Chapter Four: Kairos

[EZRA]

"Well, I think we should get some more manpower, then go to meet our friends. Sound good?" I asked, looking to each of them. I could tell their brains were working, so I went to go see Akashi.

"Hello, Commander!" She saluted, standing at attention.

"Don't do that." I laughed, wiping something from my eye, it felt so weird to be respected like that. Normally people just called me stupid if I asked for something.

"Yes sir." The girl smiled, folding her hands.

"Think you could make us two more? We need a whole squad." I asked, folding mine and lowering my head.

"Of course, Commander, I'm here to serve you. Would you like an express construction?" She assured me, bowing her head, then proposing her question.

"Oh, yeah, if we have the resources, that'd be great." I didn't know that was possible, it seems to break the basics of… construction.

"Heeeey, kuma!" I heard the squad walk in with that, Hagi's heels made a distinct sound so I knew everyone was there, because Fubuki would never be alone.

"Hey, nerds." I smiled, looking back.

"Oh, is there construction going on?" Hagikaze looked interested, walking ahead to see who was going to be present.

"Large construction, too, so we could get someone powerful." Akashi explained to us, showing us the bigger chambers.

"It should only take a few seconds." I said, pulling up a chair and resting my legs a bit. After some allocating. Then, two new girls came out, both at incredible speed, and both posing. A purple haired girl with nice… features. And a giant brunette who looked like she could choke me with just one hand.

"Where are you looking, kuma?" She inquired, looking at me like I just did something wrong.

"Over your head, midget." I retorted, going to welcome our new guests.

"Commander!" The tall one said, tackling me and lifting me up so she could look at me. "I like him, he's small." She laughed, and held me under her arm. "Who's the secretary around here?" In my observation, she looked and talked different, but still wore some japanese clothes like the rest did. I didn't know much about history, so I figured her soul must come from somewhere else.

"Look at this..." The purple haired girl said, crouching in front of us with some sort of camera. She was taking lots of pictures, mainly of the both of us. But, while that was happening, Fubuki was pushed forward by the other two, looking rightfully spooked by these two weirdos.

"Secretary Fubuki!" My friend shouted, arms behind her back, giving her an admittedly respectable appearance. I expected it not to work, but the tall, brutal brunette put me down and the purple haired girl stopped her antics. They must've seen something I didn't. "I'm the secretary, and that's our Commander; his name is Ezra." She remained calm, which made my heart swell with pride.

"Good to meet you, Commander." The purple haired girl continued, pulling me in for a squeeze. However, I heard a territorial noise before I could respond. I was on the ground, and the other girl was, too, but some distance away from me. Kuma was standing over me, facing away.

"Don't touch my Commander, kuma!" Her arms were out, and her hair was standing up like an actual animal would.

"They're harmless, just like you." I smiled, moving up to my feet and hugging the short girl from behind. "But, thank you for protecting me." Dusting myself off, I went to go pick up the new girl. She was heavier than the others, but I got her up.

"Thanks, Commander." The girl said, leaning up again to squeeze me. I held her back and heard the sounds of offense from everyone else.

"How come you hug her, kuma!" She flailed her arms, pouting and huffing at me. "You're so mean, Commander!" I almost felt bad, but then I realized I was the one who carried her to bed every night, and just brushed it off. I would hug her, later, though. Fubuki and Hagikaze, however, got to me.

"You've never hugged me before, Commander..." Hagikaze was holding her hair, looking down. I realized I never had, and I actually felt bad that time. So I walked over, and slid my arms around her, pulling her in with a squeeze.

"It may not feel genuine," I spoke as softly as I could, using a voice I didn't know I had. "But I do love you, and I appreciate the work you do for me and the team." I moved my hand up and down her back while I spoke, trying my best to be comforting.

"Thank you, Commander." Her voice faltered for a bit, but she didn't crack. Feeling her warmth against me, though, made me think Was I really that important to these people? The way Hagikaze had her hands on my shoulders and her nose in my chest, it felt too unreal. I know I didn't deserve it, but I was getting it. "That helped a lot..." When she pulled away, she was wiping her eyes.

