Chapter Five: Sortie Two and Land Excursion
[EZRA]
There was noise from the kitchen upon my awakening the day after we returned from Kairos', and my immediate thought was 'fuck off, go back to bed,' but, that wasn't the case. I had to get up.
"Girls!" I raised my voice upon entering the kitchen, watching them freeze as I made my entry. There was someone I didn't recognize, so I assumed that was the construction I authorized last night. The new girl greeted me with lots of gusto.
"I'm Kiso, of the Kuma class cruisers!" She saluted, her green hair flowing in some non existent wind. "I'll bestow upon you the absolute best victory!" Kiso smirked, and gave me a thumbs up. I bought it for now, and inquired;
"What are you all doing?" I folded my arms, looking at everyone. They were still in morning mode, messy hair and stuff, Aoba's clothes were half on, too.
"Making breakfast." Kongou told me, gesturing to the wealth of food on the table. They made waffles and pancakes, along with some tea, biscuits, and sausage.
"Valid." I responded, going to sit down and eat. Everyone joined, and it was a good morning. We talked about plans for the day, and decided it was time to continue with the next mission. We had cleared the area around our shore, so now we had to go out, according to Ooyodo at least. So we decided on 1200 miles from base.
"Orders received, commander." Fubuki assured me, giving a salute, then going to lead our squad. It was 1:00 PM when they set out. I waved them off and went to do commander things.
[Fubuki]
I was leading for some reason, maybe he is an incompetent commander. Regardless, I had to do my best.
"Just stay spread out," I started, watching everyone spread, "We're not gonna be out as long, but still keep your guard up."
"I've got you guys, don't worry." Kongou assured us, crossing her arms and giving us a charismatic smirk. And I trusted her, she was pretty tough from what I heard, and she wouldn't be so sure if she was weak. Nothing really happened, until we actually got to where Ooyodo told us to go, it was one but it was really big towards the head area, like it was wearing a crown.
"Fire." I commanded, before it could see us, most of our shots hit, and we crippled it, damaging its head, and watching some aircraft fall from it, some were launched though, but we managed to take care of it, even using some of our own to hit it.
"Hopeless..." It said, before collapsing. It had no guns so we had nothing to worry.
"Get some of it, Kuma!" She rushed past me, grabbing part of the crown, including a "tooth" of some sort. She waved it as us before storing it in her pocket.
"Why does the commander collect those things?" Aoba sounded curious, folding her arms and swerving back around to lead us on the return to the base.
"Says they're interesting." I shrugged, keeping watch for anything that might get us, and there was some stuff, but Kongou kicked one and it exploded so we were fine. We survived with minimal damage, except for Kiso, she tried to cut one but got blasted point blank. We'll have to chill with her in repairs. That was it, though. Now that we know that we're not supposed to go on a killing run, we can systematically eliminate them without much risk to ourselves. When we got back to the base, he was waiting for us, along with Ooyodo. They were talking and he clearly said something stupid, because she was looking at him with her hands spread a bit.
"We're back!" Aoba smiled, landing gracefully then going to squeeze him. She was first, but everyone got a big hug and a check for damages. None of were hit too hard, but he told us to repair anyway. While we were waiting, we discussed our plans for the future, even though it was from being here, the war just begun after all. I wanted to live my life with the Commander, Kuma wants to travel the world with Kiso, Kongou wants to be a scientist, and Hagikaze wants to be an adjutant for someone else if Ezra actually ends, and Aoba- Wait, where was Aoba? I looked around, but she wasn't with us. I decided to get out and check. Aoba had him pinned to the wall, her arms by his shoulders so he couldn't move.
"Hey!" I went over and smacked the back of her head, and she pulled away, shrugging.
"I was just making sure he was okay." Aoba lied as I walked her back to the docks. She joined us, leaning back and relaxing as our equipment repaired.
"She's making moves on the commander while we're in here." I told them, Kuma spit water at her, but Hagikaze put her hand on the shorter girl's head before she could do anything else.
"No, don't do that." She waved her finger, but Kuma was still unamused.
