Five days had passed since the Abyssal planes had flown over the Tokyo Bay Naval Base in Yokosuka, and since then, things had only gotten more and more hectic. It was now glaringly obvious that the Abyssals were indeed planning a major offensive strike against Okinawa, and the enemy was basically flaunting their strength, not even bothering to hide their activity from radar or sonar. Naturally, International Fleet Command had responded in kind, and they had assembled an enormous coalition navy at the Tokyo Bay Base in order to combat the threat. More and more personnel, ships, and equipment arrived at the base everyday, and the IJN sailors who operated at the docks were certainly being put to work.

Rear Admiral Richard Drake stood in front of the window behind his desk in the main office, staring out at the sea where he watched a carrier strike group sail in from the horizon. He didn't know what country it belonged to, but it would just be adding to the many other task forces that had already arrived at the base.

"Ah, a carrier?" Kaga noted as she joined him by the window.

Drake nodded. "Another one. I never even knew we had this much dock space…"

"I am more impressed by how quickly all these countries have managed to coordinate themselves and arrive at our base," Kaga said. "Doing so with such speed… This certainly wouldn't have been possible back in my time."

"Yeah, technology has really improved since World War II, which is the main reason why we're able to communicate with each other so efficiently. A good thing too, because a lot of wars are lost because of logistical failures. I guess that's why they have the really high-ranking admirals at INFCOM HQ," Drake added.

"So which country does that carrier belong to, sir?" Kaga then asked, her hazel eyes still fixed on the approaching ship.

"I'm not sure," Drake admitted.

He squinted as he tried to get a better impression of the ship's silhouette, but from this distance, it was hard to make an accurate guess. Though the Navy had trained him in identifying warships, the events of the past few years had understandably shifted focus onto the Abyssals, so it was more important for a sailor to be able to identify the class of an Abyssal rather than a standard ship. There was also the fact that after the Great Churning, the world navies had undergone massive overhauls, so many of the new warships were relatively unfamiliar to the average sailor. Still, as a rear admiral, Drake was not supposed to be average, and so he really should have been able to identify the carrier.

"The personnel from America are supposed to be arriving today, correct?" Kaga said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Perhaps it is an American carrier."

"The Americans are coming today?" Drake blinked.

"It was in the briefing from today that International Fleet Command sent," Kaga informed him, hiding an amused smile. "I take it you haven't read it yet?"

"Yeah…" Drake admitted, embarrassed. Now that he had taken a second look at the carrier, it could very well be one of the new Liberty class vessels.

The thought of having more American personnel at the base was something that Drake was actually not looking forward to. Ever since he had been promoted to rear admiral and had been posted in this base in Japan, Drake had pretty much been able to work however he wanted. INFCOM sent him orders, and he had to write reports to them daily, but there wasn't actually a commanding officer on base that he needed to report to. During his time in the Kancolle Program, Drake was basically his own boss for the most part, and for once in his naval career, he was the one in charge. However, now that the Americans were arriving, he was sure that there would be at least a handful of people who would outrank him. It was back to the days of saluting and being at the beck and call of his superiors… He just hoped that they wouldn't make him do mandatory physical training and wake up at 0400 like they used to back when he still served aboard ships.

Eh, at least it's only temporary. Even so, going back to that sort of lifestyle now that he has truly tasted freedom would be awful, so he was hoping that his superiors would go easy on him in terms of rules and regulations since he was technically an admiral as well now.

"Did Fleet Command issue an official battle plan for the defense of Okinawa yet?" Kaga asked her admiral. "Or perhaps it was in one of the reports that you missed, sir?"

Drake gave a her a disapproving glance. "That last part wasn't necessary… But no, there's been no official battle plan that I know of. Considering people and ships are still arriving on the base, I guess they're waiting for everyone to get here first."

"But the Abyssals could attack at any time, could they not?"

"Yeah. Maybe INFCOM didn't have time to put together a coordinated plan yet? I don't know. I suppose we were too hasty in praising them for their logistical skills," Drake smirked.

