A couple of days had passed since the encounter near Midway. The large mechanical leviathan and its smaller drones had been recovered with High Command concluding it was Ironblood tech but more advanced. Upon having the faction look at this, not even Genisseneu knew how to make something that large without the constraint of resources. So, the official declaration was a Siren superweapon but everyone knew that was a lie. That had to come from the alternate timeline which only meant the Sirens were distorting reality for their own fun or someone was bringing them to this timeline. The scientific theories went back and forth with evidence and counterevidence firing full broadsides to make a point.
Not like any of that mattered, only taking out the Sirens permanently was the goal. In good news, the recovered corpses did provide some beneficial armor plating and High Command began to have the R&D begin an experimental laser. Except, the benefits only seemed to have gone purely to the Admiral.
Ever since he had woken from that odd dream of his, Vestal noted he had recovered fully in the morning. It confused the repair ship since second-degree burns should have taken much longer to heal but she just waved it off as mistaking the injuries. From the first day out of the hospital, the officer noted that he felt strangely full of energy and lacking any tiredness. Naturally, he assumed it was the IV bags providing the nutrients to his body instantly that allowed for it but it kept on to the next day. Then there was the time he went to the gym and doubled his bench press weight that disturbed Cesare. Shikikan then went on a jog and was able to keep a steady pace all the way around the island and still have the energy to spare.
Now, he was currently brushing his teeth, looking at the mirror so he could get a rough look at where he was brushing. Then, something seemed off within the glass that bore his reflection. The reflected image having one of its eyes turn red instead of the chocolate brown they normally were. A couple of blinks did not remove the sudden change in color but after he washed his face, the crimson disappeared. Maybe that recent trip still left some mind-altering effects from the medication. Either way, the Admiral shrugged it off and prepared himself for a day that he was looking forward to.
Training day with a finalized version of the armor. Full weapon systems and improved defensive systems that should keep him safe from now on. Shikikan had spent the whole of yesterday to set up today's training for himself. Sure, he had many times of practicing with a sword during his time with the Sakura, but that wasn't his form of combat. Now, he had plenty of basic training in his first days of joining the military along with a few special runs from special forces but those courses taught him nothing for shipgirl vs shipgirl combat. That, he would need to experience for himself and observing the girls; the latter he had plenty of.
"Yo, Admiral, you ready yet?" Hornet's voice called from outside his room
The door opened with the man looking out to find Hornet resting against the adjacent wall with her hat tipped downward. She turned in his direction with her signature smile before pushing herself off the wall.
"There you are," the carrier said with her hands on her hips, "I was beginning to think you would back down from facing my airstrikes."
"If I were to back down, it would be from Enterprise's aircraft. Don't go easy on me now," the officer retorted in a joking manner
"Please, I don't go easy like some of the Sakura. I'll give you a run for your money,"
"Is that a challenge, Hornet?"
The upbeat blond's smile only grew, "You know it, Admiral. So, how did that date with Baltimore go?"
Good thing she had changed the subject because for as much as Hornet was not as strong as her famous sister, that did not mean she was weak. She was strong in her own way with sometimes being able to outperform her sisters. Her specialized Doolittle bombers came in handy for long-range bombing before the main bombing squadrons were deployed. That and she was probably the most agile out of her three sisters, able to avoid multiple airstrikes at once.
"It was good, but she looked like a nervous wreck through it," the officer admitted, "But once we got into an intense game of laser tag, she relaxed quickly."
Hornet chuckled at the image of the confident heavy cruiser being a blushing mess, "Yeah, that's Balti for you. She knows exactly what to do on a battlefield but has no idea how to go on a date. She even asked me how she should dress."
The duo was now on their way to Akashi's lab, the sun being quite warm today and beginning to melt the surrounding snow. Anything less than several inches thick had turned into puddles of water that quickly evaporated. A nice change of pace considering everyone had to wear winter clothing or were stuck indoors, especially in Hornet's case. The beach was now available to enjoy without the problem of snow or freezing temperatures.
"Hey, so, about Ash…" Hornet began with a frown this time, "I know what she did in the past can't exactly be redeemed considering she worked for the Sirens but I can understand her pain."
