Author's note: Hello everybody, there were a couple people who raised a concern over the appearance of an OC Shipgirl, Lilly, in the previous chapter. I wanted to go ahead and address this at the head of my new chapter as it may pertain to many of you. Some of you may be wondering 'Will we be seeing more OC ship girls?' No, Lilly is to be the only OC Ship girl in this story, her existence is merely to add a little comic relief, as well as a method for ship girls to get back home safely even in critical condition.
With that said, I would like to implore all of my readers to leave a review, or even drop a PM to me about your thoughts on the story. I would also like to thank all those that continue to review. Even if a couple lines, expressing you enjoy the story, it helps motivate me to write better. Thanks guys, and enjoy reading chapter four!
Daimlon took a deep breath as he rested his pen on his desk. Before him stood a plethora of pages, all with notes scribbled all over them. He had spent roughly four hours by himself, deep in his own thoughts, keeping track of his thoughts by taking notes. These notes included possible reasons for Jintsuu's record of being dismissed, notes on the dissection of Jintsuu's known personality traits thus far and how they interacted with various subjects. He had notes on predicted behavioral and psychological responses to certain events. He examined the pros and cons of a harsh approach versus a delicate approach, drawing data from separate note sheets to try and form a conclusion as to which was the best option. The notes were lengthy, highly complex, and relied heavily on each other's data.
It was no use, there were simply too many unknowns to be able to draw any rock solid conclusions. He could come up with plenty of theories, but they were all too easily dismissed. As it stood, the dominant theory, in Daimlon's mind, related to her frequent dismissal. The most logical reason he could think of was that she was a poor fighter. The statistics of the previous mission, which Daimlon accumulated himself, supported this theory. However, Daimlon understood that he would need to send her on ten more missions to see if these results were consistent before confidently saying her results supported the argument. It would explain why her previous Admirals refused to tell the Grand Admiral anything, as they knew that telling him the truth would mean she would be scrapped. It would also explain her shy and timid nature, as she would have a natural lack of confidence in her own abilities.
Overall, it was a fairly solid theory that held plenty of water, but there was one gaping hole. She exhibited no lack of confidence in her own ability to fight, even in the thick of the worst situation she'd faced to date. She dove head first into the enemy several times without question. Even if she was a poor fighter, the fact that she felt confident in her own ability to fight just about sank the entire theory on it's own. Confidence is one of the most powerful tools to a soldier. Confidence in one's ability to fight, in spite of being aware they were sub par, would heavily induce them to train continuously until they were no longer sub par. No one would dismiss a ship that trained every day, even if they were the worst ship in the Pacific Fleet. Thus, this would render the theory fundamentally flawed from the beginning, should she exhibit the desire to train.
He continued to examine his notes closely until he heard a knock on the door. "Come in." He said simply. Lilly poked her head through the door, and walked in with a tray of food, plus a drink, in her hands.
She walked over to the front of the desk, her eyes just barely peeking over the edge, hiding her nose. "Nonna told me to bring you some food since you haven't eaten anything." She placed the tray of food gently on the edge of Daimlon's desk. "Are you okay, Donnie?" She asked, she wore a face heavy with concern. Daimlon could only return her stare with weary eyes. He smiled the best he could, which wasn't much.
"Yes, I'll be fine. I just have a lot on my mind." He said, as he began collecting and neatly stacking all his notes in one pile. Lilly walked around to Daimlon's side of the desk, being nosy about what was on the pages.
"What's that?" She asked, pointing to the notes. Daimlon ignored her for the time being, neatly filing them away in a manila folder, and putting it away in his desk drawer.
"Just my thoughts on the situation at hand." He said with an empty tone. He turned to look at Lilly, now realizing her bright yellow uniform and skirt was still stained with blood. "I'm more concerned with how you're handling all this. You doin' okay?" He asked.
Lilly put on an enormous grin from ear to ear. "I'm doing okay. Besides, she's gonna be just fine, right?"
Daimlon pulled the tray close to him, and took a sip of his drink. "Yeah. That's right." He said simply. He set the cup down and turned back to Lilly. He was seriously concerned that she was bottling her feelings and hiding them.
"I'm going to go back to helping Nonna!" Lilly said, immediately scampering over to the door.
"Lilly. Thanks for the food. If you need anything you know where to find me, and make sure you get cleaned up." Daimlon said as sincerely as he could. He smiled at her. Lilly simply smiled and nodded back at Daimlon before scrambling out the door.
He began to poke away at his food, returning to his thinking mode while he ate. 'I simply don't know enough about her. I need to think of a way to find out more about her, I need to know as much as possible, and in a short of amount of time as well.' He thought to himself, reaching for his drink to wash it down. 'Perhaps I could instate a secretary ship sooner than necessary in order to do so... however, it won't tell me much more than I already know. Not to mention she isn't cut out for the position, she's too submissive for it.' He crammed some more food into his mouth as he continued his train of thought. He continued to think of more and more methods while he ate, but each method he thought of left much to be desired in one way or another.