"The commander is ours, we should share him Kuma." Her ahoge twitched when she talked, and her arms folded beneath her chest.
"He's not gonna share all of us." Aoba shook her head, folding her arms, looking pouty. "I know he likes you, Fubuki, you've known him the longest and it's not fair."
"Not fair? It's not my fault." I protested, not even believing her; he just cares a lot about his starter ship is all.
[EZRA]
They were yelling about something in there, but my mind was too hazy. Aoba's scent filled my nose, and I was extremely disoriented. Doing paperwork was hard, and even harder when everyone was suddenly in my office. Kuma jumped up, and slid across my desk to look me in the eyes.
"Can we go somewhere, kuma?" She asked, giving me her puppy eyes.
"No." I told her, setting her down and going back to my papers. "I have work to do, you goons, but you can do whatever you'd like. I declare you done for the day."
"You haven't had a break since we started." Hagikaze came over, grabbing my wrist so I couldn't write. That was surprising, she's normally pretty meek, especially in my presence. I figured if she was standing for it, I should probably at least see what they wanted to do.
"Fine." I rolled my eyes and got up, being squeezed by my new family. I went to go change, and came back out to see everyone else had changed as well. Fubuki was wearing her blue, dotted dress and white vest. Kongou had some jeans and a white button-up shirt. Aoba was wearing what she usually does, just a color change, black shorts and shirt instead of purple and blue. Kuma, Hagikaze and Kiso decided to work on stuff back at HQ, even though they're primarily the reasons I'm out. Regardless, I was ready for whatever was coming, I hope. We walked to the airport so we could fly to our supply area, it was a personal order, so we had to pick it up ourselves. The plane ride was pleasant, Kongou fell asleep while squeezing my head, so I had a nice shoulder pillow. When I awakened, we were landing. Kongou was hyped to be able to move again, seeing her smile always made me happy. When the pilot said we could leave, she jumped out of her seat and pushed everyone out of the way. I shook Fubuki awake, and she snorted, making me laugh. She and Aoba followed me out, Aoba grabbing my hand when we got down. Most of the initial squad was here, including Cody and someone who looked to be his father.
"It's that guy." Fubuki grunted, her face contorting into a scowl. Her grip on my arm got tighter, like she was gonna take my arm off and beat him with it. I told her it would be fine, he wasn't more than dirt on our boots. I went into the pick-up zone, and when they followed I audibly sighed. The man with Cody came over and put a hand on my shoulder, spinning me getting in my face.
"Is that sigh directed at-" He began, but I cut him off, putting my hand on his face.
"Yes. it was." I laughed, pushing him back. Kongou stepped up, but I put my hand in front of her. "No, you'll be dismantled if you attack a human." Remembering that pissed me off, they're not treated very well by citizens due to being viewed as weapons, so that's just obnoxious that they can't defend themselves. Then this grown man grabs me by the collar, and threatening me with his fist.
"What is the meaning of this?" I heard a familiar voice, and saw a familiar figure tower over our aggressors. It was Niho, with Kairos on his shoulder. I felt a nudge against my arm when Cody and his father turned around, it was Inazuma. She hid behind me, and I got a good view of her bruises, I wanted to take my machete out and give the two in front of me a few, but I couldn't confirm that they were the source. Before the situation could escalate, we were all told to calm down by the Akashi of this sector. I still wasn't used to there being multiple of the same person, but I'll be over it eventually, hopefully. We picked up our special order, a few more repair buckets, and a device to scan Abyssal parts. Inazuma was still holding onto my jacket, so I sent my girls to deliver the stuff while I talked to and Kairos walked out at the same time as my squad, so it was just me, Inazuma, some citizens, with Cody and his father lurking around somewhere.
"What's up, kid?" I smiled, sitting down by the freezers, since we walked to the frozen food section of the area.
