Current Version: c2v1.0

Delinquent on the Roof

SHIZUKA YAMASHITA OPENED HER eyes and saw the sky was the color of soot and ash. A flash, a booming roar of thunder, then rain started to hit her on the face. For a few seconds, she didn't move. She continued to lie down on the rooftop floor of the General Studies Administration building, where she decided to sleep the whole night, staring blankly toward the gloomy heavens and not even bothering to take shelter from the rain.

She closed back her eyes and just laid back to enjoy the soothing caress of the rain but the rational part of herself took hold of her thoughts, reminding her that it was unhealthy and just plain stupid to deliberately get herself wet for no good reason. She moaned and countered by saying she didn't care—and it was barely even morning—but her rational side added that she was acting like a moron and morons should just do the whole world a favor and jump off from the roof.

Finally, she pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a silent snarl. "Ok fine!"

Having lost her internal battle with her rational self, she summoned up all her willpower and then proceeded to stand up. Her body immediately protested with pain at the sudden change of posture and she groaned as to why it had to rain when she had such a good night sleep. Once again her rational part quickly noted to her that this was what she should expect for sleeping on the roof but she dismissed and ignored such thoughts.

Sometimes it was an uphill battle fighting off reason and logic.

Now standing, albeit still groggy from sleep, she raised her arms up into the air and then proceeded to stretch. Immediately, she felt pleasure coursing through her brain as her muscles began to relax which prompted her to let out a wide cavernous yawn.

She was now wide awake and quite drenched.

To the ordinary passerby that do not know her, she looked like a delinquent who decided one day to beat up some poor student-officer from the Naval Studies and then wore her uniform out of spite. Of course that never happened but she was still a major source of irritation for the Commissariat, aka the Morals Committee, for refusing to wear her uniform properly as what was 'expected' of a commissioned officer of the Naval Studies department.

She was hard not to miss. She belted her pants with a braided rope, wore sandals instead of plain black shoes and she had the nerve to allow her wild and long ponytail dye in red, a blatant violation of the hair code. What's more, she always wore her white naval uniform unbuttoned thus exposing her midriff and bandage covered chest. Her choice of fashion made her look like a delinquent tomboy though her exposed chest and navel does seemed to highlight the femininity of her slender body.

The rain had not yet turned into a raging downpour so she continued to loiter a bit more on the roof deck. Her ears twitched as she heard the sound of a car coming to a stop. She walked toward the railings and peeked down the road below.

Someone had just arrived in front of the entrance to the building. Three floors down, on the ground, she saw a car parked with someone exiting from the front passenger door. Though there was a light fog, she could still see that the passenger was a naval officer with long charcoal black hair and wearing a black uniform.

What the?

Her eyes went wide and she could feel a chill ran down her spine. She immediately recoiled from the railings so as not to be seen.

What the hell is Mitsuki doing here?

She inhaled and exhaled deeply to calm herself. Her mind raced to recall the events of yesterday's evening, scouring for any hint that could explain as to why her pursuer was here. She was definitely sure she managed to lose the annoying commissar when she tried to apprehend her. There was absolutely no way she was being tracked.

She recalled herself walking on top of the walls of central park, minding her own business, when her personal 'guidance councilor' approached her. It had always been like this ever since they entered high school, Mitsuki was that kind of person that was just obsessed with rules and would not skip a beat to remind everybody else of their importance.

As was always the case, Mitsuki saw her doing something out of the norm and immediately tried to apprehend her. Likewise, as was always the response, she would not have any of it and so she bolted away from her and a long chase through alleyways and deserted roads ensued. Her memories were kind of a blur after that but she did remember being finally cornered and forced to have a duel.

A smile crept into her face. Ah yes, the uptight idiot somehow managed to get the upper hand by tackling her down on the ground but then, as her pursuer started to spout her nonsense about following the rules, she took out a wasabi paste she got from a sushi store out of her pocket and then rammed it on to the black-haired commissar's mouth.