'...I could... force her to take a series of aptitude tests. Difficult ones that would strain her ability. In order to strain her mental state I could impose on her the idea that scoring too low would result in the decision to have her scrapped. It would tell me a lot about her performance under pressure, as well as more about her personality in extreme conditions. I could even involve a couple that tested her ability to work with others, the new ship under construction now would enable that option easily.' Daimlon finished his food, wiping his mouth with a napkin, he set his utensils down and continued his thoughts. 'I could manipulate these tests in many ways, and as a result obtain whichever type of information I needed. Psychological, Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual strengths and weaknesses could all be assessed. The options are limitless.' He grinned slyly as he reached his decision. 'Hell, I could even put the decision of harsh versus delicate on the sidelines until I gather enough from these tests. For now I can just play a nice middle ground.' It was decided for Daimlon, there was little that tests couldn't provide, now he just needed to decide on a schedule detailing the tests.
He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew his tablet. He glimmered the screen on and navigated to the construction tab, and paged Nonna. After a small five second delay, Nonna appeared in a puff of white smoke. "What do you need, Admiral?" She asked, she was still rather uptight compared to before.
"First off, thanks for the food. Second, When is Jintsuu's repair going to be finished?" He asked as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"There's been a delay, it'll take an extra hour to repair her. You can check the exact time in your tablet." She explained formally, she had her hands behind her back properly, with her chin up, and spoke clearly.
He navigated in his tablet blindly until he found a 'Repairs' button, pressing it, he observed that Jintsuu would be repaired in exactly one hour, seven minutes and twenty seven seconds. "Good. I want you to send her to speak with me immediately after she is finished being repaired." He said in a commanding fashion. "I also want you to send a couple fairies to deliver a chair to be placed in front of my desk, as well as to retrieve this tray and return it to where it belongs."
"Understood, sir. Open your window to allow them easy access, and they'll be here shortly... What are you going to do about Jintsuu?" She asked, obviously concerned that Daimlon was going to go overboard in his punishment.
Daimlon immediately stood up and opened his window, quickly returning to his seat. He placed his elbows on his desk, and interwove his fingers. "Let's just say I'm... Putting her under the microscope." He said simply.
Nonna couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy at his response, especially since he left it as vague as possible. "Very well. Will that be all, sir?" She asked.
"That is all for now. However, within the next day we must hold an important discussion. I'll keep in touch. Until then, you are dismissed." Daimlon said. Releasing his interwoven fingers, he immediately reached for a blank sheet of paper, placing it on his desk.
Nonna gave a sharp salute. "Yes sir." She said. Daimlon returned the salute, and Nonna dissipated in her white puff of smoke.
Jintsuu stirred slowly as she started to regain consciousness. She found herself in a small bathroom, submerged inside a bath tub. There were five other tubs, but they were all empty. The water was incredibly hot, barely tolerable, and the air was thick with steam. Jintsuu then recalled what had happened. 'I'm... Alive?' She thought to herself as she remembered her condition just prior to blacking out. She touched her shoulder and examined it, only to find a small mark remained from what was once an open wound.
"Glad to see you're finally awake." She heard a voice emanating from her left. Looking over, she saw Nonna hovering to her left. She had a clipboard in her hand and was jotting something down on it as she spoke.
"Wh-What happened? I thought I... Died." She asked, submerging herself deeper in the water.
"You would have, if it weren't for our newest addition to the fleet." Nonna said seriously, as she put her clipboard down.
"Nonna! I finished changing like you told me to!" A voice in the other room shouted
Suddenly, the curtain to the room flew open, and a small girl came scampering through. Her face lit up brightly as she saw Jintsuu awake. "She was the one that saved you. This is our newest ship, her name is Lilly." Nonna explained professionally.
"Jintsuu! I'm so glad you're awake!" She exclaimed as she hurried over to the edge of the tub, crouching down next to Jintsuu. Her smile was enormous.
Jintsuu was left feeling a little uncomfortable at how close she was getting. Jintsuu smiled gently to try and brush aside the discomfort. "Pleased to meet you, Lilly." She said. "How did you manage to do it, though?" Jintsuu asked as she looked quizzically at Lilly.
"I latched on to you with my towing cable and dragged you through the harbor after you passed out!" Lilly said cheerfully, still wearing that smile of hers.
"...What?" Jintsuu asked, she had never heard of a ship that had a towing cable before.
"She is a tugboat." Nonna explained simply.
"I've never heard of a tugb-" Jintsuu said gently, before being cut off.
"Don't worry, we haven't either. She's a complete mystery at the moment, but her timing couldn't have been better." Nonna said, she picked her clipboard back up and began scribbling on it again. "There we are, repairs are complete, you're free to get out now." She said. Jintsuu examined the mark on her shoulder again, only to find that it was gone, her shoulder looked as if nothing had ever happened.