Kaga frowned. "But this battle seems like it will be the most important one of the war so far. Losing Okinawa to the Abyssals would be unthinkable…"

"Yeah."

"... Are you worried about the upcoming battle, sir?"

Drake raised an eyebrow as he turned to her. "Am I worried?"

Kaga lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry. That wasn't appropriate for me to ask."

Drake thought he understood what she meant now. "... I'll be fine. With so many other admirals and assets on our side, I feel a lot more confident fighting with them… It's just that… I really need to win this battle."

Kaga noticed that he said 'I' and not 'we.' "Sir?"

"I mean, aside from this possibly being the turning point in the war, I just can't lose to them again," Drake said, his eyes darkening. "Every time I feel like I've beaten them somehow, they just come back and hand me another defeat. Even after we sunk the Submarine Princess…"

Their fleet had not gone on any sorties after the successful defense of Hachijo-jima, so Kaga could only assume that he was referring to the meeting with the Abyssals.

"They've embarrassed me for the last time," Drake continued, a noticeable edge in his voice. "I refuse to let them keep pushing me to the ground. I…"

He noticed he was beginning to ramble, so he stopped himself. "... So yeah, I just don't want to lose again. I guess that goes for everyone, though."

"Indeed it does. And we won't lose," Kaga assured him with a small but confident smile.

"Admiral Drake, you are wanted at the docks," Ooyodo's voice then called out.

Drake frowned. "Guess that means that those are the Americans after all…"

Since the upcoming operation had piled up a fair amount of work on Drake's desk, Kaga stayed behind to continue at it while Drake began heading towards the docks. It would probably take some time before the ships actually found a berth and the personnel disembarked, so Drake's pace was fairly leisurely as he strolled through the base's streets.

Unlike the vast majority of the time, the base was actually bustling with activity today, and had been for the past few days. Sailors, most of them Japanese, walked throughout the streets, some of them on break while others lugged around heavy objects or carried them in the golf carts that were present on the base. However, there were also a lot of foreign sailors, most of them German or French since those two countries' fleets had already arrived at the base. None of the sailors running around the base paid him any attention, which was expected since everyone was busy and nobody was really eager to pay their respects to a foreign navy's admiral.

Unfortunately, there were some downsides that came with the arrival of all the new temporary personnel. Firstly, there was the crowding factor. The spare apartment block that remained empty for situations like this was filling up fast, and some of the more higher-ranking officers actually decided to live off-base instead of cramming themselves into an apartment. The restaurants on the base were also often packed, and though Houshou and Mamiya were able to make a good amount of money off these new arrivals, Drake himself was annoyed by the lack of seats and higher wait times. Mamiya's restaurant even ran out of forks yesterday, so Drake had been forced to resort to chopsticks, which still gave him trouble despite his having lived in Japan for months now. On top of all that, there was the fact that a bunch of sailors (mostly men) were now living on a base filled with some of the world's most beautiful women, which was almost always a recipe for disaster. Technically the sailors weren't allowed to have relations with the ship girls and Drake hadn't heard of any incidents yet, but who knew what actually went on behind closed doors.

When Drake got to the docks, he found that it was packed with sailors who were rushing around, probably trying to organize resource drops or where the next ship should dock and things like that. Luckily Drake didn't need to deal with any of that stuff himself, so he leaned on a pillar of one of the dock buildings, crossed his arms, and stared out at the ocean, waiting for the American fleet to arrive. The cool spring breeze softly tickled his skin, and he could see the sun beginning to peek out from behind the clouds.

"Hey, you're Rear Admiral Drake, right?"

Drake turned around to see a man with light brown hair and brown eyes. He was dressed in the green slacks of the United States Liberation Air Force, and he seemed familiar.

"Yeah. You're that pilot who flew us to California," Drake recalled.

The man smiled. "Yep. The name's Brackett, by the way. I was just curious if you remembered me."

"Remembered your face, but not your name," Drake nodded. "So you're flying in resources again, I guess?"