Her smile widen into a full blown grin. Mitsuki's face was priceless. Yes it was awful to shove a whole wasabi paste into her mouth and yes she would apologize to her later—perhaps buying her lunch as a peace offering—but the thought of at least shutting her up for a moment was deeply satisfying.

Uh yeah, she'll definitely kill me now.

But still… She scratched her head. How the hell did she ever managed to find out that she snuck into the General Studies' Admin building to sleep on the roof deck?

Her answer came from a pissed-off voice coming from the ground.

"Come Watari, the Supremo should have a damned good reason for summoning us on this damned hour!"

She furrowed her brows in confusion. She recognized that voice. So aside from her personal guidance councilor, Captain Shorty McShortpants was also here? Lovely. What a wonderful way to start off the day. No worries, she can take both of them in a fight. But then her mind began to put two and two together and she realized that they might not be here for her… They might be here for someone else.

Supremo? Did she mean the Student Council President?

She placed a hand on her chin. Yes, that seemed to be the likely case but why meet her at such an early hour?

She raised her head toward the sky. Barely enough light from the morning sun penetrated the blanket of ashen clouds. A downpour was imminent and yet they still proceeded with the meeting.

And then it hit her.

"Stop standing Watari, get inside now!" Yelled Captain Shorty McShortpants. As always, the over-glorified half of the school carrier's dual-captaincy demonstrated her rather short temper.

She slowly peered out of the railings and saw both of her fellow officers had already went inside the building. She stood up, let out a heavy sigh, as she placed her hands on her hips.

Scheduling a meeting at such an early hour meant that it was not for the public to know and she could think of one issue that had recently plagued the Naval Studies department that was still kept under wraps.

"They've been called to give their reports on the accidents…" She mumbled thoughtfully to herself. "Only officers know about that."

Yes, it does kind of make sense. She instinctively touched the striped insignia with three chrysanthemums on her open collar. Though she might look and act like a delinquent, people seemed to forget that she was still a commissioned officer with the rank of kaigun-daisa or captain and thus was still kept on the loop.

She knew about the accidents and she also knew that they were no accidents. How? Gut instincts. This was the reason as to why she had ordered a small part of her crew to stand watch and guard her ship every night in case of 'uninvited rats'. Now Mitsuki might not be at liberty to immediately proclaim the accidents as outright sabotage, as it was her job to thoroughly investigate the whole matter, but she was not bound to any organization and so she could act more liberally with her mouth. She trusted her gut instinct and what her gut was telling her was that all these 'accidents' were caused by 'rats' who, for some reason, didn't want them to take part on the Naval War Games.

Speaking of which… She fished out her phone from her pocket, scrolled down on her contacts list, and dialed in the number of her Chief Engineer who was currently guarding their ship berthed inside the school carrier's cavernous hangar-dock down below.

The call connected and the phone on the other side played the opening theme song to Space Odyssey 2001. She kind of like the tune but resisted the urge to hum. Thirty seconds passed and the call was dropped.

She frowned and made a clicking noise with her tongue. She pressed the call button again.

Click.

"Yow Kat, morni-"

"What the hell do you want captain?!" Before she could finish her greeting, a rather pissed off voice from other side interrupted. "Do you know what the fucking time is?!"

"Morning Kat, how's the engine?" She repeated, deliberately ignoring her subordinate's question. "She now seaworthy?"

"That's it?" She could hear Kat's exasperated voice. "Y-you called me just to know about the fucking engine? I've been up all night cranking the damned thing and you want to know if it's seaworthy?"

"Uh, yeah?" She grinned. "I'm the captain, it's my job to know."

"Yeah? Well fuck you cap," Kat's voice sounded more pissed off than before. "Why can't you just wait like two hours from now where I can give a proper report instead of calling at… Ah for fuck's sake it's five fucking thirty! I've barely got any sleep!"

Alright. So judging by how incredibly irate her chief engineer sounded, she reckoned that the diesel-powered engine of her ship might still need some tuning before it was fully optimized and operational. No worries, it could wait.

