and we began to try and surround the thing. It had to resurface eventually, so we avoided it until it did, and unloaded into it. We took its gas mask and some of the other stuff it left behind. Now to make our way back, that was uneventful. We went to Ezra's office to show him what we got, but he wasn't there.

"Where is he, kuma?" She sounded kind of upset.

"Weird, Commanders are supposed to be around to give orders." Hagikaze seemed annoyed, too.

"Do you think he bailed?" I sighed, setting everything down and started doubting myself. Were we too weird? Did we make him uncomfortable? Just then, we heard the sound of trucks. So we went to investigate and saw him directing some of said trucks. He was wearing glasses, so when I got closer, I couldn't help but laugh. He looked so goofy, his apathetic eyes actually looked kinda normal.

"Hey, 'Buki." He greeted, acting like it didn't seem like he had abandoned us. He had a wardrobe change, too. A dark green coat with red, spiked shoulder armor, a weird, all-black pickelhaube with an American flag sticker on it, and some black boots.

"There he is, kuma!" She squealed, going to jump on him.

"Ah, hey! Watch-" He spoke as he was almost knocked over, but he managed to catch her, it wouldn't last long, though, I could see it in his arms.

"We're back from our sortie, Commander!" She said to him, squeezing her arms around her neck.

"Uh…. Cool." Ezra responded, looking over to me, and mouthing 'what's a sortie?'

"Sign here, sir." One of the drivers speaks to him, coming over with a clipboard. He holds Kuma on one arm for a moment, filling out the files with the other.

"Thanks for the help!" He beamed cheerfully, shooting the guy a fingergun.

"Your arm's shaking, kuma." Kuma observed, before he set her down, feeling his arms.

"Are you okay, sir?" Hagikaze went over to ask, feeling his arms.

"Don't do that. That's weird." He snarled, yanking his arms away, which made them both giggle.

"Fubuki!" He must've noticed something, because he ran over and looked at me.

"What, Commander?" I asked, suddenly worried.

"Your shirt's ripped, are you okay?" He told me, putting his hand where my skin was exposed.

"U-Uh yeah, I'm fine!" I was kinda shocked, his hand felt warm on my side, but,I kinda liked it.

"Your cannon, too. It's bent." Ezra continued, putting his other hand on my wrist-mounted gun.

"Fubuki's really tough, Commander." Hagikaze said, coming over.

"Yeah, kuma! She saved us a lot, her eyes turned red and she beat a lot of them up sometimes!" Kuma smiled, coming over, too. It felt nice being praised and worried about.

"You guys must've gotten hurt, too." Our commander spoke, taking his hands from my gun and my side, then folding his arms.

"Sir, please-" Hagikaze tired to speak, but he interrupted her.

"Go get repaired, I'll unpack this." That was order, so we followed, going to the docks. We wouldn't have to be in there for very long, so maybe we could help him load all the cargo. The hot water felt nice, and the other two seemed to enjoy it, too.

"Don't swim in the water, Kuma." Hagikaze scolded, and Kuma just spat hot water at her.

"It's just us, kuma." She responded, paddling around a bit, and Hagi just stopped trying at this point. I felt nice and warm, I finally had friends and a Commander that didn't hate me. And if he did, he was terrible at hating me.

"Thanks, guys." I said, randomly, causing them to look at me in confusion.

"Huh, kuma?" She asked, Hagikaze responding the same, but without the tic.

"Thanks for being my friends, I'm glad to have you." I smiled, getting up when our times were up.

"No problem, girl." My purple haired friend smirked, coming over and putting her arm around me once we were dressed.

"We'll be great friends, kuma." She added, already running off to meet Ezra. We followed, and found all the trucks empty, and just setting off.

"Silly Commander, kuma." She giggled.

"Yeah, what's he thinking doing all that by himself?" Hagi added, folding her arms. After some waiting, we went back to his office, where he was filling out some paperwork.

"Hey, girls." He said, giving us a raised hand and then continuing eating his mac and cheese while signing his papers.

"What's that?" Hagikaze asked, leaning over to see the bowl.

"Rations, for me." Ezra said, pushing his curly hair from his face.

"Is that what those trucks were full of?" I asked, hands on the table.

"No, there were only five, and four of them were for you and future girls." He responded, slicking his hair back after taking off his helmet, not even fazed by my aggressiveness. There was some burn mark on his forehead.

"What's that, kuma?" Came her little voice, before poking his cheek and making him look up.

"Another commander put out his cigarette on me." He stated, looking back down.

"Are you okay, Commander?" Hagikaze asked next, coming over behind his desk to look at him.

"Yeah, I am." He snickered, looking cocky about himself.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, folding my arms.

"Yeah, I chopped his neck and some redhead had to carry him back to the transport." Ezra laughed some more, his smirk never swaying as he wrote his name countless times.

"Shouldn't you tell some-" Hagikaze went to suggest something, but he waved his hands.

"Nah, I dealt with it." He assured, giving us some fingerguns and a confident smirk, I swear it sparkled.

"...commander likes violence, kuma..." She whispered to us, her ahoge twirling up, back to life.

"You did good, Commander." I spoke up, and my words seemed to shock him.

"What?" He inquired, giving me his usual look.

"I say you did good, if he did something to you and you did something to him, it's only fair." I didn't waver, because I actually supported him.

"...thank you, Fubuki." He was quieter, now, less arrogant-looking, too.

"Well, what's next, kuma?" Our airheaded friend asked, leaning over the table like the rest of us.

"Well…" Ezra began…