"Actually, no. Me and my air squadron are stationed here for combat," Brackett said, gesturing behind him where there were a few more pilots milling about.

"Oh, the Air Force is participating in this mission too?" Drake noted as he glanced at the other USLAF personnel. "I knew the Imperial Air Force was, but I didn't think we were as well."

"Yeah. Well, not the entire Air Force. It's just the squadrons that are normally stationed on Okinawa," Brackett explained. "My squadron in particular usually flies from there to here to America and stuff, so right now they've just told us to use this as our home base until the operation's over."

"Ah, I see," Drake replied. He certainly did not want to be in their place during the fight, as casualties among human pilots who faced Abyssal aircraft were always insanely high, which is why it normally wasn't even attempted anymore.

"Man, must be nice to be on this base with all these pretty girls," Brackett then said, though currently they were surrounded by IJN dock workers, so the statement seemed a bit weird. "So you get lucky yet, Admiral?"

Drake smirked. "What, and get my ass kicked by the Japanese government for messing around with a ship girl? Our navy would probably fire me as well."

"Yeah… Probably still worth it, though."

The two of them chuckled at that, and Brackett said his farewell afterwards and headed into the base. Drake waited by the docks for some time before he finally watched the carrier and her escorting ships pull into harbor. He then had to wait even longer before people started coming out from the ships, but when they did, he put away his phone which he had been using as a timekiller and quickly straightened himself up.

One of the first people to exit the carrier and arrive on the docks was Fleet Admiral Cassius, and Drake snapped a salute as the old officer approached. Cassius returned his salute.

"Rear Admiral Drake. How have things been at the base?"

"Fine, sir. It's gotten fairly busy in the past few days, but as far as I know, there have been no major issues."

Cassius nodded. "Good to hear."

The rest of the group then arrived as well. It seemed like most of the regular sailors were still stuck aboard their ships as they finished the docking procedure, so the only ones exiting right now were the upper ranks. The familiar faces of Iowa, Saratoga, and Gambier Bay were also among the officers, and there was one other girl with light brown hair and blue eyes who Drake didn't recognize. She looked to be a ship girl, so Drake assumed she was Intrepid, the new carrier who was found around the same time as Gambier Bay.

Drake saluted the other officers, most of whom were indeed a higher rank than he was. There were only a handful of them, though.

"This is the new fleet carrier, Intrepid. " Cassius introduced. "I believe you were sent word of her discovery, but here she is in the flesh."

The ship girl in question stepped up and saluted. "Sir."

Drake saluted back as usual. Looks like I was right about having to do a lot of saluting…

"Well, anyway, we should get settled in here," Cassius said, looking around the base. "Is there going to be enough space…? Looks fairly crowded around here. Took us a while to find a docking spot too."

"The main apartments should be big enough to hold all the American sailors, but some officers have chosen to temporarily live in Tokyo or the suburbs," Drake told him. "As for the ship girls, there is plenty of free space in their dorms, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Where're you living, Rear Admiral?" one of the officers asked him. Judging by his stars, he seemed to be a vice admiral.

"I, uh, have a small flat on the edge of the base, sir," Drake said, not wanting to reveal that he probably had the most space and the most convenient location among all of them.

"Hey! We can stay with Admiral Drake then!" Iowa cheered.

"...No." Cassius flat-out rejected her. "But I suppose it makes sense that you have the prime location here, Rear Admiral, since this is your home base after all."

"Ah, the Americans!"

Drake turned around to see Fleet Admiral Umi walking towards the group with a grin. She and the Sasebo Fleet had actually been the first ones to arrive at Tokyo Bay, which made sense since she was the overall commander of this operation.

"Fleet Admiral Umi," Cassius nodded to her.

"Fleet Admiral Cassius! Welcome to Japan! You are looking well," Umi greeted with her accented English. "Is Admiral Richard here going to show you around?"

Cassius looked at Drake before turning back to the Japanese admiral. "Not particularly. Did you need him for something?"