"She is Enterprise, just from another timeline where everyone else died," Shikikan said, agreeing with Hornet's sentiment, "Why did you bring it up?"
"Because my sister almost went down that path once,"
"I know, I read the report about it. An incident with a Black Mental Cube. All the more reason to be on our guard and support each other lest we fall to the Siren's plans."
The duo arrived at the lab with Hipper looking pretty proud of herself until Eugen made some sort of comment that got the older sister angry. The armor had a few differences from the last time the Admiral wore it, the first being the fact that there were some cruiser guns attached just over the shoulders. The fact that the armor was not a ship made it difficult to add any other guns so that's why the placement was near the shoulders. Hopefully, Hipper installed some sound dampeners or the officer would go deaf within a few exercises.
There was one problem, the lack of AA cannons or some form of weaponry against aircraft, "Hey Hipper, how am I going to take on aircraft if I can't shoot them?"
Hipper, after scolding Eugen for the hundredth time, answered, "Hah? Who said you needed flak guns? This is an entire armor system, not rigging."
"What she means to say, Ehemann, is that you cannot wield both main guns and flak. Sacrifices had to be made," Eugen emphasized since the armor lacked any proper way to use rigging
"Well….Fuck," Shikikan grumbled with Hornet having a shit-eating grin
"What's wrong, Admiral? Saddened you won't have a way to take on my airstrikes? Looks like I'm getting free food for a week."
"Hold your tongue, Fraulein Hornet, Herr Admiral will have other things to take on those pesky aircraft. Don't get cocky now," Hipper countered
Without a pause, Eugen spoke, "Speaking from experience, Schwester?"
Hipper began fuming immediately which only amused the group. Before Shikikan could even react, Eugen decided to turn his way and strutted towards him without shame. Sure, she was officially his spouse but it was no less both embarrassing and sexy. The heavy cruiser then put her hands on his shoulders before crashing her lips into his in a surprise kiss. The man blushed intensely when he found Eugen's tongue into his mouth quite forcefully, putting the kiss into something more sensual. Then, she backed away with a cheeky smile on her lips, slowly licking them like she just tasted candy.
"Good luck~,"
Besides the fuming Hipper and the grinning Hornet, the Admiral could only just stare at the woman he was married to for a few moments. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he made his way towards the armor, opening it up before hopping inside. The plates locked back up with the HUD displaying the startup before making calibrations to its new systems. This would be his first time against an actual shipgirl, not a giant mechanical monster that almost killed him.
"Hipper, Eugen, anything I should know about the changes?" the officer asked with the weight of the cruiser guns being evident on his shoulders, the armor began displacing the weight so it wouldn't hinder him
Hipper was about to speak, but Eugen beat her to the punch, "Our flat sister has improved the defensive abilities of your armor and should be much easier to use. I made modifications so it wouldn't be mentally taxing."
"Good, he's going to need it," Hornet declared with a look that actually shook the officer
Yeah, he definitely needed it. Currently, the man was under a protective dome as wave after wave of bombers and fighters attempted to take him out. No flak guns Hipper told him, couldn't fit them on the armor she said; maybe she could have put some low caliber guns instead! Cruiser guns were basically useless and with how Hornet was using her aircraft, he couldn't aim upwards without risking being bombed. It was only by a protocol that exercises were done with dummy rounds or smaller explosive yields.
"You can't hide under that shield forever!" Hornet's voice called out from a distance
Shikikan growled with how hypocritical that statement was, "Says the one launching aircraft from a distance!"
To be fair, Hornet lacked any proper guns to fight off other ships besides her aircraft. So realistically, she was defenseless once he got close enough. Another wave of bombs hit the dome, the planes turning around to get a resupply. Seeing a narrow gap of opportunity, the officer took his chance. Dropping the shield, he sped towards the aircraft carrier as fast as he could with his HUD displaying a reticle for where his shoulder-mounted cruiser guns would be aiming. Once he got a solid aim, he fired several dummy HE rounds which were easily dodged by Hornet's agility.
Looking from the docks, Queen Elizabeth observed the two going through a training exercise. From what she heard from Neptune, the officer had gotten wounded two days ago yet he looked perfectly fine. Naturally, the Queen wanted to send her subordinates to hunt down the one who hurt their Admiral but she relented at the insistence of Belfast. Next to the leader, Sheffield and Gloucester stood patiently awaiting her command.
