Eyes were blurry enough to feel as if dirt was stuck on them.
Limbs were so heavy that it'd be almost unthinkable for someone to move them.
Consciousness, mental activity, thoughts, or however one would like to dub it, were so foggy and groggy that it felt as if it were being assaulted by forces beyond comprehension, trying to put it back to sleep.
The force of the human need to sleep isn't anything as incomprehensible as the inner machinations of its mind though.
For the commander, also known as Shikikan, this was just how most days started.
Wake up at 5:30am everyday.
This was an absolute requirement. Set in stone.
It didn't matter that most ship girls themselves didn't get up until six, seven, eight, nine at the latest, or 5am at the earliest.
What mattered was the paper work that all military officials were subjected to without exception.
(Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction.)
Things like overseeing the documentation for every single sanctioned expedition the navy underwent in the form of shipgirls, of which there were a lot.
Even your average oil extraction mission, of which there was at least one daily, needed proper documentation and authorization.
Add that to the fact that whenever shipgirls needed to have an all-out training session with all their guns, torpedos, bomb shells and otherwise glory, the commander needed to be present in order to supervise and make sure that they don't destroy anything important.
A certain white-haired aircraft carrier and IJN ship come to mind.
As a footnote, of course, the paperwork also had to be filled in in advance for that.
And of course, it's not as if there was only one person borrowing the commander's supervision to practice every other morning.
As a general rule, if a shipgirl would practice her skills with her real armaments on, she would do it in the morning, first thing after waking up.
That could've meant the commander having to be there as early as 5am, thanks to some people who were too hyper and energetic for their own good.
After waking up, nonetheless. What kind of degenerate would feel energetic at 5am?
That wasn't the end of it. There were also a few things that needed to be arranged for early in the morning, such as morning roll call.
The ship girls didn't like the traditional idea of having to line up early in the morning just for their heads to be counted.
Since nobody liked the idea of superhumans with battleship armaments attached to their bodies being angry, this was a bit troubling to the higher-ups at the time when Azur Lane was first founded.
In general, the time Azur Lane was first founded was shrouded in mystery.
Ships all around the world began to morph into the female humanoid form known today as shipgirls at a rapid rate.
People saw them too quickly and too often for anyone to try to hide them.
When the troubled military officials approached them, they expressed their desire to not be at war with one another, but rather at peace.
What's more is that they didn't stop there. They wanted an island dedicated to shipgirls from all around the world.
No one was inclined to disagree or defy them, since each and everyone of them were practically superhumans with the firepower of whole battleships literally at their backs.
No military technology at the time could match up to them, and even if there was such a technology, there would be no reason to start a conflict with peaceful, powerful persons from all around the globe.
Of course, they were, in fact, undeniably beautiful women, so that also played a part, whether historians will acknowledge it or not.
The world factions, with the power to control the seas having become pretty boat women who wanted to make peace underneath their noses, did the obvious thing to do and made peace with each other.
Nobody wanted to fight a war on rowboats.
And nobody wanted to try building another ship just to have it mysteriously turn into a girl who would disagree with their builders' will overnight. That was costly.
Case in point, shipgirls were, and still are, quite scary. Scary enough to cow the world into submission, in a sense. And they didn't like having to get up every morning for a roll-call.
That could be arranged.
With new, cutting-edge technology, shipgirls only needed to enter through a mechanical door frame when they entered and exited the base, and their presence was accounted for.
Thus the need for a shipgirl roll-call was avoided.
For the commander, however, this meant nothing.
He still had to access the base's control panel in the base itself to determine how many shipgirls were in base, if any of them at all were not at base.
It's true that they regularly expedited to the nearby city for a viewing, shopping, eating, or otherwise enjoyable experience.
But the large four-floor dormitory building waiting for them back at base along with all the inhabitants of said building said that everyone needed to be back for sleep at 12am latest.
In summary, the commander needed to be at the base early, so he had to wake up early, which was painful.
Shikikan wakes up at 5:30am, still at his apartment. He brushes his teeth and showers in his small shower, barely big enough to fit himself, and drives his car to the Azur Lane naval base.