She hesitated to get out at first. "Uh.. W-Would you mind?" Jintsuu asked, referring to the fact that she was naked.
"Relax, It's nothing we haven't seen before. Besides, I need to do a quick examination to make sure you were repaired properly." Nonna explained, as she lowered her clipboard.
"W-What do you mean it's nothing you-" Jintsuu said softly, before once again being cut off.
"Who do you think took off your clothes before you were put in the tub, silly!" Lilly explained jubilantly as she took several steps back to give Jintsuu some space to get out.
"The towels are over there, but I need to have a look before you put one on." Nonna said, as she pointed to a rack full of towels on the right side of the room.
Jintsuu hesitated for several seconds. She took a deep breath and stepped out, covering herself with her arms the best she could.
"Shoulder wound, check. Foot seems to have repaired fully, appears to be functioning properly. Turn around, let me see your back." Nonna said, scribbling on her clipboard a little after each check. Jintsuu turned around, showing Nonna her back. "Back seems to have healed just fine as well. All done, go ahead and put a towel on." Nonna scribbled on her clipboard some more.
Jintsuu promptly donned a towel, grabbing a second one to dry her hair. Her hair already began to assume her signature bangs as it dried. "You can find a fresh set of clothes in the room adjacent to this one after you've dried off. For now, have a seat on the bench in the room." Nonna said as she floated past the curtain. Jintsuu followed behind her, her wet feet pattered on the tile as she went. She brushed the curtain aside and stepped on the wooden flooring, having a seat on the bench. Nonna floated over to her right foot.
"Make a circle with your ankle." Nonna said. Jintsuu did as instructed, while Nonna eyed it down. "Does it hurt at all?" She asked.
"No, it feels fine." Jintsuu said.
Nonna immediately scribbled on her clipboard again. 'How much can she write down on one page?' Jintsuu thought to herself as Nonna floated up to her left shoulder. "Good, now make a full circle with your shoulder, stretch it as far as you can." She instructed. Jintsuu began to move her shoulder, and stretched it thoroughly. "Does it hurt?" Nonna asked.
"Not at all." Jintsuu said.
"Alright, stretch your back now, tell me how it feels." Nonna said, as she began to scribble away at her clipboard. Jintsuu stood up and began working her way through the full range of motions involving her back. It took longer than any of the others, but she understood why these checks were important.
"Feels good to me." Jintsuu said, sitting back down.
Nonna scribbled some more on her clipboard. "Excellent, all checks are complete and you seem fine. Go ahead and get dressed. Admiral Daimlon has requested you see him in his office immediately." Nonna explained. Jintsuu shattered like a pane of glass, she had completely forgotten about Daimlon.
"...Understood." She said meekly. 'Now I kind of wish I had sank...' She thought to herself.
Nonna flew over to the door and slid it open. "Jintsuu. For what it's worth, I'm glad you're okay." Nonna said, immediately afterward sliding the door shut behind her. Jintsuu looked over to her right to see Lilly standing there.
"Here are your clothes." Lilly said, grinning ear to ear. She had her hands extended out toward Jintsuu, in them was a pile of neatly folded clothes.
"Thanks." Jintsuu said as she took them. She felt much more comfortable than she had previously, and had no difficulty getting dressed while Lilly was still in the room.
"You know, Donnie was pretty upset when you got hurt." Lilly said, still grinning. "He hasn't left his office for over five hours." She continued, taking a seat near Jintsuu, looking up at her.
"Five hours? What was he doing for that long?" Jintsuu asked as she clasped her bra on.
"He just told me that he had a lot on his mind. He told me he was doing fine, but he seemed really tense." Lilly said. She kicked her feet back and forth as she sat on the bench.
Jintsuu didn't say anything in response, she just continued to put her clothes on.
Lilly looked at her, slightly concerned. "Are you okay?" Lilly asked.
Jintsuu just looked back at her with a weak smile. "Yes, I'm fine." Jintsuu said, lying the best she could. Truth was, she was terrified.
Lilly just crossed her arms and pouted slightly. Though she chose not to say anything, she knew that Jintsuu was anything but fine.
Jintsuu's heart felt heavy, and she was already beginning to feel nervous. 'five hours to think about what he's going to do with me...' She thought to herself. She then recalled what Daimlon had told her on the cargo ship. 'Failures of any kind are completely unacceptable.' His words echoed in her head. She pulled her shin high socks up, and walked over to a full body mirror that hung by the door. She made herself look as presentable as she could. She examined the shelving until she found one that had a label that read 'Jintsuu' on it. She found her shoes and grabbed them. 'I hope this isn't the end of me... I would rather die to the Abyssals than be scrapped.' She thought to herself as she secured her shoes on her feet. She was ready to go.
"Lilly, can you show me where Don's office is? I don't know my way around here." Jintsuu asked with a forced smile on her face.
