"Don't even come here, you, shitty admiral!", the purple haired girl smacked the top of her table, making the bells in her hair ring.
"Yo!", Hara approached the table, completely ignoring the girl sitting in the corner. "I see both you and Mr Crab are in good health, Oboro?", he patted crab's shell delicately.
"Yes! I've been taking a good care of it!", the blonde answered energetically. "Much thanks to your help, admiral!"
A few months earlier Oboro was struck in combat on heavy seas. Heavy blow made her lose balance and she ended up on the shore of a small island in the Indian Ocean. After successful search and rescue operation, a crab was found in her smokestack. She decided to adopt it and after heated discussion, managed to persuade Hara to let her keep it.
The admiral then addressed the girl sitting opposite to Oboro.
"How's your adjustment going? Is there anything you need? I see you've made friends already, I'm glad to see it."
"I am fine indeed, master. Thank you for your concern.", pink haired girl stood up and bowed down. "Please forgive this unconventional hair colour. It seems I fell victim to the mutations you spoke about, master."
"I'm not your master Sazanami, there's no need for anything like that.", Hara still didn't have a chance to get used to this girl's unique speech pattern.
Sazanami was born into a renown family of maids, as such she trained her entire life to become one, just like her mother and all the women in her family that came before her. Admiral found this to be extremely fitting, as real Sazanami served as a flagship to Vice Admiral Ijuin, who was, in fact, a baron.
"Such behaviour is unfitting of a servant, master."
"Well, if you need anything, just let me or Akagi know.", Hara cut the chat, as he was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
"Yes, master, I will be sure to do that.", Sazanami sat down.
"Uhm… Do-don't…", Ushio sitting in the corner mumbled.
"It's good to see you doing well, Ushio.", Hara sent Ushio a warm smile and leaned in to pat her head. "I've head you've been helping with Nagato's adjustment?"
"I-it's noth… ing, admiral, please don't… don't mention it."
"You've been of great help. I want you to know we appreciate it.", he reached to the pocket on his chest taking out a long and narrow piece of paper reading "MamIrako" and handed it to Ushio.
"I… I don't deserve it such praise, admiral. I just want Nagato-san to be happy here… There's really no need.", she nearly whispered. Feeling her face turn red she locked her eyes on her knees.
"Well, then treat it as an early Christmas gift.", this caused Ushio's face to turn even more red.
"Don't even think about it, you, shitty admiral!", the last girl shouted, but Hara ignored her and walked away with Akagi. Angry, she hit the table with her knee.
"Ouch! It's all this crappy commander's fault!"
"You sure like him, don't you, Akebono-chan?", Oboro asked with a devilish grin on her face.
"WHA-"
"Could it be, could it be? Akebono has a crush on admiral?", Sazanami let her true colours show.
Despite coming from a family with long maid traditions, she herself hated it and was a very rebellious child. As such, despite her mother's protests and Shipgirl's job description, she welcomed her new life, where she could finally vent off. Smart yet teasing, she quickly noticed that Hara did not like being called "master". In fact, he disliked the entire ceremony that professional maids were committed to. This gave her a perfect opportunity to abuse her newfound freedom and put her mother's teachings to what she thought of as a good use.
"SHUT UP! You are no better with your maid act, Sazanami!", Akebono quickly counter-attacked.
"Huh?!"
"Akebono's actually right… Are you trying to appeal to admiral's nerd side? I think he likes more mature girls, like Akagi-san, you know…", Oboro's jab made Ushio's face turn sour despite being aimed at Akebono.
"Uhm… Do… Do you really think that Hara-san doesn't look at us this way?", Ushio's voice was barely audible.
"What did you say? You have to speak louder! For goodness sake, I can never hear you!", Akebono vented off on Ushio.
"It's… it's nothing, don't worry, Akebono-chan.", Ushio's sad smile hurt her sistership more than she wanted to admit.
"Hey, don't vent your frustrations on Ushio!", Oboro quickly rushed to help.
"Yeah, yeah, you are always sooooo rude, Bono-chan!", Sazanami followed the suit.
"It's just shitty admiral always making me angry…", Ushio wanted to protest, but decided it's better to not start a fight. "He's always so understanding and nice… You're supposed to be a tyrant as a commander, otherwise people won't listen to you!"
Akebono's experience with Japanese admiralty was well beyond unpleasant, going as far back as the Second World War. Despite doing her best, the brass kept throwing shit at her, often for things neither she nor her crew could affect. That approach caused her to develop an extremely unruly personality and a belief that every person in power is inherently corrupted beyond redemption. This was further enforced when the previous C-i-C of the project tried to make her into his sex slave. Luckily, her friends intervened right in time. In addition to a severe beating by the Shipgirls, he was sentenced to death, with accordance to Japanese wartime law. Hara on the other hand was something that Akebono has never encountered – a commander who treated each and every of his subjects well, even if they weren't seen as humans by the navy. Needless to say, this caused her a whole lot of confusion.