"Indeed. I have just finished with the basic structure of the fleet for our upcoming operation, so I was going to give it out to all the admirals. I will be sure to send one to you as soon as you have found a chance to rest."

"Right, thank you. Well, he's all yours."

With that, Fleet Admiral Cassius and his group headed off towards the interior of the base, leaving Umi and Drake together on the docks. The clamor of the IJN sailors went on in the background, almost drowning out the soft sound of rolling waves.

"That guy's a real hard-ass, isn't he," Umi laughed, now switching to Japanese.

Drake just stood there, unsure of whether it was appropriate to laugh along with her at a joke made at his superior's expense.

"But anyway, here."

Umi handed Drake one of the manila folders from the small stack she was carrying under her arm. The American curiously opened it, revealing a packet of papers within. Labeled on the front cover were the words, 'OPERATION SEPPUKU' in English.

"Ominous name," Drake remarked.

Umi smirked. "It's what we will be doing if we fail, haha! Besides, I'm sure a lot the foreign officers won't understand it anyway, so I thought I would have fun with it."

"Right…"

"Please read that over as soon as you can," Umi continued. "Once you do, you'll notice that I structured the fleets a little differently. I think it is for the best this way, given the scale of this battle."

"Differently?" Drake repeated, flipping through the pages to see if he could find what she was talking about.

"Basically I have decided to break up the fleets and instead classify them based on ship type," Umi clarified. "For example, you won't be commanding the girls you're used to, but instead you'll be in charge of all standard carrier ship girls."

Drake raised an eyebrow as Umi spoke and he finally located the page with the fleet divisions on it. "Wouldn't it be better to just keep the fleets together? I mean, those girls know me by now, and I know them. I'll be commanding new ship girls in this formation."

"Are you saying you are only able to command girls you know?"

"You know that's not what I meant," Drake said with a frown. "I trained every ship girl in my fleet, and they're used to my command by now. It seems disadvantageous to split us up."

"Aw, is Admiral Richard getting possessive of his girls now?" Umi smirked at him.

God, she can be annoying when she wants to, Drake thought, not even bothering to give that a verbal reply.

Umi laughed again. "Relax, it's a joke, a joke! I do see your point… But think about it this way. If we have it so that all the Kancolle commanders are all commanding their individual fleets, what's going to happen if we need a concentrated carrier air strike on one part of the battlefield? Or if we need a battleship charge to break through the enemy lines? Or if we need the submarines to head to different locations to harass the enemy in specific places? In a battle of this scale, those things happen, and if we are just commanding our fleets individually, we will spread ourselves too thin."

Drake thought it over. She does have a point…

"Why me for the carriers, though?" Drake asked. Considering how important air power was in modern naval combat, that was a huge responsibility he was being given.

"Your secretary ship is a carrier, no? On top of that, you nearly sank the Airfield Princess when you sortied with the Kido Butai. I think you are qualified, unless you are saying otherwise."

Drake shook his head. Outright admitting that you couldn't handle something you were assigned was akin to career suicide in the military. "I'll do it."

"Great! Start formulating a battle plan now, and you can get to know the other carriers as well if you want. We'll be counting on you, okay?"

Drake only managed a nod before Umi hurried away, presumably to deliver the rest of the formation outlines.

Well… Formulating a battle plan right now is out of the question until I can coordinate with the other commanders, Drake thought as he looked down at the packet. But I guess I can read through it and see what I can do for now. I should also probably let the carriers on base know that I'll be commanding them for the upcoming sortie.

Heading back towards the Administrative Building, Drake sighed as he walked. Though he had to admit that Umi's plan made sense, he still didn't like the idea of not commanding his own fleet during battle. Was it true that he was attached to them now? Or did he simply want to hoard the fruits of his training for himself and prevent anyone else from getting a taste? He assumed it was the latter, but given that such a way of thinking was dumb, he sighed again at himself.

"You're looking down, Admiral."

Drake turned to see Zuikaku, who was grinning at him teasingly. She was by herself, which was rare.