"I sure can, follow me." Lilly said as she slid the door open and bolted. Jintsuu followed behind her, making sure to shut the door behind her. The base was barely lit up, the sun had already dipped below the horizon, only faint smudges of orange and red were seen on the horizon line, and the stars were beginning to make their presence known. She followed Lilly through the base until she stepped inside a building that had large double doors. Jintsuu followed her inside the building, stepping inside an empty room.
"Just take the stairs to your right, and he's the first door on your left." She said, smiling brightly.
"Thank you." Jintsuu said gently as she began to take her first steps toward the stairs.
"Good luck!" She said as she scrambled back out the door.
She slowly walked up the steps. Her heart grew heavier and heavier with each step, beating faster and faster. She noticed a wooden door immediately to her left as she topped the stairs.
Approaching the door, she swallowed the lump in her throat and knocked.
"Come in." She heard Daimlon call from within.
Jintsuu turned the knob of the door, and entered the room. She saw Daimlon sitting at his desk, a scowl written across his face, fingers interwoven as he waited. "Have a seat." He commanded.
Jintsuu immediately regretted walking through that door. Daimlon was definitely in a bad mood. She wordlessly shuffled over to the chair placed in front of Daimlon's desk, and had a seat. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, a silence filled with tension. He just stared her down for a while, Jintsuu couldn't bear to look him in the eye.
"What did I tell you when we were making our way to this base?" He asked without moving a muscle.
Jintsuu, still averting his gaze, spoke softly. "Failures are unacceptable." She said. She clutched her elbows with her hands as she sat.
"That's right... While you did not fail the primary objective I gave you, keeping them out of the harbor until the guns were finished, you did fail to keep yourself safe while doing so. Why? Explain to me what happened." He said, still not moving a muscle. He was still staring at her, his face chiseled in stone as a firm scowl.
"I... I-uh.. Saw an enemy Destroyer... I tried radioing you, like you said to.. But, I got no response. I tried.. I tried hailing command, still with no luck." Her eyes shifted from left to right, looking down to avoid looking him in the eye. Her fingers tapped on her elbows nervously. "I- I used the discretion of engagement you gave me to stay close... Marie tried establishing communications... I.. I scouted the area ahead with my float plane thinking it was bait, but found nothing... So I moved in, and when Marie returned, I was surrounded." Jintsuu finished. She managed to glance up at the eyes that were staring daggers at her, but she couldn't bear to maintain it.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" He asked.
"I... I failed to scout for an attack from the rear... I assumed too much." She said meekly. Her eyes stopped darting all over the room, though they still gazed upon the floor, as she admitted her failure.
Daimlon took a deep breath through his nose. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "While much of the blame does rest on your shoulders, Jintsuu, the fact remains that there was a critical communications breakdown beyond your control. The situation could have been avoided entirely if we had proper communications. I have Regina looking into what happened, she is also ensuring it never happens again." Daimlon paused briefly, seeming to sort his thoughts before he continued.
"However, it cannot be ignored that your performance was borderline pitiful. You had a shell hit rate of approximately twelve percent, along with the fact that you made a complete rookie mistake by neglecting your flanks and rear. This is completely unacceptable." He said. Jintsuu clutched her arms tighter as she continued listening. Daimlon paused for a moment or two before continuing. "As a result, your abilities will be assessed through a series of tests. Depending on the results of these tests, it could induce any decisions I make, including having you scrapped should you score too low." He said powerfully.
Jintsuu's heart sank, but she tried her best to hide it. "W-What kind of tests?" She asked softly.
"That remains to be seen, but you can expect to be asked to hit wooden targets, dodge practice torpedoes, and shoot down practice aircraft. You might even have to navigate a small course while being timed." He said, he took a moment of silence before continuing. "I will now run the first test. Count backwards starting from ninety eight down to eighty. Go." He sat up in his chair, and readjusted his position, awaiting for her to begin.
'Why would he have me count backwards? What kind of ridiculous test is this?' Jintsuu thought to herself. "N-Ninety eight. Nin-Ninety nin- seven..." She began to count backwards from ninety eight, stammering over the beginning as she gained her footing, and slipped up in transitioning from the nineties to the eighties, but was otherwise rather solid.
'Not bad.' Daimlon thought to himself as he listened to her count backwards.
After she finished there were several seconds of silence. Daimlon simply raised a pen to a sheet of paper on his desk and wrote something down. Jintsuu was too far to make out what it said. "Nicely done." He said simply, putting his pen down on his desk. The words on his page read 'Well above average response to unfamiliarity.'
"Wh..Why did you have me... Count backwards?" She asked nervously.
Daimlon took a deep breath through his nose. "It tested your ability to cope with an unfamiliar situation. When was the last time someone asked you to do that?" He said confidently, as he began to explain it to her.
"Never." She said simply.