"Hm, Sheffield, what is your assessment of our fair officer?"
Sheffield rose her head slightly to speak, "A valuable asset with his current abilities but his combat experience is lacking, your majesty."
"Gloucester?" Elizabeth turned towards the taller maid with short violet hair
"This is a training exercise, your grace. He is facing one of the Eagle Union's strongest carriers but I cannot say if he could take on Sirens on his own if the day arises."
Elizabeth pondered a thought for a moment, "Then I decree both of you will assist in the Admiral's training. No doubt the Sakura would send some of their best as well, so we'll beat them to it."
"As you wish, your majesty," both maids bowed although Sheffield had her brows furrowed slightly
Shikikan grunted as a bomb narrowly missed him and exploded a few feet away. He couldn't just use the shield over and over again whenever Hornet launched her fighters or her bombers. The suit had a limited charge on those shields so that forced the man to use them sparingly. For now, he used his thrusters to bob and weave through wave after wave of unrelenting aircraft. Hornet hardly had to move besides the few attempts he took some shots on her.
"You're not doing half bad," Hornet commented, removing her hat to wipe away the sweat that began to form thanks to the heat
The Admiral spun out of the way of a fighter making a run for him before grumbling, "Easy for you to say!"
Hornet chuckled with her arms crossed, relenting her strikes for a moment, "You think this is bad? Imagine if Akagi or the other Sakura carrier divisions tried to train you, you'd be bombed until hell broke loose."
The man had to admit, Hornet had a massive point about that. Although, Akagi and Shoukaku would no doubt relent on their airstrikes due to their love for him. It was Kaga and Zuikaku that he was worried about. Souryu and Hiryu were also scary since they would give it their all so that was more trouble than what it was worth. Hornet basically saved him from the ever terrifying Sakura airstrikes that were only bested when the Yorktown sisters decided to combine their own power. Speaking of which, he didn't want to imagine what would happen if he faced Enterprise or Yorktown in a duel.
"Ok, you're right," he admitted, taking a moment to inspect the new features of his armor
He noticed a symbol that represented a breastplate repelling a shell which got him curious. Shikikan didn't exactly know how to activate the ability so he began to think about it. Did the armor react and deployed its abilities or did he have to will it? He focused his thoughts going towards this training session only, with no thoughts about the war or anything. He was rewarded when his armor began to light up momentarily and his helmet began displaying a change.
Kinetic plating activated…
Hornet noticed the slight change, her brows furrowed before her rigging began firing off another squadron of Doolittle bombers. Their bombs dropped on top of the man but to his surprise, their explosions and shrapnel hardly did anything. It was like a layer of protection against all forms of harm or some form of damage protection. A fighter made a run for him, firing all machine guns, but every bullet just bounced off and did not leave a scratch on the armor. The man grinned from under the helmet and began rushing Hornet who stared in disbelief.
The cruiser guns fired a salvo at her where she side-stepped every shell. Now the game was fair, with the Admiral now firing salvo after salvo towards Hornet while either dodging the bombing or pushing right through it. Even with Hornet's advantage neutralized, he couldn't land a round on her. It looked like they were making circles around each other, dodging or firing. It was when Shikikan was beginning to get frustrated that suddenly, the defensive ability suddenly turned off just as one of the Doolittle squadrons began dropping their payload.
"Son of a bit-" the man muttered before the whole area was alit with explosives
Hornet called off her aircraft as the dust settled, "You okay, Admiral? Not so tough when those abilities shut off at the worst moment."
"Shut up, Hornet," the Admiral grumbled as his armor was barely scratched but that didn't mean the explosions didn't hurt
Hornet only responded with a shit-eating grin since it was obvious that she had won their little 'wager' of a training session. Although, he had to admit that he didn't do half bad in avoiding her aircraft considering he had no flak cannons or machine guns of any sort. The officer took his helmet off to reveal his face full of soot from the explosives but he was relatively unharmed. Yet, he wasn't exactly happy about the results.
