Being the commander of an entire fleet was tiring, more so if the commander had little to no experience in being one. So it wouldn't hurt that once in a while, Emir would go and indulge himself in his hobby: studying warships.

Walking down through the homeport with his notebook in hand, Emir scribbled down everything he had learnt while being in the homeport: from different types of weaponry, such as turrets, torpedoes and aircrafts; to the auxiliary equipment that supports the girls in their sorties, repair tools or submarine locators. However, while all of this was enjoyable for the most part; his research was still incomplete since he couldn't study one aspect of the shipgirls' equipment: their ships.

One would think it would be easy for the commander to get access to the information of his warships, but guess again. Yes, he had the authority, but the blueprints weren't in the home port anymore and apparently, neither Akashi nor Vestal (another repair ship) needed the blueprints to do their work, therefore they were fine with giving all of it back to their respective countries to be used in museums or be kept safe.

After learning that, Emir wandered the home port rather dejected; he was looking forward to learning more about the warships.

"Oh, aren't you?" queried a voice.

Hearing the unknown voice, Emir turned around, where he was met by a pair of glowing amber eyes. By this point Emir had seen many of the girls, so he could pinpoint factions with ease due to their clothing and mannerisms; as a result, the young man knew that this particular woman was from the Sakura Empire, the biggest giveaway being her horns that protruded out the sides of her heads. Though from what he could tell at first glance she held herself with high honour.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Emir," the boy greeted, holding out his hand for a shake.

The woman first glanced at his hand, before happily taking it into hers and lightly shaking it along with his. "A pleasure to meet you Shikikan, I'm Mikasa."

Upon hearing that name, Emir's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Wait did you say your name was-"

"Mikasa."

At that moment the only thought that was on Emir's mind was, "She's younger than I thought."

After explaining her situation to Emir and how she was revived in order to help Azur Lane, Mikasa then took Emir back to the Sakura Empire dormitory to show him her hobby: making model ships.

It was an amazing sight, all of the ships she had in her collection were the ships that were currently staying in Azur Lane. Not only were there ships from Sakura, but there were ships from nearly every faction he could think of; with their respective flagships being in the centre of the room.

"Impressive," was all Emir could utter as he panned across the room with sparkling eyes.

He crept his way around the room, gawking closely at the models. He then turned to Mikasa and asked her about how detailed the models were and with a bright smile, Mikasa made her way to the commander's side so that she could explain how the models were very accurate to their original: both on the inside and the outside.

"When I got these from Akashi, the parts that were given both made the inside of the ship and the outside,"- she then took out one of her models and presented it close to Emir- "if you look there are things inside."

Following the girl's suggestion, Emir peeked in between the ever so tiny windows and saw the small tables, chairs and other assortments of tiny furniture that brandished the inside of the model.

"That's amazing," Emir gasped with a wide childlike smile. "Where did Akashi get this?"

"She has a supplier overseas," Mikasa off-handedly mentioned, but her commander instead seemed to have come to a realisation.

"Is this where her scams are going into?" he thought, a bead of sweat dripping off the side of his head. However, in the end, he just kept it to himself until he could talk to Akashi again.

As the two continued to discuss the ships in Mikasa's collection, a certain fox-eared lady walked by and saw the young boy which caused her to stop.

"Oh, you came here for a visit, young man?" the woman asked, approaching the two.

Hearing her voice, Emir turned his head and immediately recognised her fiery red eyes. "Akagi."

When she had finally placed herself in front of the two, the carrier gave a polite bow before addressing her superior. "A good day to the both of you: Lady Mikasa; young man."

Though it was subtle, Emir could pick up the fact that when Akagi said his name her tone changed to become teasing-like: her voice slowing down and her eyes narrowing as the words flowed out of her smirking lips. Emir had only encountered the carrier twice, yet he could already tell that she seemed to enjoy picking on him.

"So what brought you here? When you should be back at the office," the girl interrogated, though her demeanour told Emir that she just wanted to joke with him as opposed to a scolding.

