Thanks to Mile123457, Aelyx, and MarauderPrime12 for the follows/faves. Poke.

The Review Box:

Fid88: Thank you.

This is what happens when you give your intelligence agency effective training, and unlimited political power. (see: KGB)

I really wasn't sure how that moment would turn out, to be honest. I'm somewhat... emotionally detached (thanks to the Internet, I've become immune to what most would consider trauma).

There are thousands of ships. Most are destroyers. 'Twas inevitable, really. Though Tenryuu only has four to deal with.

Hence the joke in the last AN.

Let's see if I can wait two weeks this time.

The crimson trucker: Thank you!

And considering I have no fucking clue what Gundam Seed is, unfortunately not. And I'm not researching it, read the Ship List for why not.

MarauderPrime12: Uh, okay?...

*One clarification later...*Oh, yeah.

That's piss compared to alien blood. Can't get more hardcore than that.

You won't have to wait very long. And thank you.

'I hate it when I think something is wrong but it's something else entirely.'

'Notifications are loaded with dopamine; AKA why I'm checking my email every ten minutes.'

'These things are getting harder to write.'

Words to live by.

We now return to your regularly scheduled shipgirls.

Journal of Admiral Steele; January 7th, 2558

Today is Sunday. Know what that means?

Coffee. Sue me, caffeine is how I wake up.

I waited to get breakfast until I knew every shipgirl on base was in the mess hall (and I meant every- I had to badger Ooyodo to get her out from behind her desk) then stepped out from where I had been hiding, clinking a pilfered spoon against my mug. The room fell silent as everyone there turned their attention to me.

Brief panic… okay, mouth, don't fuck it up for the rest of me.

"Hey there. So, I suppose it'll be good for you all to know just what kind of Admiral I am. I dunno how your XOs were in your past lives, but I know how I am! I'm pretty freewheeling, so to speak, so so long as you aren't doing anything too destructive, illegal, or against rules and regulations, you're cool. I know what it's like being in the trenches, so to speak, so I understand what you do to unwind. Just keep it to yourself and at low enough volume. Walls aren't that thick." A short round of laughter at the comment, and a few shipgirls blushing. "Anyways, that's it. Call me Aqua, Steele, Admiral Steele, pretty much anything. You'll know if I veto your nickname. Carry on." A chorus of affirmations came my way as I tossed the spoon towards the dish pit, got my breakfast, and sat.

Things went more or less back to normal, the hum of conversation filling the mess again, until I felt something squish against my side.

I glanced down to see the Abyssal light cruiser looking up at me like a puppy. Okaaaay…

"Hey there." I said, raising a hand and an eyebrow. She flinched back, but stayed when I put my hand on her head. Whoa, her hair is really soft.

Absently, I started to scritch, like one would do for a dog or a cat. In the meantime I went back to my food. I went on autopilot until I felt her pressing into me again, harder this time. Sure enough, she was nuzzling into my hand. I was sure if she had a tail it'd be wagging a mile a minute.

Next thing I know, I'm tackled from behind, my face is on the table, and I feel… well, I don't feel my nose. Oh, wait, now I do. SON OF A-

"OW!" I shouted into the table, attempting to move my hands to my nose, except there was a real heavy weight on my back.

"Oh! Admiral, are you alright?" A new voice worriedly asked.

"NO! NOW GET OFF ME DAMMIT!" I may have been a little bit louder than I needed to be, but fucking hell, I get angry when I'm injured. And a broken nose pissed me the fuck off. A yipe accompanied the weight leaving my spine, and I quickly stood up, holding a hand to my nose and booked it to the medical area.

I have had a revelation… we don't have a medic. I am the only person here, and I am not medically trained. Who staffed this place?!

"OOYODO!" I bellowed. The secretary ship appeared soon after, saluting shakily. "Send command a request for either a medic or an AI trained for this shit, and ask them what the hell they were thinking for not having a medic for the one human on this godforsaken station." I grit out. She nodded, turned, and ran off.

Incompetent bureaucrats, swear to shit.

About ten minutes later, I had gone back to my office with tape and just put my nose back together, field-style, and taped an ice pack to it, when I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in." A sheepish destroyer came in, pushing her index fingers together. Another, looking rather irritated with the one in front of her, followed, along with a third that looked apathetic. "Can I help you?" I asked, with a slight edge to my tone from the broken nose.

"I'm sorry, Admiral." The one in front mumbled. I raised an eyebrow.

"What was that?" She was tearing up. Oh… shit.

"I'm sorry!" She squeaked. I sighed, walking around the desk to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Look, I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I get angry when I'm injured. It's just how I work." I said. She was looking into my eyes, her own watering, but thankfully not spilling over. "Just don't do that again, alright?"

"O-okay." She sniffled. Now that the imminent crisis was over, I could get a better look at them. And what a mix they were. The one that had tackled me into a table was short, blonde, and rather… top-heavy, the annoyed one was taller, brunette, and slim, and the apathetic one was small with blue hair, though a brighter blue than mine. Then… when did that fourth one get in here? She's barely wearing anything!

For the…. Fuck it, I've lost count of how many times I've questioned everything. I may actually have snapped, and this is just a delusion. I'm actually in a padded cell, wrapped in a straitjacket, mumbling to myself about human ships.

"You four new?" I asked. Tall and angry nodded and stepped forward, slightly less angry now.

"Yes, ma'am. Yuudachi, Kashima, Shigure, and Katsuragi, reporting for duty." She snapped a salute, one barely copied by Apathy, more copied by Sad and Vaporwear. I presume Sad was Yuudachi, Angry was Kashima, Apathy was Shigure, and that left Katsuragi by process of elimination wearing jack.

"Great. Anyone else with you?" I asked, resting my head on my hand, suddenly really tired. Blood loss, probably. I needed to eat again. Joy…

"Yeah. Five Ashfords and the two Fusous." Okay, five frigates and two battleships. "They also took the Abyssals you guys captured. You should get a message about that soon."

"Awesome. Now can you let me try to heal in peace, please?" I sighed. Kashima nodded, and the four left. I sighed.

Today has been a goddamn day I swear. I went back to my quarters and flopped onto my bed, taking care not to land on my nose, and just lay there for a while.

At least tomorrow would have some progress made.

Now then, food...

The Rant

*rolls sanity check*.

... is an 18 'sane' or 'off the deep end'?

Be careful, kids, jealousy leads shipgirls to accidentally break their Admiral's noses. Also, who doesn't staff a medic? Even if the Admiral's the only other normal person on the station otherwise, it's still fucking stupid.

Well, they'll probably just delegate it to some company that they paid the lowest amount to and call it a day.

So, do let me know if I'm terribly butchering personalities/horribly misnaming shipgirls/ doing anything wrong, because I've fallen out of KanColle recently (Stardew Valley/finally getting my computer set up) and I need to acclimatize. Hence the shortness of this chapter. At least this is biweekly now.

Publish Note: So I've recently been debating joining SpaceBattles. For those who don't know, SpaceBattles is a forum for just about everything, only insted of having the garbage of the internet (4chan), it has sociopaths discussing nuclear decay and if the A-10 'Warthog' is obsolete (which it is not, that fucker will never die!). I fit in disturbingly well with that crowd, and I imagine they'd get somewhat of a kick out of this (assuming I don't get barraged by 'purists' or something.)

Hell if I know, the AO3 thing hasn't really panned out. Maybe God is trying to tell me something.

Nah.