"My turn!" It was the brown haired girl, she jumped on me, but from carrying Kuma around consistently, my strength had improved. I held her , and slowly lowered her to a standing position. I couldn't exactly hold her, because I only came up to her stomach, but she seemed to appreciate my hug anyway. She was patting my head, and feeling like an older sister.

"I'm Kongou," She beamed, giving me a thumbs up, her smirk sparkling with charisma. She was wearing some kind of miko, not like I knew what that was. The other one, Aoba, had explained it to me. When Kongou let go, there were only two left.

"Hey, Fubuki." I called, walking over, lightly picking her up by the waist when I went to hug her.

"H-Hello Commander." She smiled, squeezing my shoulders. When I put her down, she looked kind of disappointed, but just put her arms under mine and set her head on my shoulder. "Thanks for giving me a good life..." Fubuki was warm, too, and she squeezed me tighter than anyone ever had. Feeling her hands on my upper back gave me butterflies, so I pulled away when time had felt sufficient.

"Me next, kuma!" She ran over and jumped into my arms, I held her up from under her legs, and carried her around a bit, her small arms around my neck were quite comforting. This must be what it's like to be a proper person. Well, as normal or proper as it gets with a family of superpowered girls and stuff.

"Hey, silly, no sleeping." I teased, poking her nose before she could fall asleep. She moved her head up, sneezing all over my face.

"Heheh, kuma…" She laughed, wiping her nose on her arm. "Alright..." She yawned, and stretched, almost falling off of my arm, but I let her back rest against my chest. I finally lowered her down, and we both gave each other a smile. "Time to go, kuma!" She exclaimed, grabbing my hand, and leading me to the transport trucks. I called Kairos to let him know I was coming.

At Kairos''

After the long plane ride to the Yukon military base. Canada, man, I love it here. I should've waited to pick!

"Hey!" I greeted the two at the door. A girl with green twintails, a thin figure, and an oddly sharp cihn, accompanying her was a purple haired girl with a long sidetail, she was thin, but not as tall as the other one.

"Zuikaku, sir." The green haired one saluted, putting her bow on her back.

"Akebono, at your service." The other one said, going to open the door for us after we showed our identification. "Right this way, Commander Ezra." She spoke with a strange tone than I couldn't put my finger on, even kept looking back at us for some reason, maybe she didn't trust us.

"Kairos!" I was ecstatic, it had only been like, a week, but I missed him.

"..." He signed a few things to his girls, then me, it was 'Greetings.'

"I'll be translating for him," Came a small voice; and from an even smaller person! I hadn't even noticed her when I came in. "I'm Ryuujou, it's nice to meet you, sir Ezra." She saluted, and we began to talk.

"How you doing, man?" I'm not professional, or formal in the slightest, and starting off with anything else would make me look like I was only scouting competition.

"Very good, how are your endeavors?" The girl spoke, making the same gestures the bear man would. I saw Kuma going to stand next to her and hoped she wasn't going to do anything bad.

"They're great. I look forward to working with you, the time we've known each other is short, but-"

"What'd you say, mophead?" Ryuujou growled, making a fist with her small hand.

"What-" I tried to interrupt and inquire, but I was thrown back by a punch. I wasn't knocked over, surprisingly, but my chest was hurting, now.

"Why, kuma?!" The short cruiser exclaimed, running over to me, checking if I was okay.

"You said he was calling me short!" The little brown haired girl retorted, coming over to get in her face.

"Did not I said he was thinking it, kuma!" She flailed, folding her arms.

"That's not what I heard-" She began, but was cut off by Akebono.

"The Commander would like to continue the conversation." The purple haired girl huffed, folding her arms.

"Don't worry about it, Ryuujou." I smirked, giving her a thumbs up. "I am, kind of the king of scumbags." I assured her, but she still looked displeased.

"No, that's the Cody guy we met earlier." Ryuujou continued, translating for our boy.

"I can't confirm, yet. But, regardless. I was wondering if you wanted to do anything, or if you needed any help?" I asked, because we seemed pretty far in our progress. I also found myself subconsciously patting Kuma's head.

"We could use the spare ammo..." Ryuujou sounded ashamed, but we just nodded. "And, if you're up for it, we could have dinner the next time there's a festival, Niho will be there, too."

"Of course, I'd love to get to know the both of you more." I smiled, and turned to Kongou, "Hey, can you get us a tenth of our ammunition?" 1000 is enough to spare, and won't hurt us at all.