Explaining on his behalf, Mikasa assured the carrier that Emir was invited by her to check out her collection and was not slacking off. Akagi looked at the pair quizzically before shrugging the entire thing off. She then walked out of the room, but she didn't leave without giving Emir one last remark.

"Best behave yourself, you are in the presence of Lady Mikasa."

When the fox-eared girl was finally gone, Mikasa apologised on Akagi's behalf regarding the carrier's demeanour, even stating that Akagi always had a personality that enjoyed teasing many around her; the only exception to this was his mother and grandfather.

"My mom?" Emir asked, surprised.

"Yes, she was very close to your mother," Mikasa mentioned, "Akagi would never stop praising her. Those two were like sisters whenever they were side by side. So long as your mother was around Akagi was glistening like the sun itself."

This was dumbfounding for Emir since he would have never guessed the same Akagi could have had such a personality. All she's been showing Emir was a persona that loved to poke fun at or taunt him at every chance she could get.

"I have an idea!" Mikasa suddenly said.

"Wh-what is it?" Emir asked while recovering from the initial shock.

"Why don't I show you around the place," the woman suggested, a wide smile plastered on her face.

Emir then pondered about his work back in the office. As much as he wanted to go with Mikasa, he had paperwork. So, unfortunately, he couldn't go at that moment, but he made plans with the shipgirl to meet up after a week, which she seemed to take in stride.

Once a week has passed, Mikasa marched to the office and bursts through the two doors; as a result, the group of Warspite, Belfast, Bismarck and Emir all jumped at the unexpected visitor's entrance.

"Shikikan, it's the day for the tour!" the woman announced.

All the secretaries then looked at the commander who just then remembered his promise with the battleship. Quickly explaining the situation to the others, Emir then told Mikasa that he'll do his best to finish the paperwork he had early since it was only a small pile.

Understanding their plight, Mikasa allowed the group to finish their work, even lending a hand so it would be even easier. During the time she was working with the others, Mikasa was also in the middle of observing Emir; she watched as he conversed with the girls about the documents, making sure he received the proper data about every happenings regarding the home port.

"It seems that the recent commissions have earned us an extensive amount of money and oil to stay in operation," Warspite said, scanning over some financial papers.

"Yeah, while there is a threat that the Sirens could attack some of the routes, I've learnt that a majority of the requests are safe enough for our current situation," Emir replied.

"From what I can see, everything has been carefully managed," commented Bismarck, who was also working on finances.

"We were running low on cash after all the repairs, so we all rounded up every little thing we could," the commander answered. "Most of it was the missions, some were thanks to Akashi."

Hearing the name of the repair ship took everyone's attention away from their work. After all, Akashi was one of the few ships who was directly in charge of supplies around the home port, so she was constantly in direct contact with their finances. While that seemed good, the green-haired girl was also by far the biggest miser anyone could have ever met: she would put up items in her shop at ridiculous prices (for a limited time), or even straight up-sell things to her comrades to empty their pockets of every cash they have. One such example was the time Akashi got the girls to spend a massive amount of their hard-earned cash to buy clothes, even though they wouldn't have been normally expensive at all.

Knowing this, the girls nervously questioned exactly what Akashi had contributed; Emir explained that the repair ship did a job well done in making deals with suppliers to gain resources for everyone. He then added that he placed Akashi's partner, Shiranui, in charge of the money, which made the girls give small sighs of relief.

After that brief discussion regarding the finances and Akashi, the group returned to finishing all the paperwork. Once everything had been accounted for, everyone was served tea by Belfast, however before he could even get his cup Emir's arm was grabbed by Mikasa and was dragged out the room.

Excited for the tour, Mikasa took Emir all around the halls of the Sakura dormitory, which was all laced with floral wallpaper and lanterns. Unlike other dorms, Sakura was a plain-looking place with little to no decorations: apart from the occasional bonsai. However, where they lacked in interior design, they made up for in the exterior design: the entire dormitory was modelled after the traditional homes of the Japanese people, meaning it took more room than most dormitories and rather than rows, upon rows of rooms, Sakura Empire's dormitory were several collections of large towers that also surrounded a glowing pink, cherry blossom tree decorated with hanging banners. As for the inside of each room, Emir was at awe at the size of one bedroom: it was as large as his office!