"Don't give me that look, Admiral, I won fair and square,"
Shikikan would have replied if he hadn't heard the sound of battleship guns going off in the distance. His head turned towards the sound to find Cesare having a long-range duel with Colorado. Both with a reputation to uphold, one having dueled the mighty Warspite and the other being one of the most powerful battleships from the Eagle Union. This would be a fight that many would be eager to watch but there were more important tasks at hand.
Hornet then spoke, "Well, let's go through this one more time before you have accuracy practice."
This was going to be a long day...
After a couple more hours of dodging bombs and failing to land a single hit on Hornet, the Admiral was now resting on the docks with a towel to wipe away the soot and sweat. Hornet had already left to get some grub at the canteen but she expected him to make her dinner tonight. Now the question was who was managing his accuracy practice if Hornet helped him deal with aircraft evasion? Maybe Warspite considering her insane accuracy for a ship originating from the first great war. Mikasa was also good with her own shots, or maybe one of the Ironblood battleships like Scharnhorst.
What he wasn't expecting was two maids from the Royal Navy to make their way towards him. He already recognized one of them being Scheffield but the other one was a bit anonymous considering there were so many maids. Didn't they makeup half of the Royal Navy or close to two-thirds? Either way, the other maid was taller than Sheffield by a few more inches, relatively wore a modest maid outfit and had some full plate gauntlets. Her short purple hair slightly obscured her left eye although it was most visible through the strands.
"I'm assuming that I'm under your care?" the Admiral asked, putting the helmet back on
Sheffield was the first to speak, "By Her Majesty's orders, we will be overseeing your training."
The man turned towards the other maid, "And you might be?"
The maid gave a curtsey before answering, "Gloucester, master. I have massive experience in combat situations although my demise was due to a lack of ammunition, therefore, I will instruct you on efficiency."
If the Royal maids were getting involved for the training session, then that meant Queen Elizabeth had a hand in all this. Sure, he was open to taking advice from others and training under their own expertise but the officer was beginning to feel that it had turned into a race again. At least the loli leader had chosen two serious maids instead of some others; nothing against their personality but war was a life or death situation. Two days ago reminded the man how fragile he was, even with the armor saving his life.
"Let's begin then," he said firmly, eager to move on with the day and learn how to properly fight
Besides, he was armed with cruiser guns so it made sense to have light cruiser shipgirls teach him their fighting techniques. Although, his guns were on the shoulders and not on some rigging so that might make it a bit difficult. Only time will tell.
Enterprise had been searching for her counterpart all morning but no trace of Ash was found since two nights ago. All the carrier tried to do was be a decent person to her broken self but was rejected as if reopening a scar. Although she had no feelings for the Admiral, in a way, she could understand Ash's pain of losing the one she loved most. The last link to a happy self when the rest of the world crumbled around her being snapped one day. To go through that must have been a traumatic experience that no one could try to forget.
But that didn't mean Enterprise was going to let Ash wallow in that pain. If she was going to help the rest of the fleet, her act had to improve. Raw strength isn't going to save them from the Sirens when they had offered extreme power to many of the shipgirls hear. The raw power that came at a price that involved spending the early years in the warfighting themselves rather than the true threat. Since then, and with the efforts of the Admiral, most of the shipgirls had discovered their own strength without the Sirens (save for the Ironblood).
"Where would I go if I wanted to sulk in my misery?" Enterprise thought to herself, thinking of a few places she would want to go if she didn't want to be with others
Her first destination took her back towards the Eagle Union dorms where most of her faction had errands to run or were goofing around somewhere. Passing by many of the rooms, she made her way towards the back of the building where they had a miniature museum dedicated to some early victories and honors for the war effort. The small 'museum' was no more than a single room with multiple plaques placed all around the walls, small displays of ships from various classes, and laminated pictures from different points in time. Some of those pictures being group photos of the Admiral during his early career with his fleet that once started as no more than six ships up to fifty shipgirls. Future photos were kept in a record book back at his office.
"You couldn't leave me alone could you?" Ash's voice got her counterpart's attention, the darker version looking at the photos of the Admiral and his shipgirls
Enterprise tuned her tone to one of sympathy, "I just want to talk."
"I don't want to talk."
"Holding the pain in won't make it go away."