"Where's Shoukaku?" Drake asked, wondering why Zuikaku wasn't with her sister.

"I think she's in the baths… Why're you asking? You like my sister better than me, don't you?"

Drake smirked at her. "And what if I do?"

"Right, because she's too nice to you," Zuikaku scoffed. "No wonder you'd like her."

"Calm down, I don't actually like her better. I try to treat everyone equally," Drake said, amused. "And she's not 'too nice to me.' Do you know how many times she's made passive-aggressive comments whenever I let the work pile up and she has to put in overtime?"

"Heh. Passive-aggressive is being nice. If I were in her place, I'd do without the 'passive' part," Zuikaku said in a boastful tone.

Drake shook his head as he continued walking. "I can't even imagine speaking to my superiors the way some of you girls talk to me…"

Zuikaku kept pace with him, apparently walking with him since she wasn't doing anything in particular. "Yeah, but you don't really mind, right?"

"I mean… If someone heard you talking to me that way, there would be unpleasant rumors about how I let my subordinates walk all over me."

Zuikaku giggled. "Then I won't talk that way in front of anyone else. That okay, sir?"

"Yeah, yeah."

The two continued on in silence for a bit before Drake decided that he may as well just tell Zuikaku about the formations in the upcoming battle now.

"By the way, the fleet's going to change a bit for the next battle. I'm going to be in charge of all the carriers, so we won't be fighting with our usual composition."

Zuikaku blinked in surprise. "Wait, why? Seems kind of sudden."

"Yeah, I'd prefer to keep the fleet together, but it does make sense to split the ship girls up by ship type for a battle of this scale."

"Hm… So I'll still be part of your fleet, right?"

"It's all the standard carriers, so yeah. Also I'll still have my escorting destroyers and light cruisers, I think."

Zuikaku smiled. "Ah, the other girls won't be too happy about being placed under a different command."

"Oh? Didn't know you all had such a high opinion of me," Drake said with another smirk.

Zuikaku blushed. "T-that's not what I said!"

"Right…"

Zuikaku looked away. "... It's just nice to have a commander you can count on, you know? At least, that's what everyone else feels, I think…"

Drake couldn't hold back a small grin. "That's high praise coming from you. I'm flattered."

"Well don't be!" Zuikaku shouted, still blushing.

"Okay, jeez," Drake backed off, though he was still smiling a bit. "Anyway, this carrier group is going to include some foreign ship girls, so make sure you get along with them, okay?"

"Hmph. If I can get along with an American commander, I can get along with anybody," Zuikaku said.

"You sound confident, and yet you can't even get along with your fellow IJN carriers," Drake pointed out, referring to Kaga.

"That's completely different!" Zuikaku shouted. "As long as they don't annoy me, then I won't have a problem with them."

Her expression then grew more serious. "... So this is the decisive battle, huh?"

"More or less," Drake agreed. "The war won't be over after this, but whoever wins will have a huge advantage. We can't lose this one."

"No pressure," Zuikaku chuckled nervously.

Drake shrugged. "I'm sure everyone knows the stakes. You can almost reach out and touch the tension in the air."

"That's true…" Zuikaku looked down, but then perked up again. "In that case, we won't lose! You're talking to the former head of Japan's carrier force, sir! I'll bring victory to the fleet, just watch!"

"That's the spirit," Drake nodded. "There's no way I'm going to be defeated either, so you're in good hands. As long as you follow my orders, we're going to win."

"Haha, listen to us. I just hope we aren't being a little too confident," Zuikaku grinned.

"Heh. Maybe -"

Drake stopped as he noticed he hit something, then turned to his side a bit to see a group of girls walking by. They looked to be ship girls of a destroyer class, and apparently he had accidentally ran into the one with the purple hair tied with a bell into a long side ponytail while he was talking to Zuikaku. Before he could apologize, the girl glared at him.

"Watch where you're going, you piece of shit!"

The other girls quickly pulled her away and scurried off before Drake could even say anything back, though he was a bit too shocked to do so anyway.