"Wow, it's even overlooking the sea," the young commander said in awe.

"Yes, you could look at it while having a good drink and accompanying it with some dangos," replied the woman.

As Emir leaned up against the railing of the balcony, he let the salty air brush the skin of his face while he stared at the glowing blue waters. During this, Emir was brought back to when he was young; when he, his sister and mother went to the beach where he was taught to look at the sea as a jewel.

It was a crystal clear memory, since it was his last memory of his mother.

"These azure lanes, they may seem terrifying, but it is something that is filled with great treasures, even itself is a treasure. Remember that well Emir, you too Azur, the sea and its mysteries are jewels that will never lose their shine."

Those words echoed in Emir's head as he longingly stared at the ocean. With his eyes closed he whispered, "I remembered mom."

Mikasa noticed her leader's change in demeanour and wanted to leave him for a little bit longer, however time was of the essence due to the fact they took extra time to do some office work. So she tore him out of his memory to remind him of the tour that he was on.

"It seemed you were enjoying looking out into the sea," said the battleship.

"Guess you can say that," the boy replied, "though it was really more of a bittersweet memory."

Mikasa realised that it must've been personal so she didn't pursue the topic any longer.

Their next destination was the core of the Sakura Empire's dormitory: the Sakura tree.

From afar the sight was eye-catching already, but when placed in front of it, Emir couldn't help but be in awe at its majesty: dancing, cherry pink petals and colourful banners that hung across the trunk. It was amazing!

"Lady Mikasa!" a voice exulted.

In front of the tree, sitting on some mats, were two battleship sisters: Nagato and Mutsu, enjoying some tea accompanied with sweets.

"Oh, are you two enjoying some time off?" Mikasa asked, as she and Emir approached the two small girls.

Nagato replied with a nod before explaining that Mutsu insisted that she take a break from being the flagship and just enjoy the surrounding scenery. Though she admitted that at first she wasn't all for the idea, however Mutsu's cries were relentless, so she ended up joining her younger sister in a play date by the tree.

The girl's eyes then landed on Emir, who straggled behind Mikasa. Immediately realising that it was the commander, Nagato formally introduced herself with a polite bow, "Good afternoon Shikikan, I am Nagato the flagship of the Sakura Empire."

Surprised at how polite she was, Emir quickly responded with a bow of his own. "Hello, its nice to meet you too Nagato. I'm Emir, your proxy commander."

This was an odd situation for Emir, since not many of the ships before his visits would readily greet him in such a manner. He stood there with his head facing the floor and sweat dripping at the tip of his nose, wondering just how long he was supposed to hold that position.

Luckily for him not very long because Mikasa then gave him the signal to raise his head. "You can raise your head Shikikan."

Sighing in relief the commander then slowly raised his head, but once finished a head then popped in front of Emir, causing the boy to jump back slightly.

Now in front of him was the slightly smaller and more energetic Mutsu who was staring at him with sparkling eyes. Recovering from his shock, Emir introduced himself to the girl, but instead of getting a hello back he got a series of questions blasted at him as quick as an all out assault.

"You're the new commander? You look young, how old are you? Will the other come back? Want to play with us?"

Due to all the questioning, Emir couldn't utter a single answer, all of the ones that he attempted to make just ended up as messy stutters. Seeing the struggle that her commander was going through, Mikasa quickly stepped in and calmed Mutsu down, telling her that Emir would be more than happy to answer her questions so long as he gets them in moderation. As it was a request from the grandmother of the Sakura Empire, Nagato also told her sister to calm herself so as to not cause their leader unnecessary stress.

Sitting down on some mats with tea in their hands, the group began to discuss matters regarding the base after Emir had answered all of Mutsu's questions, which was a lot. Their conversations regarding the base were fairly similar to all the other talks he had with the previous flagships, but Emir was curious as to what it was like being a flagship when an ancestral ship was around.