"Scars don't heal," Ash stated bluntly
Enterprise frowned, a bit annoyed how hard her counterpart was making this, "They do heal. They don't go away but they do heal if you let them."
Ash turned her head towards her brighter counterpart, her dull violet eyes clashing with Enterprise's lighter ones, "What do you want? You don't just want to talk."
"You're right, I'm trying to help you get over your pain. Being alone is the last thing you should be doing right now," Enterprise answered
"I'm not exactly on good terms with the others. Some of them seem eager to shoot me if anything goes wrong."
"We all felt that way around each other at one point. Just prove them wrong and if you are helping us, that does require you to work with the others. Do it, for your Commander's sake."
Ash's eyes narrowed before she approached her counterpart, grabbing Enterprise by the black tie and tugging her to where their eyes were inches apart, "Don't act like you know my Co-"
Despite how much venom Ash was putting in her words, Enterprise remained calm, "If you don't change for the better, he sacrificed himself for nothing."
Whether it was her intention or not, Enterprise had metaphorically pierced through her counterpart's exterior for just a moment. The darker mirror's eyes reduced to pinpricks and began to tremble for just a moment. Sadly, the tough exterior returned as Ash let go of Enterprise and attempted to leave with haste. The Union carrier grabbed the mirror by the shoulder which was met with Ash activating her rigging and aiming an arrow right between Enterprise's eyes.
"Don't…" the mirror's aim began to shake as she tried to fight her inner emotions surfacing, "...why am I feeling this?"
The bow lowered with the arrow disappearing along with the rest of the rigging, "There's a piece of you still left, a good piece. Think on it."
Ash lowered her head, looking towards the floor with her counterpart's words playing in her mind. More questions came up rather than answers but...it was a start. Neither said a word as Ash walked away to comprehend Enterprise's words.
Bang!Bang!
Two rounds slammed into the side armor of Gloucester's rigging, the dummy rounds hardly doing any damage. Strange of the Royal maid to offer herself as a target for more 'realistic' measures instead of a static one. Sheffield was giving the Admiral advice as he continued to practice his aim with the new guns on his shoulder. Although...her advice often turned to small insults on how bad he was using weapons.
"Too far to the left...you're aiming at the same spot again...lead your shots...lumbering buffoon,"
Sometimes the man just wanted to ask why Sheffield had to be so damn rude every once in a while. A subtle sort of rudeness that she always followed up with her usual demeanor of a maid. Maybe Elizabeth was getting a laugh out of her experienced maid making the officer's time horrible or something. It wasn't helping him get better at his aim exactly, although the more he fired and got used to his visor's targeting system, the more he began leading his shots more accurately.
One of his rounds hit dead center. Dead center meaning that Gloucester had to use the armored gauntlets to block the incoming rounds like Belfast.
"That time was good, Master," Gloucester commented, a much-needed complement compared to Sheffield's manner
"Thank you, Gloucester," He didn't notice Sheffield's obscured eye twitched as he said this
Oh, how Sheffield was getting a bit annoyed herself. She was just doing her duty in making the Admirable a better fighter but he clearly was showing favoritism towards the other maids. To be frank, Sheffield was beginning to think that the other maids were spoiling the man on purpose to get closer. If it weren't for her, Akagi would have snuck in so many times while he was sleeping. None of the other maids tried to stop her and that involved the light cruiser to pull out her pistols and blast the fox away. That was worth something right?
At least Gloucester suggested something worthwhile, "Master, I do believe we should have a combat scenario. While I am experienced, I am in no means as good compared to Sheffield."
Shikikan looked towards Sheffield with some hesitation. Sheffield was one of the best light cruisers in the fleet for her martial arts and her sheer tenacity in a fight. Cloak and dagger operations were headed and done by her. Her skill was so great that she could go toe to toe to someone like Takao in single combat, a woman who wielded a melee weapon and had stronger armor. Do not let her slightly smaller size make you think she was less threatening.
"Let's carry on, Master. I have forbidden any from entering the docks until training has concluded," Sheffield stated, summoning her pistols and aiming them at the armored man
This took him off guard, "W-wait! On the dock?!"
Like clockwork, Sheffield had an answer, "Not all operations will be at sea, you should know this. Sometimes combat is done on land."