"Thank you, sir Ezra." Ryuujou said, and everyone bowed their heads. And I felt pretty good about myself. "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?" She continued, folding her hands onto her legs.

"Uh, yeah, but it's more private, if you don't mind." I hoped he wouldn't, there was some important stuff I wanted to ask.

"Of course." He signed, jumping from his chair and then going to leave with me.

[FUBUKI]

Ezra had left us alone, so now we were all just looking at each other. The awkward silence didn't last, though. Kongou's voice cut through it like an 1000° degree knife through a shoe.

"Hey!" She smiled at everyone, pointing at herself with her thumbs. "I'm Kongou! It's good to meet you all." Her fists were on her hips now, and she looked so prideful.

"Zuikaku of the 5th carrier division." The green twintailed girl stepped up, smiling at us, too.

"Aoba of the 1st expedition fleet." Our purple haired friend stepped up, hands in the pockets of her shorts.

"Tone, Cruiser Division 6." The other twintailed girl, but her hair was dark brown, and her voice wasn't as nasally. She sounded pretty serious and was actually pretty intimidating.

"I'm Kuma, kuma!" Our airheaded friend marched up, too, not introducing herself like everyone else did.

"Ryuujou." The small girl stepped up, giving us a salute.

"Fubuki, first of the special type destroyers!" It was my turn, I guess. I tried to sound confident, and succeeded, nobody gave me any weird looks; and that was enough for me.

"Murakumo, the best of the Fubuki class.." My sister ship spoke, her commanding tone almost making me shake like usual.

"Hagikaze, good to meet you." I forgot about her, really, she was so quiet, shier than me, I'd say.

"Amatsukaze, good to meet you, too." A new voice, this time. She also seemed quiet. "And this is Kasumi." She smiled, gesturing to the sweater-clad girl, who just waved and gave us all a thumbs up.

"Oh, yeah!" I went forward, going to ask the secretary, my sister, how the mission went. "How was your first sortie? Ours lasted like, six hours." Hands in my skirt pockets, I remembered the event, almost dying and stuff. It was terrible.

"Six hours?!" She almost choked on her own spit, looking at me. "How weak are you guys?!" My sister hand her hands on her knees.

"If so, why are only three of you level 10?" Akebono interrupted, looking at us like we just killed her Commander.

"We only constructed them after that, kuma." She smiled, informing them even more of our idiocy.

"You spent six hours out there with two destroyers and a light cruiser?" Zuikaku put her hands on the table, leaning over it to glare at us. "Is your Commander crazy? Why'd he let you do that?" She also looked livid. But I didn't understand.

"Well, no, Kuma dragged us out while he was getting supplies." I stepped in, folding my arms, and not wavering.

"And you guys didn't die?" The green haired girl continued, her mouth kind of half-open.

"No,we even beat a big bad boss Abyssal, she was a torpedo cruiser, kuma!" She flexed, pulling me and Hagikaze in for a big squeeze.

"Y-You've seen a human shaped one?" Ryuujou's eyes were wide, and she stepped back.

"Yeah, we blasted her to hell." Hagikaze was up now, too, and she looked pretty proud, just like Kuma and I did.

"I'm impressed, sister." Murakumo said to me, walking over and poking me in the nose. "You're actually competent."

"Yeah, I'm better than you right now." I said, making my wrist-mounted cannon appear, and poking her with it. A five level difference wasn't much to scoff at, especially with how much more potential I had.

"Wh-When did you get so confident?" She growled, trying to get in my face some more, but I just got in hers. Maybe I was hanging around Ezra too much. "O-Okay..." She stepped back, and went back by the desk. Just then, the door was thrown open.

"What's up, BITCHES?!" It was Ezra, he came up behind me, and lifted me up, setting me on his shoulder.

"C-Commander!" I was caught off guard, so I could only cling onto his head.

"Hey, Fubuki. Me and Kairos finished talking so we're leaving." He said, gesturing to everyone and then walking out. I heard my sister laugh while he carried me out; whatever, I was cooler than her anyway. When we got into the truck, he put me down next to him, and fell asleep as soon as the truck started moving. I wanted to talk to him, but I guess not…