But, today was a special morning. He doesn't feel the need to drive all the way to his workplace.
Today was a walking day.
He's awake, cleaned up and has had breakfast by 5:30, and thus leaves the premises of his apartment.
The streets occupies the right of his vision while his left is filled with empty stores, visible through their windows.
Clothed mannequins, pretty souvenirs, the occasional food assortment, and, in all cases, the name of the shop in big letters, fills up all of the streetsides at 5:30am.
Shikikan's mind idly drifted to how often the shipgirls visited this area of town. He saw some white-haired girls with golden eyes walking around here occasionally, one of them sporting twintails.
And at 5:30am, the sun isn't up, so it's quite cold. Instead of sunrise yellow, the street is painted in calm, 5am blues.
It was a cold street. Maybe also because it was 5:31am.
There are almost no people on the streets at this time, which adds to the feeling of serenity the commander gets by doing this.
There aren't many people, but when they do cross paths with him, and they do meet his eyes, some would nod in acknowledgement of the presence that had passed them by.
He was, after all, still a military official, for all his mundane troubles and gruesome, almost offensive lack of contact with death.
If one wanted death, they'd need not look any further than the battlefield, filled with landmines, rifles, machine guns and grenades.
All of man's technological might was gathered there so that he might kill his enemy.
And indeed, on the battlefield, many enemies are killed.
If only everyone in the world saw them as enemies, and not as brothers, fathers and uncles.
Anyway, after the numerous achievements he scrounged up, he was able to get promoted enough for the military to entrust him with the guarding and management of Azur Lane, which was mostly left alone by the world along with the surrounding island.
After all the accomplishments he had seen accomplished, it was only fitting for people to raise their eyebrows, 5am though it may be, and acknowledge him.
The old lady he helped at his first day of work still sometimes saw him and waved at him.
Her kind countenance, plus her short, hunched-over demeanour, plus her uncharacteristically energetic waving, plus her wide, toothy grin, made it very apparent that she was happy to see him.
More like toothless grin.
He chided his thoughts, waved back, and continued on his merry way.
By 5:30am he leaves his apartment, and by 5:35am, he just about finishes making his way through the city by foot.
What follows is a few kilometers of dirt road made through forested land, then continued by a single bridge that is the path to the Azur Lane.
The dirt road and the bridge are kept in a consistently wide size; it would probably be enough for two lanes.
It's quite a good road, despite being just dirt. It's littered with fallen apples and fruits and some stray dogs, foxes, and deer.
A few shipgirls thought that the wildlife here was cute so they had protection efforts be made for them.
As a result, this dirt road is lined with trees which are lined with all kinds of animals, from small to medium. No big ones like bears or lions, because they would legitimately pose a threat to the nearby city life.
More notably than any wildlife that may or may not be seen at any given time, the atmosphere of the place by early morning was filled to the brim with birds.
Their chirping sometimes seems to come from every direction, sometimes from a few directions, and sometimes just from one direction.
Perhaps the birds were everywhere.
When traversing here by foot, it's so much easier to take in and appreciate everything in all its chirpy glory, especially without a gas engine to clog up the ears and mind.
Or maybe not. Maybe the birds were annoying.
Soon enough, earth gives way to sea, and the dirt road becomes a cerulean bridge.
It's only cerulean colored because everything is cerulean colored at 5am, though.
In reality, it's something like white, polished stone, shiny like marble, stretching for about two kilometers or maybe one and a half before it finally reaches the Azur Lane.
Of course, before that, as one enters the bridge they need to confront the guard house, which is required to always have active guards.
Sometimes, Shikikan felt bad for the guards there. To already be there by 5am was something unthinkable if going there by 6am already gave him eyebags.
He probably wouldn't feel bad if he had known that it was manned by multiple people, but he knew for certain that it was not.
Ever since his first day here, the only one to ever greet him from within the guard house had always been Bob.
Good old Bob. Bob with the funny accent.
He looked old, probably around his 50s, with greying hair, a moustache, and eyes that seemed perpetually closed.