Shikikan had a moment to jump out of the way before the smaller maid began firing her pistols in rapid-fire succession. Good thing the dock was filled with crates and multiple boxes as suitable cover. If this was going to be like this, fine, have it her way. The armored opened up near his hip so he could grab his revolver. He took a quick peek only to duck back down as Sheffield almost shot him right in the helmet.
She was using low caliber guns...right?
Seeing some cover to his left, he ran towards it while taking some potshots at the light cruiser. Naturally, his rounds missed since he wasn't focused on accuracy and simply trying to not get hit. A sudden idea came to him while he ducked behind a crate, using his shoulder-mounted guns to fire in her direction while he was safely behind cover. Looking over while his guns suppressed his opponent, he noticed she had taken cover near an opposing box.
Then, he had a sudden sense of danger flood over him. He quickly looked behind him just to narrowly dodge a punch from Gloucester. So now he was being double-teamed?! He thought Gloucester was going to let Sheffield handle this but apparently that thought was very wrong. The Admiral either dodged or blocked the purple-haired maids strikes while trying to avoid Sheffield shots. What he didn't realize was how surprisingly he was able to keep up with the two girls considering he was just a human.
His armor then summoned a shield no larger than his arm to protect against the onslaught of bullets so he could focus on Gloucester's melee attacks. She attempted to pull a roundhouse on him when he was distracted momentarily with Sheffield, but he caught her action from the edge of his vision. He caught her leg but that was the worst mistake he could have made because she simply spun to smack him in the face with her other leg. The impact of her shoe against his helmet was surprising, no man would ever believe how hard those shoes were if they could hit an armored helmet without even breaking the heel.
The officer backed up momentarily, deploying his dome shield to force the maids into melee combat. Sheffield was eager to do so as she jumped inside the shield and engaged the man in hand to hand combat with her pistols wielded. Thankfully time with his brothers allowed Shikikan to learn some good disarmament moves as he smacked one of Sheffield's pistols during one of her attempts to shoot him at point-blank. To be honest, this looked like some Hollywood action sequence with how he was fighting two opponents and faring decently; the only difference being that this was real and they weren't trying to kill him.
Sheffield went for a roundhouse kick, taking a small jump as she went for it. No doubt the first spin was feint maneuver before the real kick came in. However, Shikikan was not expecting for Sheffield to high up and for his vision to go under her skirt enough to notice one important thing. Was ...was Sheffield not wearing any panties? Not that this was the first time the Admiral was seeing the plain sight of a woman's p-
The real kick came in and slammed his face into the ground while the man was distracted with what he just witnessed. Reality was a very cruel mistress if one was to get careless or not pay attention to what was in front of them. He felt his ears ring as the sound of clanking metal was sharp along with the impact stunning him. The man grunted as he slowly pushed himself back up shakily.
"Not bad, Master," Sheffield murmured, retrieving her fallen pistol
"Indeed, you're combat ability was surprising considering most regular humans wouldn't have the reaction time like you did unless they were seasoned veterans. I don't think you are, Master," Gloucester added analyzing the fight
Shikikan took a few moments to get used to the pain, his head still spinning a bit, "No, I don't do ground combat. I only had hand to hand experience during free time before I was assigned here. I have fought Takao in practice duels but she was going easy on me."
"Very well, let's return back to accuracy practice."
It was late afternoon by the time the officer got any respite from all the training he had since the morning, his head was killing him and his body demanded he went home for the rest of the night. Before he could do that, he decided to drop by Vestal's for some pain relievers and for a quick check-up to see if there was anything different about him. Before he had the armor on today, he had performed incredible feats that he shouldn't be able to do for a normal human. Something happened to him since then.
Vestal had taken a small amount of blood by pricking one of his fingers and scraping some onto a petri dish, "You said that you were able to bench press twice your maximum the other day? Very strange."
"All that and some massive stamina boost where I ran the entirety of the naval base without feeling exhausted. There was no way I could do that before, but the dream…" Shikikan muttered, putting a bandage over his slightly damaged finger
"A dream?" Vestal questioned as she put the dish under a scale to look at the blood closely
"Yeah, I was in front of the corpse of that thing two days ago and it had some massive crimson wisdom cube. We blew it up to kill it but in my dream, the shards gathered together again and I felt quite a bit of power. Something made me want to touch it and I did...the last thing I remember was how painful that energy was when it entered me."