"Exactly. Your brain isn't used to counting backwards. Therefore, it is significantly more difficult to do because you have to think about it while maintaining a quick and fluent speech pattern. Most everyone messes up, but the faster and clearer you count backwards, the better. It tells me how well you can respond to unfamiliar conditions, as well as providing insight to general intelligence levels. You did rather well." He said.
The dots connected in Jintsuu's head and she realized just how much a ten second test can tell about someone, as well as the significance of what it tells. She was, frankly, somewhat blown away by it. 'That's... Impressive. Where did he learn that from?' Jintsuu thought to herself. She always knew that Daimlon was intelligent, but she was now beginning to realize that the Admiral that sat before her was more than just your regular 'intelligent'.
"Congratulations, you have passed your first test. I will be conducting tests for a solid week, starting the day after tomorrow. I would suggest you practice if you feel the need to brush up on your skills." Daimlon said proudly as he placed his hands on his desk, interlocking his fingers again. "With that said, I am removing you from sortie-ready status to prevent this from happening again until you are assessed. You will go on expeditions, but you will not see combat sorties again until it is deemed safe to put you back on ready status." He finished.
Being taken off sortie-ready status was always among the first steps toward being dismissed, and she could clearly see the dark shadow of being scrapped looming over her. She felt fear strike deep into her, as no other Admiral had ever run tests on her like this before. What scared her most, however, was the thought that Daimlon would get confirmation that she is almost useless in a fight. 'I just have to do whatever I can, and give it my best.' She thought, trying to reassure herself.
"Do you have any questions for me?" Daimlon asked as he readjusted himself in his seat.
Jintsuu thought of possible questions for several seconds. "H-How difficult will these tests be?" She asked, she clutched her hands tightly together, placing them under her chin, her arms pressed against her chest.
Daimlon continued to stare at her for several moments. "Difficult. Your abilities will be strained beyond your limit. I expect decent results." He said heavily.
Jintsuu couldn't help but feel like she was going to get washed up with these tests. She couldn't shake the dark cloud looming over her. "A-Admiral. I have a request." Jintsuu said. She clenched her arms tightly as she spoke.
"Go ahead." Daimlon said as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"If.. If you decide to scrap me.. Or decide i am 'unfit'. I would like to be sent on a suicide mission... Against the Abyssals instead of being scrapped." She said, it pained her greatly to say what she had, and Daimlon could see it.
A long silence elapsed, as Daimlon gave some thought into her request. 'So... Perhaps she isn't confident in her own ability after all... I've only run one test and it's already given me plenty of new information... This next week should be rather fruitful...' He thought to himself, somewhat disappointed that he was wrong about her, but greatly intrigued as to what was waiting to be discovered.
"Admiral, please. Being scrapped is to endure torture for many hours while you're picked apart piece by piece, it is incredibly painful. I would rather die fighting." Jintsuu said strongly.
'This is exactly what I wanted. It was always fairly easy to read her, but now I can read her more easily than ever before. She's scared. She's scared she won't perform and will be scrapped.' Daimlon had to hide the sly grin that was growing on his face by sitting up and placing his interlocked fingers over his mouth. 'She's not confident she'll be able to pass, and it's worming into her head and weighing her down. She has such a lack of confidence in herself that she's prematurely negotiating the terms of her own removal... If I were to take a guess, it's this confidence problem that's the root of most of her issues. However, I can't see a simple confidence issue being reason for her constant dismissal.' Daimlon had to break his train of thought, after all, he could think about it all he wanted after she was gone.
"I see no issues with the request, however, I will not make the decision now. I will make it should the decision be made to get rid of you." Daimlon said as he lowered his hands, ensuring he was as stone faced as possible.
"...I..I understand." Jintsuu said softly, she rested her hands on her lap, somewhat disappointed.
"Any other questions or concerns for me?" He asked, not moving a muscle.
Before Jintsuu could even hope to respond, Nonna burst into the room in the fairies' signature white puff of smoke. She hesitated slightly before speaking. "I hope I'm not interrupting." She said.
"No, actually we were just wrapping up. What's up?" Daimlon said calmly.
Nonna examined her clipboard for a moment. "Pardon the intrusion, regardless. A construction project of a new ship will be finished in ten minutes." She said clearly. She was still more uptight than she was before the incident, but she was slowly easing up as time went on.
Daimlon smiled slightly. "Well, let's all go meet her then... You too, Jintsuu." He spoke loudly as he rose out of his seat.
"A-Alright." Jintsuu said. She was actually rather eager to meet another face.
The three of them casually made their way over to the Construction Yard. It was dark out, and the sun had completely disappeared, but the base's lights lit everything clearly. They arrived at the Construction Yard, and Daimlon, being the impatient man he was, checked the timer for construction.
"Only three more minutes. Now we just need to work on that bench." He said as he turned to Nonna.
"Of course. I'll have it installed tomorrow." She said. Silence fell between the three for a while.