When Shikikan first came through, he squinted his eyes and interrogated him in a manner like this:
The commander, having just helped out an old lady, was mildly sweaty, but otherwise seemed none the worse for wear.
As he approached the guard house, its inhabitant stopped staring into space, stared into him instead, and raised his furrowed eyebrow at him.
"Identification?"
"I'm the new commander, called Shikikan."
Shikikan shuffled his pockets and handed his ID over.
He checked it with a frowning visage, glancing between the ID picture and his face.
Then he nodded, returned it, and in a complete 180, grinned brightly.
"Thanks, have a meaningful time!"
Nowadays, though, unlike the first encounter, he's not very talkative.
One would usually get a nod from him as they pass by, and that's it.
Good old Bob.
Anyway, the bridge was made up of stone. That much was obvious by how the material looked, but the tiles were also laid out in a pattern that seemed to imply natural stones.
It was an unpredictable pattern that looked more like someone had put a bunch of rocks together flattened them than anything else.
On either side of the bridge were simple guardrails, but otherwise it had no roof or anything of the sort to protect against rains.
What it did have was arches underneath it, to allow the passage of ships while being effectively and efficiently supported by the arches.
It was simple in design but beautiful in execution, and even more beautiful when it was being illuminated by early morning blues.
Watching sunrise here might've been a sight. Better yet, fireworks would've been great.
Too bad he was here on a job and not to enjoy himself.
The experience of the bridge as one walked through it, flanked by the sea and offered an incredible view of the island with its city skyscrapers looming in the background, wouldn't lose to the wildlife of the dirt road.
All in all, the Azur Lane naval base is about five kilometers(5km) away from the city, so as to make a buffer to monitor any trespassers.
Though there probably aren't many who would willingly trespass on Azur Lane; a prime picture of going into the den of the lion.
That was how entering the Azur Lane went.
Azur Lane itself was a small island.
Upon entering from the bridge, the left would be filled with the ocean and the right would be filled with just a few lines of buildings.
They're mostly one or two-story tall, small houses, which are there at the shipgirls' requests.
Some of them are glass cubes, some of them look like normal housing, and some of them have lion statues and expansive gardens that reeked of tea.
It seems a few of them prefer to have private spaces within the base itself for whatever it is they get up to during the day.
The island is quite small, but because it's pretty much a glorified home for the shipgirls, everything they want is built there.
Although if the shipgirls wanted the island to be expanded, the government would probably allow that.
The necessary technology is at their behest.
Shikikan still feels claustrophobic there sometimes, though. He had never been particularly good with the sea.
Anyway, he digresses.
More notable than any of his thoughts is his secretary, waiting for him at the end of the bridge.
Like a loyal dog?
She probably wouldn't appreciate being thought of like that.
So he pretends he didn't think it as her ears twitch.
They would always meet here and eat breakfast together, but today is special.
Atago had asked in advance if she could bring her siblings with her to eat breakfast today, and there was no reason not to oblige.
That's why it wasn't just his secretary, but Takao, Choukai and Maya, standing with crossed arms, sitting at a nearby bench, and yawning, respectively.
Atago had been waving at him from a distance and he had been waving back.
"Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for being here today."
A small head bow.
Atago laughed. "No need to be so formal, Shikikan! Come, let's get breakfast!"
The other sisters nodded, waved, or murmured greetings back.
Judging by their eye bags, everyone was sleepy. He was no exception, of course.
But the fact that they were not mad at him as a result of being made to wake up this early was something to be thankful for.
Ugh… scary.
He had been feeling indebted to the shipgirls somehow for not being as irritable as he thought they might've been, because the prospect of trying to calm down someone who could kill you with her bare hands was daunting.
Always has been, always will be.
So when he took the initiative to act friendly and polite with them and was met with amiability and not irritation, he had a sense of gratefulness that he used to fuel more amiability between them.
It had been working quite nicely, although there were many ships that he still did not meet.
That Nevada girl in particular was quite energetic, with how she greeted him every time they passed each other by.
As he was thinking this, the Takao siblings and the commander started making their way to the cafeteria.