"Huh?!", Sazanami and Oboro let out simultaneously.
"So… You dislike him for being nice? Are you a masochist, Akebono-chan?", Sazanami didn't hold back. "Maybe you should hit it off with Iku to blow off some steam?", Ushio giggled slightly upon hearing this.
"I just dislike his stupid face, ok?!", Akebono was clearly out of cards to play.
"I think it's just the opposite…", Oboro sighed, disappointed in her sister's lack of honesty. "You are so bad at showing your feelings…"
"It's happening! It's happening!", out of nowhere Sazanami let out a high-pitched scream startling all three of her companions and pointed at the scene which was now occupied by Naka. "It's the Fleet Idol time!"
While most of the Shipgirls thought of Naka as more of a comedian than actual idol, the pink haired destroyer was truly enchanted with light cruiser's songs. Her love for the Fleet Idol went as far as openly saying she finds her to be a pinnacle of music.
"I'm so jealous of Naka-san… I'd like to have so much courage too… Maybe then I could…", Ushio cut her sentence in half before saying too much.
"Eh? Can you even sing, Ushio?", Akebono was honestly surprised.
"Huh? Don't tell me you've never heard her practice?", Oboro blurted out.
"Do… Don't tell me you've heard…", a mix of fear and embarrassment sneaked upon Ushio's face.
"She keeps singing along to western metal bands when she thinks that nobody will hear her. She's actually quite good!", she kept on speaking, as Ushio's face kept turning more and more red. On the other side of the table, their friends' faces were frozen in disbelief.
"It's decided then! You're singing tonight!", Sazanami finally broke the silence which ensued after Oboro's thoughtless statement.
"No, no, no! Impossible! I can't sing in front of everybody!"
"Oh, come on! Just one song!"
"Naka's going to sing, don't you want to listen to your idol?", Akebono came to Ushio's rescue, repenting for her previous rudeness.
As if programmed to do so, Sazanami reached to her bag taking out 4 sets of glowing sticks and handing them to each of her friends.
"What's that?", Oboro looked dumbfounded at this new idea.
"It's a glowstick. You break it like this…", the stick let out a loud crack. "And there you go! Now we can show our love for Naka-oneesan!"
"Onee-san?!", weirded out, all three remaining destroyers shouted nearly simultaneously.
Ignoring their dumbfounded looks, Sazanami rushed off to the scene, to cheer on her idol and was soon joined by a bunch of younger destroyers. Immediately she took command of the audience and everybody started cheering and singing along in unison, like on a proper idol concert.
"What is it with everybody in this fleet? Hugging this shitty admiral like they were friends…", Akebono just couldn't hold it in, seeing Naka embracing Hara and Akagi after being done with her songs was just too much.
"Ooh, is Bono-chan being jealous?", Sazanami who just came back panted, wiping off the sweat off her forehead. "Aaaah, that was so good! Naka is the best after all!", she changed topic without even looking at Akebono's angry expression.
"Seems it's Kaga's time. Sazanami may want to leave, real music may damage her brain.", purple haired destroyer seemingly ignored her sistership's jab.
"At least I have one!", pink haired girl stamped her foot.
"Aren't you a cute one? Ehehe.", Oboro spouted, so focused on feeding her crab that she failed to notice the ensuing fight.
"Huuuh?!", both Sazanami and Akebono let our simultaneously. "You have something else to say, crabhead?", the latter added no holds barred.
"Could… could you please not fi… fight?", Ushio asked hesitantly, but her pleads fell on deaf ears.
And so, the usual antics of the Seventh Destroyer Division continued for few more minutes while Kaga was preparing for her act. The ruckus did not avoid Houshou's glare though.
"Girls, I'm sorry to say this, but you are annoying other customers. If this continues, I'll take you to the range myself.", the carrier might have been barely taller than Akebono, but right now she towered above the rowdy bunch as if she was Yamato herself.
Gulp. All four girls were filled with fear. The Abyssal might be savage and hellbent on killing them, angry Hara might force them to do the most unpleasant chores for inhumane periods of time, but nobody in the fleet, even the fleet carriers and battle-hardened Kongou sisters, wanted to cross Houshou. There was something inhumanely scary about her, more so than anything they've faced.
"Now, if you understand, may I take your orders?"
"I… I'll have some takoyaki.", Sazanami finally found some courage to speak up.
"Me too!", Oboro quickly followed, afraid of making Houshou wait.
"Make it three, please.", even Akebono was surprisingly nice.
"F-four, if… if it's not a problem.", Ushio joined in on the order.
"Yes, understood. Would you like something to drink?", Houshou's warm smile just made her look scarier, and all the girls quickly ordered some tea. "If that's all, I'll be on my way. Thank you."