Daimlon continued to wait impatiently until he noticed that Jintsuu was a short distance away, staring intently at the stars above her. Daimlon then noticed that the stars and moon were out in full tonight, and shone brightly. The moon could almost illuminate the base by itself. Along with the sea, Daimlon always loved looking up at the night's sky. "Are you a star gazer?" Daimlon asked, taking a position next to her, looking up at the sky as well. She seemed to be startled by the question, like she was caught doing something she wasn't supposed to.
"U-Uh, well, not really. I-I just like to... Admire it's beauty." She said softly. She seemed to regain her comfort relatively quickly, and continued staring up.
"I see." He said, continuing to stare upwards. With little light pollution in the local area, the night sky was unlike anything he had seen until now. He could clearly see what appeared to be colossal clouds illuminated in space, he assumed they were various nebulae belonging to Earth's local super cluster. Regardless of what they actually were, he was completely taken aback at the sheer beauty of that sky.
Until the sounds of construction ceased, causing him to immediately break his gaze from the stars. He began to walk up to the large door to the Construction Yard. Jintsuu mimicked this action after a short delay. He could see that Nonna was still oddly uptight, and he frankly didn't like that his behavior caused a change in her attitude.
"Here we go. Let's hope it's not another tugboat." Daimlon said jokingly, trying to get Nonna to ease up a little.
"No, this time you're just gonna find a way to build a transport ship." She remarked with a sly smile.
The large doors began to open, and Daimlon found himself staring at the same curtain he was facing just prior to meeting Lilly. The three of them brushed past the large curtain into the dark room.
The room lit up, just like it had with Lilly, revealing a girl with long, free flowing, black hair, similar to Nonna's. Her stone cold eyes appeared to be a light blue, and shone rather brightly. She wore a white button up shirt with a dark skirt. She also had independent black sleeves that didn't quite meet the sleeves of her white shirt, and black knee high socks. She stood tall, and had a mostly blank look on her face, with a slight scowl, clearly judging the people before her. Daimlon could immediately tell that this girl had her shit together, and was ready for action.
Understanding he was under intense scrutiny from the girl before him, He put on his authoritative face and posture, puffing his chest out a little, and slightly raising his broad shoulders. Daimlon took on a very serious face, and briskly walked over to the small girl while he maintained eye contact with her, Jintsuu and Nonna following shortly behind. The girl just continued to stare them down as they walked over to her, no words were spoken at first.
When Daimlon was within arms' reach, he stopped. She stood shoulder high on Daimlon, and he found himself looking down his own nose at the girl. The two continued to stare into each other's eyes, both of them sizing the other up for several seconds.
The girl spoke first.
"My name is Asashio, name ship of the Asashio-Class Destroyers. I assume you are my Admiral?" She spoke loudly, her eyes were unwavering, and her expression was that of stone.
Daimlon and Asashio continued to size each other up in silence. Daimlon allowed a somewhat extended period of silence to expire. 'She's strong...' Daimlon observed to himself as he continued to stare deeply into her eyes. The two were almost having a boxing match with their eyes, and neither was willing to back down. 'She's probably testing me...' He thought. He finally began to speak.
"That would be correct. My name is Admiral Daimlon. Behind me is our Construction Fairy, Nonna. As well as our only Light Cruiser, Jintsuu of the Sendai-Class." He said loudly, making sure to maintain eye contact, as well as a facial expression made of steel.
The two of them continued to wrestle with just their eyes in silence for several more seconds.
Asashio finally admitted defeat by giving a sharp salute, breaking eye contact to look straight ahead. "It's an honor, sir! Awaiting your orders!" She said loudly. Daimlon immediately knew he had passed with flying colors.
He brought his hand up in a salute in return. "The honor is mine. Your current orders are to get yourself situated into the base nicely. Other than that you are free to do as you please as you await further instruction." Daimlon said loudly. The two of them dropped their salutes. "You may rest at ease, formalities take a back seat on this base so long as you remember who's in charge." Daimlon commanded.
"Understood, sir. I look forward to working with you." Asashio said.
"The feeling is mutual." Daimlon said simply.
"With your permission, I would like to introduce myself, personally, to the Light Cruiser." She said formally.
Daimlon relaxed his chest and shoulders, and crossed his arms. "You don't need to ask me, like I said, formalities aren't very important here." He explained calmly.
She nodded, and immediately walked over to Jintsuu. She began to eye her down in a similar fashion. Jintsuu immediately felt uncomfortable at the stare Asashio gave her. Jintsuu was clearly intimidated, clutching her arms to her chest, leaning back slightly, and looking away. Asashio stared silently at Jintsuu for several moments. "Look at me." She said. Jintsuu only became more nervous, and began noticeably blushing while darting her eyes back and forth between Asashio and various points around the room. Asashio took a step forward, and Jintsuu immediately responded with a smaller step back. "Jintsuu, look me in the eye." She commanded.