He snuck glances at the others. They would sometimes make eye contact with him and smile, nod, or both, but they didn't say a word of conversation. Maybe they were sleepy.
He was approached by Maya, the white-haired one.
She rubbed her eyes. "Hey, Shikikan."
"Good morning."
Her brows furrowed. "Is it really? Why are you visiting so early? I can see your eye bags. Aren't you sleepy?"
"No…" a yawn. "Okay, maybe, but that doesn't excuse me. I still have to be here early to attend to my duties."
"Can't you do them later? At least at like, 6am?"
He thought it over in his groggy mind.
"I don't think so. There are duties that need to be tended to."
She furrowed her brows.
"So why can't you just do them an hour later or something?"
Good question.
"I'd rather have an early start in the day," he squeezed out.
Maya hummed.
"You seem like you take work too seriously."
"I-Is that so?" He scratched his head.
What would you know about duty?
Choukai entered the conversation.
"I can see what she means. You don't look like you got enough rest last night Commander."
He was just about to open his mouth.
"I know work is important, but please take care of yourself first. That way you can do more work," Choukai smiled on him as Maya nodded.
"I see. Thanks for the advice." He smiled back.
Atago looked at his direction but didn't say anything.
The cafeteria was made up of many rectangular tables.
There were tables holding the food at the center of the cafeteria, where people would get them on a self-served basis, like a buffet.
Every meal time, the robots stationed here would prepare food, lay it out with plates and utensils, then afterwards they would clean up the mess and repeat.
It was a bit of a shame that it was robots that were working here and not humans, Shikikan absentmindedly thought as they entered the hall.
But if that were the case, why was Bob stationed here if all the other workers were robots?
A bit more human company would be nice…
That said, the distinction between shipgirl and human was quite blurred at this point.
Shipgirls are quite human in almost every aspect except for superficial things, such as their superhuman strength, durability, giant guns, etc.
But may it never be said that just because something is superficial means that it isn't important.
They had entered the cafeteria, scent of eggs filling the air, and were lining up to get their food.
Atago was at the front while Shikikan was bringing up the rear. She passed plates to everyone, then went to get her own food from the selection.
Maya stifled a yawn and handed one over to him. "Here, a plate."
"Thanks."
Shikikan got his plate and picked from the selection this morning.
From rice, scrambled eggs, hotdogs, and pancakes, he got rice and scrambled eggs in a modest portion.
All the ships got everything in an immodest portion.
Choukai caught him staring at one of the plates and smiled sheepishly at him.
Takao, seeing the exchange, sharply made eye contact with him, as if to proclaim that she wasn't ashamed.
Lots of big man energy there.
Well, yeah, of course you wouldn't, our biology is different.
The Shikikan scratched his head and gave a nervous laugh.
It's still amazing how the food is ready this early, though.
The robot staff seem to prepare the food as early as 5am, so that people could start eating at 6am. But there were also many shipgirls who wanted to eat as late as 10am.
To account for this, the food was prepared early but placed under heating technology to make sure that it stayed fresh until everyone who wanted to eat was able to eat.
How it stayed warm but never burned he didn't know nor did he need to.
Then, leftover foods would be compiled and given away. Or so he had heard from the orphanage in the city.
Atago picked a table to occupy while everyone else was still getting their food. Then she was joined by everyone else.
Of course, there was no chair at the center of the table.
Takao sat next to Atago while Choukai, Maya and Shikikan sat at the other side of the table in that order.
A chorus of itadakimasu sounded, and everyone was on their meals.
He ate while observing the others.
Atago ate with delicacy, like she was trying to savor every bite.
Choukai ate in a similar manner while looking around the table.
Takao and Maya messily.
Takao eats like that, huh.
That caught the commander by surprise. He had expected maybe Maya to be a messy eater or Choukai, but Takao seemed too proper for it.
Then she met his eyes. That seemed to give her some self-awareness as she reddened and suddenly found the ceiling very interesting to look at.
Then she wiped her mouth with her sleeves.