"Uh… Did I hear that right?" he asked, blinking in confusion at the retreating destroyers.

Zuikaku sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. That's Akebono, a destroyer from the Sasebo Base, I think. She's pretty rude in general, but she seems to have an even stronger hate for authority figures…"

"Damn. I can't even imagine how hard I'd get my ass beaten if I called one of my superiors a 'piece of shit,'" Drake said while shaking his head. "Well, whatever. I've been called worse, honestly, but she makes you look like a saint, Zuikaku."

"Oh, please. Don't even begin to compare me to her."

The two of them then went into the Administrative Building, where Drake unfortunately had to get back to work. He asked why Zuikaku was following him around, but she just shrugged and said she was bored. He personally didn't have a problem with it, so he just allowed her to do what she wanted. However, when the two of them reached the main office, they found that it was now packed with IJN sailors and ship girls alike. Fleet Admiral Miiro and Fleet Admiral Umi were both in there as well, and a bunch of other officers were present as well. There seemed to be no sense of organization as the group of people in the packed office chattered among themselves.

"Wow, it's crowded in here," Zuikaku noted with distaste.

"Good thing I have a private office," Drake replied. Kaga had looked up from her work when she noticed Drake and Zuikaku walk in, so the rear admiral jerked his thumb towards the hallway to let Kaga know to come to the private office instead.

Drake and Zuikaku headed down the hall to Drake's office as Kaga slowly pushed her way through the crowd. Drake opened the door to the office, but to his surprise, it was already occupied. Seated at the desk with her legs propped up on it was Gangut, the Russian battleship Drake had seen back in London. In her hand was a glass bottle of Scotch, and she grinned as Drake entered.

"Ah, it's the wolf cub from the ball!" she greeted in English. "Do you remember old Gangut? Ahaha!"

"Ball…?" Zuikaku repeated as Kaga finally arrived.

"There was a ball at London that we had to attend," Kaga informed her, but her blank expression took on a hint of surprise as she saw Gangut seated at the desk. "Uh… Admiral…?"

"What the hell are you doing in my office?" Drake asked Gangut. "And why the fuck are you drinking my Scotch! Do you know how much that cost?!"

"Ahaha! Don't worry, Cub, I saved some for you! Come drink with me!" Gangut merely laughed again.

"Did you really hide alcohol in one of your desk drawers, sir?" Kaga asked with a flat, disapproving tone.

"Wait, you all went to a ball!?" Zuikaku repeated, still fixated on that. "So you danced and stuff? Ew!"

"No, we did not," Drake said, still glaring at Gangut. "That would have been awkward as fuck… It was just some sort of social event. More like a gala than a ball, to be honest."

"Ah, excuse me."

The trio standing in the doorway to Drake's office parted to let a short girl with white hair through.

"Verniy, you're back," Gangut said to the girl. "So?"

"They don't sell vodka at the store here."

"Eh, they don't?"

"How can you be asking for vodka too when you're sitting there drinking my Scotch!" Drake yelled in disbelief.

"And who the hell's Verniy?" Zuikaku asked. "That's Hibiki you're talking to."

"I was called 'Verniy' when I was transferred to Russia after the war," Hibiki said, turning to Zuikaku.

"Why is everyone standing in the doorway?" a new voice asked, and the group looked to see Bismarck walking towards Drake's office.

The blonde battleship wore a look of confusion as she took in the scene, then peeked in through the doorway and saw Hibiki inside and Gangut seated at the desk. Frowning, Bismarck pushed her way into the office.

"Well, it seems some untermensch have crawled their way in here," Bismarck spat with a condescending smirk.

"Oho? Fascist scum like you has no right to talk to me like that," Gangut shot back, pointing the bottle at Bismarck.

"Please settle this elsewhere," Kaga cut in dispassionately. "And Miss Gangut, that is the Admiral's desk you are seated at. Please get up from there."

With a long sigh, Gangut complied, standing up and heading out of the office, but she made sure to give Bismarck a mocking smile on her way out. Bismarck glared back.