"Energy entered you? That is concerning."
After a few moments, Vestal turned around to face the man, "Your blood cells have been altered somehow. Not in size but they are slightly different. I will have to perform some scans and further tests to see what else has changed you. No doubt your muscles have been altered if you were able to lift significantly more weight. Anything else?"
"No, I'm good. I'll come back tomorrow," the Admiral shook his head, getting up from the medical bed to leave
Vestal waved him goodbye as the man left the clinic and made his way towards his home. He was starving and Hornet would be expecting some food from him. Thoughts debated on what he should make since he had plenty of options. Part of him was craving some Italian food or a steak dinner. To be honest, his Italian cuisine was nowhere as good compared to that of the Sardegna Empire, they made excellent food. He was still wondering what Littorio had planned.
His little trek back home took him no longer than a half hour as he pulled out his keys to unlock the door. As he turned them, he rose a brow to note the door had already been unlocked; did he forget to lock it? Entering his little home, the man gave a sigh of relief as he went towards the couch and splayed himself all over it. The comfy material embracing the man instantly to relieve him of his exhaustion.
His ears picked up the sound of someone approaching him before he felt someone's hands on his shoulders. A wave of relief and bliss fell over him as his muscles screamed with happiness. The officer wanted to look at who was doing him such a favor but he was just too tired right now to care.
"Hm~, I see that the Royal Maids have given you a rough time," a familiar voice whispered in his ears, a voice that sent shivers down his spine all the time
"You can say that, surely gave me a headache. Did I get any mail, Prinz?" the man asked, the question answered in how his house was unlocked since very few had the key and the voice had to be the heavy cruiser
"Ja, change in protocols," Prinz answered back as she moved her hands down to his back to massage him back to good health, "Looks like your superiors are more willing to let you indulge yourself."
The Admiral opened his eyes to look back at his first wife with a doubtful look but he was greeted with the letter she spoke of. Taking a quick glance and scanning the details, she was right. Since the situation was now humanity against the Sirens instead of Human vs Human vs Siren, some measures were relaxed. One of the main ones being that Shikikan was allowed to do as he pleased with his shipgirls when it came to lovemaking. Another was equally as important, his name.
"Hm~, I like the sound of it, Gabriel~" Prinz giggled as she said his real name out loud in her usual manner
Years of not having his name spoken about made it special as the Ironblood uttered his name. Part of him wanted to criticize her for reading his mail without his permission but he couldn't bring himself to. She had the right to read his mail as much as she had the right to sleep in his home due to their marriage. But, now with the protocols changed, did that mean…
Eugen's smirk only grew as the realization began to dawn on the man, "You have no excuse now, Gabriel. After dinner, let's do what all married couples perform. It isn't fair that you let a little crane and that fox have their way with you~."
Never before had Admiral, now his name exposed, felt so cornered without a backup excuse to save him. Eugen was right to demand that of him if he let two Sakura women have their share of him even though they weren't married to him. At least she allowed him to get some rest and they would get to have dinner. Hopefully she didn't make Hornet uncomfortable considering the carrier was going to visit him soon for her reward.
"Eugen," he began, "We're having a guest in a little bit. So we're making enough for three."
"Ah~ I didn't think you wanted a threesome," Eugen replied back in her teasing manner that only made the man blush
She spared him further sensual teasing as she stopped her massage to go towards the kitchen. Her shoes making an audible clack against the wooden floor that slowly deafened the farther away she was. A few more moments and the officer rose to join her in cooking some dinner for tonight. More can be done with two people in the kitchen instead of one.
Tomorrow was going to be a can of worms being unleashed.
Phew! That was a long chapter in my standards although I did want to make it longer. We're getting there ladies and gentlemen. We're about halfway to two-thirds through the story so that means between 30-40 chapters overall. There is still plenty of material before the 'end' of this story. I was able to get all the event girls in this mini-event. Hopefully, you all were able to or didn't waste too many cubes.
Stay tuned for the next chapter.