"I-I don't wanna stay with them anymore." She choked back her tears, so I tried my best to remain calm as well. I didn't know what to do at all; I ended up hugging her into my jacket and patting her back. "They-"
"What're you doing with my property, hippie?" I felt a tug of my long hair, and then I saw Cody's dad, Thomas. I stood up with Inazuma in my arms and gave him a scowl. I couldn't hit back because I was holding precious cargo, but when he tried to grab me again I slammed my helmeted head against his not helmeted head and I won the exchange. He was only stunned for a bit, though, I didn't do it very hard. I felt Inazuma shake so I didn't want to scare her anymore. We went outside, and I saw Cody getting in Fubuki's way.
"Sir, please move, this is really heavy." When she would try to side-step him, he would just get in her way. I saw Kongou fuming, but she took my orders well, and didn't even raise a hand. I set Inazuma down and ran over, I felt something when I saw the distress in my friend's movements, something that was inhuman in nature. It was black for a moment, but when I came to, Inazuma was hiding behind Niho's shin, terrified of me, now, and the clump of hair in my hand. Cody was on the ground, so I assumed I beat the shit out of him. I was right, some important people were here and were questioning everyone. When they got to me, they looked annoyed.
"Sir, are you aware you're guilty of two accounts of assaulting an officer?" They were clearly misinformed, but I still snarled. They didn't like that very much, and tried to continue talking, but I interrupted them.
"Self defense, you assholes." My tone was unprofessional and disrespectful, but so was this whole situation. "Go in there and ask them for the security footage, or just ask anyone that was there." There was only a slight growl in my voice, so they didn't have any reason to back off.
"Okay… Of course." They walked into the store after telling us all to wait, and when they came back, they told me I wasn't guilty of anything. Watching Inazuma go with them made my blood boil. It even moved Niho, I saw his teeth grit before coming over to me.
"You've done a good thing." He smiled at me, his kind face made me forget my anger for a moment. "You're brave, and foolish, but the brave part is what counts." I couldn't deny what I did was stupid, but it worked, so I don't care. "I think your friend is a bit shaken up, though, you should go to her." He nudged me, and I turned red. After that, he laughed and walked off.
"Fubuki..." I walked over, and she latched onto me with a lot of force. I managed to not fall over, and secured my arms around her small body. I rubbed her back and let her rest her head on my shoulder. "It's okay." My finger moved her chin up so she was looking at me; I gave her my best smile, and she gave me hers. When I looked away from her, Kongou's jaw was dropped.
"Did you see how hard you punched him?!" She was losing it, I could practically see the hype coming from her as she made various gestures to indicate her excitement. "That was awesome!" I was picked up by the british tank of a girl, and held to the sky. It felt weird, but cool at the same time. She put me down and went back to dancing. I had to check on Aoba next, of course. She was nervously shuffling and fiddling in place.
"Hey, Aoba?" I walked over, moving in front of her. "You good?" Trying to be quiet, she looked jumpy.
"I don't like the way that old guy was looking at me." She admitted, shuffling around some more. I was disgusted, naturally, but I held my facial expression back to comfort her.
"I didn't him in general." I snickered, hand on my machete.
"Yeah..." She laughed a bit, too, looking at me, and her eyes lighting up a bit more.
"But, you're mine, so nobody else gets any." That got her, she came over and hugged me, pushing her face into my chest. It was exploiting her to an extent, but it wasn't hurting right now.
"Thanks for protecting us." She smiled, taking my hands from my machete and holding them as she pulled away from me. "Let's go home, yeah?" I obliged, and we got back on the plane. There would be no trial, and I was fine with that. I'll just thrash them harder next time they try something. On the way back, Kongou's arms were around me more than usual. Maybe she could tell I was upset, but I couldn't read her at all, so I couldn't tell. She had her usual happy expression, but she was holding me while I rested. That situation put me on the verge of an anger attack, but her weird plane side-hug made me feel better. When we got home, everyone went to sleep, except me and her. We stayed up in the breakroom watching scary movies. I jumped a bit more than I'd like to be known, but she didn't tease me, outwardly at least. She fell asleep midway through the third movie, so I carried her to bed. After the slow journey, and my arms hurting about as much as Fubuki's, I got into bed as well.