Daimlon knew all too well what was happening and what the result would be, but he allowed the situation to play out, silently observing how Asashio treated someone clearly failing her test.
"It's rude not to make eye contact when you're talking to someone. It's easy, I don't bite, just look me in the eye." She said, in a much calmer voice. Jintsuu, maintaining her defensive posture, slowly calmed her eyes down, and forced them to gaze into Asashio's eyes. "Good. Don't look away, just keep staring. Alternate looking at each eye to keep your eyes moving." She explained calmly, maintaining her stony gaze on Jintsuu.
After a delay of about five seconds, Asashio gave Jintsuu a smile. "See? Nothing to be afraid of." She said reassuringly. Jintsuu seemed to ease up as she continued to stare back at Asashio. "You should work on keeping eye contact, it's important." She placed her hands on her hips as she spoke.
"I-I will." Jintsuu said softly, still clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
Asashio offered a handshake to Jintsuu. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jintsuu." She said.
Jintsuu slowly reached out to meet Asashio's hand. "N-Nice to meet you, as well." She said slightly louder.
The two exchanged a handshake. "No, no, no. You need to be firm in your handshakes. It leaves a bad impression. Here, I'll hold out my hand and you squeeze it." Asashio continued to advise, as she offered her hand again.
Jintsuu grabbed on lightly. "Harder." Asashio instructed. Jintsuu squeezed tighter. "Still not hard enough, you need to squeeze until I can't do this." Asashio said, as she tightened her grip on Jintsuu's hand and started manipulating it with ease.
Daimlon couldn't help but be incredibly pleased with the results he was getting. He had high hopes for her as soon as he saw her, and she was already delivering.
"Here, try to move my hand like I just did yours." Asashio said, she gripped Jintsuu's hand as if it were mid-shake. Jintsuu attempted to manipulate Asashio's hand, but Asashio's hand would only budge a little before it ceased to move. It refused to move further than that unless Jintsuu forced it. "You just need to maintain a firm grip to make sure I can't manipulate it with ease." Asashio continued to lecture.
"Now squeeze my hand until I can't move yours." Asashio said. Jintsuu continued to silently and obediently listen. She actually seemed like she was being serious about the advice she was receiving, paying close attention. Jintsuu squeezed her hand again, and appeared to grasp on firmly enough. Asashio debated internally for several moments. "Close enough, it can still use work, but that will do for now." Asashio said.
"O-Okay... Thank you." Jintsuu said with a slight smile on her face.
"No one's ever shown you how to give a proper handshake before?" Asashio questioned, somewhat surprised.
Jintsuu paused for several seconds. "No." She said.
The two stood there in silence for several moments.
"Where's my greeting? Got something against fairies?" Nonna flew beside Asashio, glaring at her.
"Oh, sorry." Asashio said as she turned to face Nonna, who was floating right in front of her. "No, I don't, I just hadn't gotten to you yet." She said
Nonna flew right in front of Asashio's nose. This time it was Nonna who initiated the staring contest. The two just glared at each other for several seconds before Asashio gave Nonna a warm smile. "It's nice to meet you... Nonna, was it?" She said relatively softly.
Nonna just smiled back, and flew back a little, creating more space between the two. "Yeah, that's right. You seem nice, I'm sure Daimlon is proud to have you." Nonna said.
"Thank you. You don't seem too bad yourself." Asashio said, still wearing her warm smile.
Daimlon wished he could stay to observe further, but he wanted to get started on developing those tests for Jintsuu. "Well, I have work that needs to be done. Asashio, if you have any questions about anything at all, just ask Nonna. She'll show you around, and answer any questions with pleasure. Feel free to stop by my office if you need to talk, I have an open door policy." Daimlon said.
"Understood, Commander. Again, It's a pleasure to be here." Asashio said, she looked sharply into Daimlon's eyes.
Daimlon gave her a warm smile. "The pleasure is mine." Daimlon said calmly before looking up to the rest of the girls. "Make sure everyone gets a good night's rest, Nonna we have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Asashio and Jintsuu, you will be going on an expedition tomorrow, our resources are wearing thin." He said loudly.
"Don't worry, Commander, you can count on me." Asashio said confidently. Nonna simply gave a nod, while Jintsuu didn't make any confirmation at all. With that, Daimlon started back to his office.
It had been roughly thirty minutes since Daimlon had sat down at his desk to work on the tests that Jintsuu would be taking. At the moment, he was brainstorming ideas that would later be further refined into the tests themselves. He had accuracy tests, speed and agility tests, and unit cohesion tests along with many others written on his paper. Only those three topics were circled, confirming that they would be followed through for further refinement.
Daimlon's concentration was shot as there was a knock on the door. "Come in." He said loudly. Asashio walked through the door. He was taken off guard by who it was. "Asashio? What's up?" He asked as he placed his pen down on his desk, and interlocked his fingers.
She briskly walked over to the front of his desk, looking at him with a serious face. "I have concerns... I was hoping to address them if you had the time, sir." She said.