"Takao, goodness, how many times do I have to tell you to use a napkin?" Atago put her hand to her cheek in what looked like a troubled expression.
"No need, Atago. These sleeves being a bit wet won't hinder me." She moved her eyes from the ceiling to her sister's eyes in steel resolution.
"Gosh, what am I going to do with you?" Atago seemed undisturbed and handed Takao a napkin that she produced from her outfit.
A bit of giggling could be heard from Shikikan's left.
But after his eyes being caught so easily by Takao, he didn't risk glancing to see if it was Choukai or Maya…
Is what he would think, but the atmosphere seemed good enough that even if he got caught, there'd probably be no repercussions.
He glanced left to find them both giggling.
Takao, having wiped her mouth on Atago's prodding, saw fit to say what she had been observing.
She opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Probably thought better of confronting her superior.
The commander didn't notice it now but if he would've asked Atago in the future, she'd say that he was smiling at that time.
He'd probably deny it, because smiling at that thought would make him look like a smug ingrate.
Then they got back to eating quietly, and it was all going to go well and they would all leave without a hitch nor incident-
"Hey, Choukai." Maya's voice.
"Mm?"
"These scrambled eggs… are really good."
"Yeah, they're the same as always."
"Then they're always really good."
"I feel the same way," chimed in Takao.
The commander put his eyes on Atago. She took her eyes from her food over to him, and blinked.
"What?"
"I feel the same way," he confessed.
"These scrambled eggs are very good. I think they put cheese in them."
"Hm, yes, yes."
"What kind of cheese, do you think?" Takao poked.
"Hmmm..."
He shut his eyes and tried visualizing the flavors. All he could visualize was a rat chewing and then visualizing some flavors. They looked like scuffed fireworks.
"I don't know. Maybe parmesan?"
"This tastes like..." Atago chewed.
"Cheddar."
"Cheddar...?" all of her siblings said.
"No, sister. I agree with the admiral, it tastes like parmesan," Choukai said, much to the latter's surprise.
"Yeah, it tastes like parmesan." Maya nodded along.
"Yeah, it tastes like mozzarella." Takao said and was greeted by pointed looks, like the facial equivalent of having guns pointed at you from every direction.
"Mozzarella? Really?"
"Yes, mozzarella." Takao nodded sagely.
"Mozzarella isn't parmesan," Choukai inputted.
Takao looked around, meeting as many eyes as would meet hers.
"What's important isn't whether it's parmesan or mozzarella," she declared.
"It's that it's definitely not cheddar."
"Eh?" Atago muttered as her eyes seemed to lose hope and life, as if she was Caesar with droopy wolf ears.
Et tu, Takao?
Choukai and Maya murmured to each other as the commander continued to spectate.
Maya asked, "Is she right?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Yeah, I don't think so either, but I don't think she's wrong, either."
"Yes, you have a point."
They made eye contact with Takao, and the three nodded to each other.
"That's the verdict. These scrambled eggs aren't made with cheddar."
"I think it'd be better if you tried to figure out what kind of cheese it uses and not what kind of cheese it doesn't use."
Takao and Maya gave Atago sharp looks for that remark.
"Don't think us fools, sister. We take it one step at a time, or else we'll surely fall into ruin and die, just like the hare and the turtle."
"I don't think the hare died in that story, though…"
With the verdict of not-cheddar hanging over their heads, the company finished their breakfast.
"Alright, see you later. I'll go visit the city," Maya stood up.
"You're going to the city? Me too, me too." Choukai joined her.
"A-Ah, It's time for me to do my training soon. I'll also take my leave."
"Goodbye!"
"Goodbye. It was a pleasure." The commander gave a cordial greeting and a cordial smile as they walked away to their respective engagements, leaving him and Atago alone together to start their day.
He glanced at Atago. Her ears were still drooping a little bit.
"Gosh, those guys. How could they gang up on me like that?"
The commander laughed and said, "It's okay."
She and her drooping ears turned towards him. Then her appearance seemed to brighten, and she cracked a smile. "Yeah. I'm not bothered."