"It is truly an honour to have Lady Mikasa watch over us," the girl answered, "having her within our ranks has greatly increased morale."

"I see, though from what I can see, you are the most glad she is here aren't you Nagato?" questioned the commander, noticing the elated tone the girl had while she spoke.

It seemed he was right on the money as well since the battleship turned immediately red afterwards; her gaze then dropped, and she began to twiddle her fingers.

"She is our ancestral ship, and was the leader of the combined fleet as I am now," said the girl sheepishly.

A white gloved hand then landed on Nagato's head and gently patted her auburn hair. Looking over her shoulder, Nagato came face to face with a smiling Mikasa.

"I'm glad to be here to see you youngins grow as well," Mikasa said, causing Nagato's eyes to widen and be laced with tears from the sheer joy she felt.

It was now sundown, Mikasa and Emir were returning to the main building. On the way there the two were discussing the tour; for the commander it was a nice break after a day of hard work; meanwhile for the battleship it was a time well spent as she managed to take a peek at her leader's skills while also spending some time with him as a fellow enthusiast of warships. Their conversation then took them at the end of their day with the Nagato class ships, where Emir expresses his favour for Nagato's calm personality despite her appearance.

"She's definitely grown from that one mistake," Mikasa muttered under breath, but it was still picked up by Emir.

"Hmm mistake?" Emir asked.

Realising what she had just blurted out, Mikasa immediately covered her mouth. With a raised eyebrow Emir stared at the women, but noticed that she wasn't going to tell him and was even avoiding eye contact, so he decided not to prod.

"Well so long as she's capable now," Emir began, "then there is no need to worry about the past."

While Mikasa knew that this wasn't exactly the truth, she still appreciated that he had not dug up old scars. With a calm smile, Mikasa then continued to follow her commander back to the main building to end the day on a high note.

However, what the two didn't know was that those scars would have to be revisited very soon.

So you readers might be thinking, is this chapter later than usual? Well, to answer that... it is. But as Bob Ross said, there are no mistakes just happy little accidents and this was exactly that because the last chapter of this portion of the story is being published on the last week of the month. Go figure.

Well anyways yeah, I am sorry for the late update I was stuck on writer's block on how to approach this story and as you can already tell it was less about the tour itself, but more on the foreshadowing of future events albeit super obscured. So I can wholeheartedly admit it may not be a beautifully crafted piece of work (not that the other ones were any better) but it is necessary to push the narrative.

Speaking of narrative, I've got some big news:

As you all know my update timings have been fairly reasonable while quarantine has been happening, however while that is good and all the next portion of the story (which is the meat of this entire fanfic) is a one way road and I don't think I'll be able to do it the same way I've been doing it while in quarantine.

First reason: I've been doing it chronologically. While this is obviously the correct way, by making chapters chronologically I'm having to push certain important plot points to back of my head, so that I could rack my brain for ideas for the chapter following the previous one (example being this chapter). I want to change this, so that I could tackle those plot points first and then fill in the rest as I go back and re-read the previous chapters, then contrast that with newer ones. Meaning I won't be making chapters in order.

Second reason: School's starting back up soon. I'm going to be entering my first year in university, so I have to put that as my priority. There's no other reason for this other than I want to be able to adapt and enter the new school year without having to think about squeezing chapters in between my schedule.

Third reason and its the most important one: I need a break. I love making stories, don't get me wrong, but having to only work on one constantly with the way I have been doing has pretty much tired me out, though not too terribly. This pretty much links in with the first reason, in that I just want to stretch out a period of time where I'll be jumping from plot point to plot point so I can get a hand full and not hit too many writer's blocks.

Now this is all of course super petty, and you guys might laugh at me for having such reasons, but that's ok. I just wanted to inform you guys of the reasons why I am dropping my regular writing schedule. You guys will know when the story is returning since I will publish a oneshot for this and I'll tell you there.

Anyways, that's my rant over and done with, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. As usual feel free to tell me all your thoughts about the chapter, positive and/or negative and thank you all so much for reading, I hope to see you all next chapter :D