"You're not taking that with you," Drake stopped Gangut before she could leave, referring to the bottle she was carrying.

"But this is the only good alcohol I could find on this base!" Gangut whined.

"Yeah, which is why I'm not letting you have it," Drake replied, taking the bottle back.

"Oh?" Gangut smirked as she pulled Drake in by the collar and licked his cheek. The move was so sudden and weird that Drake was too shocked to respond until Gangut and Hibiki had already left.

"... Gross," Zuikaku said. "Just what exactly did you do with her at the ball, sir?"

Drake frowned as he wiped away Gangut's lick with the back of his sleeve. He sat down at his desk and placed the glass bottle back into the drawer at the bottom of the desk, though it was more than halfway empty by now.

"I'd tell you to take care avoiding any diseases from her Slavic saliva, but judging by your own mixed mutt-like ancestry, I suppose you should be fine," Bismarck remarked.

"Wow, lucky me," Drake responded sarcastically. I can't seem to get any respect today, huh? "So did you come here for a reason, or are you just here to annoy me with your Nazi nonsense?"

Bismarck scowled, but she chose not to respond to his jab. "I am here to confirm something: is it true that we will be fighting outside of our normal fleets for the upcoming operation?"

"Yeah. Maybe you'll get to be under the command of one of your Aryan admirals this time," Drake spat bitterly, now in a worse mood after all that had happened this morning.

"That would be ideal, but I believe the battleships are under the command of Fleet Admiral Umi of the IJN," Bismarck said.

"Right…" Drake flipped through the packet he had received from Umi to confirm. "How'd you even know that?"

"One of my comrades heard it from Admiral Helmholtz," Bismarck said. "But still, I don't understand why we are splitting up our fleets. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of training together?"

"Well… The training I gave you is still going to help you even if you're not directly fighting with me," Drake pointed out. "Also, it just makes more sense to split the fleets up by ship type for a battle this large. Just don't do something stupid and get yourself killed, because I won't be there to save you if you do."

"Hmph. As if I would sink that easily," Bismarck haughtily proclaimed.

"You got wrecked by a Swordfish before, so…"

"T-that was in the past!" Bismarck flushed red.

"Sure. But yeah, you should be fine. Fleet Admiral Umi is… Well, she's a fleet admiral, so I guess she has to be somewhat competent," Drake said. "You'll be in the same fleet as Gangut and Iowa, though…"

Bismarck frowned in distaste. "Tch. Unfortunate, but there is nothing I can do about that. Which fleet will you be commanding, sir?"

"I'm in charge of all the carriers," Drake said, leaning back in his chair. "The High Admirals seem to think that I'm some sort of carrier officer for some reason."

"You do have four carriers in your regular fleet," Zuikaku pointed out.

Drake shrugged. "I guess. Technically speaking, I actually might be the most experienced when it comes to ship girl carriers, but that's in relative terms. Before I came here, I actually never served aboard a carrier… I mean, I still haven't aside from the couple days in Los Angeles, but whatever."

"But your knowledge of carriers seems sufficient," Kaga said. "I have not noticed any major flaws in your understanding of our battle techniques."

"I studied carrier strategy and battle theory like everyone else in the navy," Drake simply responded. "Admittedly I was always near the top of the class, but yeah, that's pretty much where all of my knowledge about carriers comes from. I have no actual experience with them."

"You had no actual experience with ship girls either, but you still managed," Kaga said. "I think you will do fine, sir."

"Hm… You know, as long as I have you here to help me, then I think so too."

"Yuck," Zuikaku gagged. "Do you two need the room to yourselves?"

"Zuikaku, what have I told you about acting like a brat?" Kaga admonished.

"'Brat'?! How dare you!"

"All right, all right," Drake broke it up. "Unfortunately, I've got a ton of work to do, so I'd prefer if you two didn't argue in here."

"Apologies, sir," Kaga immediately said, and Zuikaku merely crossed her arms and stuck up her nose.

Drake looked over the packet again. "Actually, first we should form up the new fleet…"