"Actually it's not the only reason as to why I called," She clarified. "Also want to know if you saw any rats during the night?"

"Rats?" There was a pause on the line, followed by inaudible mumbling. "Oh you mean… Uh no, everything's seems to be fine. You really sure someone's trying to stop us from entering the Naval War Games?"

"Oh I'm sure of it." And then she added. "In fact, I'm not the only one who thinks about that. Mitsuki also suspects that too but as usual, her ass is tied up with issuing 'official' statements so she can't really talk about it publicly."

"Well sucks to be her…" Her chief engineer concurred before letting out a groan. "And fuck cap, I was like about to get some Z's but you screwed me and now I'll never get back to the zone!"

"Yeah uh, sorry about that, I'll buy you lunch today cool?" She offered as she walked towards the other side of the building.

"Buy me beef curry and I'll forgive you."

"Sweet! So-" Her chief engineer hanged up without as much as saying goodbye. "Guess she was dead tired."

She reached the other side of the building and placed her hands on the railings. She leaned forward and felt a cool spring wind assaulting her face. For a few minutes, she didn't move or took shelter from the rain but just stood and enjoyed the overlooking view of sakura trees planted in long rows inside Central Park. The trees were still barren of their cherry blossoms but it won't be long now before they'd reveal to the whole school their beauty and splendour.

As expected of the time, she saw no one walking in the park and she also noticed that the streetlamps were still lit. In fact, as her gaze trailed the lines of street lamps inside the park and out to the streets, she could see all of them were still lit. What was the usual time these street lamps were turned off?

What's more, she noticed that the streets were-

Her eyes immediately shifted to a section of the fence that surrounded the admin building. Wait… Hold on… Something's not right. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to focus on what looked like movements in the bushes.

What she saw made her immediately crouch down behind the railings.

What the fuck?

She slowly peeked over the railings to confirm if she wasn't hallucinating but the figures she saw behind the bushes didn't go away. There were three of them, all in various Special Forces camouflage uniforms, and carrying assault rifles.

Assault Rifles?

Her heart skipped a beat. She blinked and tried to focus on the weapons they carried and saw they had red caps on the barrels. Her shoulders sagged and she began to relax. For a moment she thought it was the real deal.

One of them made a beeline toward the admin building, immediately ducking behind a bunch of cardboard boxes. The intruder then raised a hand to signal the others to follow.

She stepped away from the railings and out of sight. She placed a hand on her mouth and realized that she was grinning. She didn't know who they were or what were their objectives but she know for sure they were definitely trouble.

Spies? Robbers? Kidnappers? Rats?

There was only one way to find out.

She cracked her knuckles as her smile widened from ear to ear. Yes, as long they were using airsoft rifles and not the real thing, then that meant their intruding asses were kickable. It had been a long time since she had a fight that didn't involve that huge pain in the ass Mitsuki. Her rogue spirit yearned for fights like the ones she had with low-lives back on dry land.

Then she saw a grappling hook arched through the air that landed with a thud a few meters from her. A second later, the hook was pulled down, scraping the floor, until it found purchase on the railings to hold. A few moments after, a second grappling hook appeared and then a third one.

Nice. They want to scale the roof.

She craned her neck left and right and heard a cracking sound. She then placed her hands in front of her in a fighting stance. "Alright, let's do this!"

Author's Notes

So we are again introduced to another OC, a captain (ship is a secret for now) who looks and acts like a delinquent. I'm still trying to fish out the correct personality for Shizuka but she's definitely the natural foil for the uptight and law abiding Mitsuki. Red & Blue Oni anyone?

By the way, any World of Warships player out here? If so, here's a hint… Shizuka is a captain of a Japanese ship that is somewhere in between tier 5 and tier 10. Guess what will be her ship? XD

Next chapter we'll focus more on our lovely Student Council President and to the reason as to why she called the meeting.

Until next time everyone!