Daimlon had a decent idea of where the conversation was heading. "I always have time for all of you. What has you concerned?" He asked. Daimlon had to fight back a yawn that was beginning to creep it's way onto him.
"It's Jintsuu, sir." She explained coldly.
Daimlon leaned back in his chair, placing his right ankle on his left knee. "Don't worry, I'm well aware of why you are concerned.. We are currently working on the issue." He said professionally.
"I figured you might have known. I just wanted to make sure." She said, crossing her arms.
"That's what I've been working on since I left. How would you like to help me with helping her?" Daimlon asked.
Asashio's eyes immediately lit up. "I will always be willing to help you, sir." She said proudly, lowering her arms again.
Daimlon smiled at her. "Excellent. When I met you, you seemed to have a solid grasp on reading into people. I would like to ask that you observe her behavior, and report anything to me that would hinder her ability to perform as an adequate member of this fleet. Even if it's as simple as the way she walks, I want to know about it." Daimlon took his foot off his knee and sat up in his chair before continuing. "Furthermore, due to an incident earlier today, we are holding trials for her within the next week to identify her weaknesses. One of these trials will have her commanding someone while running a shooting course as a team. I want you to be her partner." He explained.
She listened intently, and didn't even have to think about her response. "Of course sir, I will keep a tab on all behavioral abnormalities, and notify you. I will also gladly help you by participating in the test as her partner." Asashio said proudly, placing her left hand on her hip, shifting her weight to her left leg. "I assume you want me to do something in particular, right?" She asked.
Daimlon was a little surprised. "You're sharp, I like that... That's correct. I want you to intentionally sabotage her performance, refusing to even move from the starting line until the time limit expires." He said.
Asashio gave him a somewhat puzzled look. "May I ask why? If we never leave the start point, you won't get to see her skills. Isn't that the whole point?" She asked.
"No. The point is to read further into her psych by inducing greater and greater amounts of stress on her. I want to see how she reacts when a squad member becomes insubordinate, and how she would go about picking up the slack. This way we get to see more of her leadership qualities than a regular test would, and it'll also show more about her personality." Daimlon explained professionally.
Asashio crossed her arms as she continued to pay close attention. "I also want to see how well she handles stressful situations. I know you don't know this, but Jintsuu has a long history of being dismissed from fleets, and no one appears to know why. I've been told to help her with this issue, but to scrap her if her problem persists. I've imposed the idea that if she scores poorly she will be scrapped. I'm hoping that the stress of the situation combined with the thought of being scrapped, simply because one of her own teammates refuses to help, will open her psych up like a book. The whole point of these tests is to determine what is causing her dismissal, as she apparently has no clue, so we can tackle the root of the problem." He finished finally, he interlocked his fingers as he did.
Asashio gave him a smirk. "I like the idea, and I fully support it. However, it could quickly backfire if Jintsuu can't tolerate the stress. Things could easily get messy." She said confidently.
"We're preparing for the worst. I highly doubt she would turn violent, but I'll take precautions for your safety just in case. Besides turning violent, there's not much she could do that would be of concern." He said reassuringly.
"Understood. When will this test take place?" She asked.
Daimlon leaned back in his chair. "Sometime within the next week. I will notify you the day before the test takes place." He said. He couldn't fight back the yawn this time, but made sure to suppress the sound.
"Of course, sir. It's getting late, so I should get going. I apologize for keeping you up." Asashio said, immediately turning around to head back for the door.
"Asashio." Daimlon said loudly, stopping her in her tracks. She turned around to look at him. "It doesn't matter how late it is, I don't care if I'm sleeping, if you need to talk to me, just knock on the door." He said as sincerely as he could. He wanted all of his girls to feel free to talk to him about anything, no matter the time.
She stared into his eyes for a few seconds. "Thank you, sir. I'll keep that in mind. Is there something else you wanted to talk about?" She asked.
Daimlon sat up and looked at her somewhat intensely to stress what he was about to say. "...No. I just want everyone to be able to talk to me whenever they need to." He said.
She smiled softly at him. "I'm glad to see your eyes didn't lie to me." She said.
"Neither did yours." He said with a sly grin on his face
Asashio turned around again, and headed for the door. "Goodnight, Commander." Asashio said as she opened the door.
"Goodnight Asashio, if you need anything, you know where to find me." Daimlon said as he started to clean his desk off to prepare for bed. Asashio left the room, and closed the door behind her.
Daimlon tucked his page of ideas away in a safe spot in his desk, and walked over to his bedroom door. He stepped into his room, closed the curtains on the window, and immediately began stripping down to his boxers and plain white T-shirt. He went ahead and crawled into bed, and made himself comfortable. The bed was incredibly soft, just how he liked it. He let out a deep sigh as he continued to think about everything that had happened in just a short twenty four hours. 'I really hope I'm right about this...' He thought, as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.