"Not even a little bit? Don't you feel a bit annoyed?" The commander's smile banished all pretenses of that being a serious remark.
But Atago gave a serious enough answer.
"Well, of course they can be annoying, but I still love them to death."
"Is that so?"
"Yes!"
That sounds so good.
"That's good." He smiled.
"Besides, they can remind me of myself. I think I'd be like them if I were younger."
If you were younger? Not when you were younger, huh.
"Let's go, then. What's our first order of business for today?"
They exited the cafeteria and were greeted with the rising sun.
"First, we need to assign supply extraction missions..."
The sun rose, and now it was shining down on everybody. It was lunch time; about 12nn.
Lunch time generally acted as one of the busiest times for the Azur Lane. Many ships, even those who would be lollygagging in the city, would come back for free food.
Either the food in Azur Lane was generally better than the food in the city, the shipgirls lacked funds and/or the means to secure them (or have someone buy for them), or both.
Or maybe they just wanted company.
Whatever the reasons were, there were a lot of boats at Azur Lane at noon time.
The commander, eye bags glistening in the sun, was making his way through, waving and greeting those who would wave and greet at him, which, to his chagrin, was a lot of shipgirls once they knew he was there.
It was all Atago could do to accompany him with a mildly troubled look on her face which he noticed.
"What's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing..."
Read: there's nothing he can do about it.
They entered the cafeteria once again, which was populated with rectangular, grey tables of many sizes.
They could generally seat 6-10 people each table.
A pair of bunny ears caught Shikikan's eyes, so after passing Atago a plate and getting his own food, he drifted to that table.
Atago can find me easily.
"Good afternoon, you three."
They were called Laffey, Javelin, and Ayanami.
He was greeted with a yawn, a wave and a hello respectively.
"Z23 isn't with you guys today?"
"No, she's out with some other Ironbloods." Ayanami answered as Javelin kept eating.
"Ah, I see. Laffey?"
"Huh? Who is it?"
She brought her head up from the table and squinted at the light.
"Laffey?"
It can't do to be so lax on duty.
Laffey finished blinking and looked up at him, which seemed to highlight how tiny she was.
"Hello, Commander."
Late response.
"Hello…"
Antics aside, he could still remember how he first met them; he had spotted them, along with a german shipgirl named Z23, as he was going back to the base after having taken care of some business in town.
They were fussing over Laffey, who was somehow asleep on a tree.
Well, instead of fussing it was more like they were bored looking at her, or like seeing her sleepy made them feel sleepy.
"What's going on here?"
"Who are you?" Z23 asked.
"Commander!" Javelin said.
"Ah, that's the commander." Ayanami murmured.
"Good afternoon." He eyed their bored expressions and the shipgirl asleep on the tree.
"What seems to be the problem?"
"It's Laffey," Javelin provided.
"She went ahead, saying she'd go back to the base after we had a snack. Then on our way back we saw her asleep on that tree," explained Ayanami.
"Ah, I see. Want me to get her down for you?"
"You would do that? That'd be great, Shikikan! Thanks so much."
Ayanami and Z23's brows were twitching a little bit.
Then he climbed the tree to retrieve Laffey. It got his hands dirty but it wasn't difficult.
Laffey didn't even stir.
Looking back, those three ships probably could've gotten her even more easily by themselves.
Maybe they were contemplating joining her.
"Thanks, Commander! Let's go toge-"
"Wait, Javelin. Laffey is still asleep." Z23 eyed the sleeping Laffey who was being carried with a fireman carry on Javelin's shoulders with half-lidded eyes.
Ayanami, seeming to have gotten the message, relayed it. "Commander, we'll stay here for a little bit until she's awake."
"A-Ah. Is that so. Okay. See you around." He turned around and started walking away from the bizarre scene.
"Goodbye!"
"Bye-bye."
"Bye."
The more he thought of it, the more likely it seemed that they were just going to take a nap together in the forest.
Sounds kinda nice. But not on duty.
What didn't sound nice was Laffey's gentle snores resounding in the middle of the meal.
"Oh, dear." Atago sat down and cupped her cheek.
