January 22nd, 2014.

Got a response email from HQ. Seriously, whoever works over there needs a pay raise, to be this on the ball about responding to my emails. Then again, it could just be that they're paying close attention to the Moebius Four Armament program as a whole.

So they said that they weren't sure if I was actually allowed to specifically request ship girls. They said that it was probably because high military command in mainland Japan still doesn't fully trust a fucking gaijin (foreigner) leading their secret weapons. Understandable, but doesn't change the fact that whoever made that decision is fucking retarded, but that's just my opinion.

I relieved Takao from her secretary position today and restored Ooyodo back to her original secretarial post. You can imagine how that went. Ooyodo was positively elated to be secretary again, and Takao was positively horrified to lose her post. Takao begged me not to strip her of her position, but seeing that she couldn't even get out of bed because she had such a bad hangover, it's not like I had a choice, I kinda need a secretary to handle some of the stuff that would otherwise make my office life a tad difficult. I told Takao in her dorm that she could consider this a punishment for going over the top and thinking drinking to get drunk was ever a good idea, especially on a goddamn weekday. I mean, I remember specifically mentioning to the girls that yesterday was a special occasion, so I was willing to make an exception in terms of celebrations, but obviously when they go girls gone wild and drink until they paint the floor all sorts of fugly shades of whatever colors that come from your stomach, I gotta pull out the law 'n order. And we JUST painted that floor too, that was one of the last things me and Irako did for the final touches to Shinsengumi. I do admit being pretty fucking salty over the fact that Takao ruined a bit of the paint coat, so much so that I ignored Mamiya and Houshou's requests to let Takao off the hook just this once. I mean, I guess I could have, but it still stands that Takao did drink irresponsibly, and as a member of the military, both professionally and personally, I don't condone Takao's choice to pull that one off.

Did I say that I stripped Takao of her position as secretary earlier? Shit, I did. Now I probably sound like a pervert. Eh, whatever, all guys are perverts at some point in their lives.

I'll try not to dwell on this for too long, but now that I kinda think about it, it's kinda funny how just a couple days ago, when I asked Takao to be my new secretary, she was all like, why should I be secretary, we don't even know each other all that well. But now, she's all like OH GOD PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME! ! ! It's almost alarming how quickly some people change. I say almost, because there's a bit of a sadistic side to me that makes me wanna tease people, just a bit, and seeing Takao like that was...dare I say, somewhat gratifying. Now I just sound plain fucking creepy, so let's just stop right here.

So I actually went ahead and ordered a decent laptop that's on sale right now, apparently for like sixty or seventy percent off, something ridiculous like that. Ended up only being like fifty or sixty bucks, converted to US dollars. As an avid anime watcher myself, I know what it's like having to go months on deployment with no source of fresh anime or even electronic entertainment, so I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone else. The shipping is a bit sketch - shipping out to Okinawa is rough and unpredictable, but it shouldn't take too long. Hopefully.

For today's mission, I sent a task force consisting of Kirishima, Murakumo, Sazanami, Inazuman, and Imuya on another recon mission. I was gonna send out Ooi too, as a light cruiser escort for Kirishima, mainly, but Ooi was a bitch and refused to deploy because Kitakami's still waiting on a replacement hand that Akashi's been spending all day today working on. Kitakami apologized in Ooi's stead, for she had tried her best to convince Ooi to follow orders, but it seems that either she's too attached to Kitakami or that she's still very suspicious of me because I'm a dirty American. My fucking bad for being white, I suppose. Might actually be a combination of both, to be honest. In any case, Ooi ended up not deploying, and because I'm not used to subordinates disobeying my orders, it's still burning in my mind. I mean, technically, TECHNICALLY speaking, I can force the ship girls to obey my orders as stated in the Moebius Four Armament, but seeing that Ooi clearly looked like she wasn't taking any shit from me and knowing that she can snap my neck in half more easily than I can rip a piece of paper in half, I didn't press the point. That being said, I did take note of Ooi's refusal to obey orders, and I guarantee you that she's going to come to regret it one day. Might not be anytime soon, but something like that, as a superior officer, I can't let that one slide either. That's one of the few things I know I'll always be a hardass about, even with these girls: obey orders, no matter what.

Almost.

After sending them off, I went over to Shinsengumi, where I found Samidare sitting with Fubuki at the bar eating some Hakata ramen, which was also why I went there in the first place. The girls were alarmed to see me come in, because technically Shinsengumi isn't actually supposed to be open at that particular time of the day, and as you might expect, the two of them started to apologize profusely. I told them to chill, that since I was also here to grub out on some ramen, it would be hypocritical for me to apprehend them for an offense I myself was about to commit. So we spent an hour all eating Hakata ramen and drinking Ramune. Absolutely amazing.

While we were eating, Samidare asked me if I was seriously going to buy Fubuki a computer to watch anime on, much to Fubuki's deep chagrin, so much so that Fubuki was about to burst into tears because that was supposed to be a secret. Apparently Fubuki accidentally let it slip to Samidare that I was talking about buying her a laptop, and she hadn't told Samidare to keep it on the down-low. I replied almost right away that I already bought one and that it should be on its way shortly. Both Fubuki and Samidare gasped real loud, and Houshou, who was standing nearby secretly eavesdropping on us, started giggling. I quickly told them that I wasn't about to buy everyone new personal laptops, so those two started thanking me over and over to the point where I became uncomfortable. Geez, it's so weird having to deal with these girls sometimes...

The two destroyers asked me what life was like in America, a question that I was honestly surprised I wasn't asked a lot, lot sooner than this. So I went on a real long schpiel about living in America was like...the schools, the people I grew up with, the fun times the bad times, family, and the lot.

Understandably, because they don't really have family themselves, they asked me about my own family. I noticed Houshou was listening quite keenly at this part too.

So I told them about my family, my mishaps and grudges with my parents, and how outside of comrades in the military, I didn't really have friends or whatever. Military drains all of my time, anyway, and when you're a lieutenant like me, especially one whose parents are both high-rankers in other branches of the US military, friends tend to be pretty fucking rare. Clearly the girls wanted to hear happy-go-lucky, blissful family stories that they thought all humans have, so I almost feel bad for letting their hopes down.

They asked me if I didn't like my parents or something, because I didn't exactly flatter them. I told them that it wasn't so much hate that I felt towards them as it was just a feeling of indifference. Their positions in life affected my life in ways no one could really control, but that being said, I still can't help but feel bitter that I was more or less forced into this position that I'm in now rather than work my own way into a life I could call my own.

Samidare quietly asked me if that meant that I resented them, if I resented being here. I told them quickly that it wasn't specifically the girls I was angry at, just at how things unfolded. She asked me if I was telling the truth, and I told them that if I was lying, they wouldn't even have to ask me to know.

I would've liked to talk more, but then I realized just how much time had passed and needed to go and actually get some work done. I took care of some paperwork and finished them just in time to welcome back the task force.

Kirishima and Murakumo, this time, were both heavily damaged. Murakumo was unconscious and had to be towed to base with both arms missing and a broken left knee, and Kirishima completely lost an eye and came back with a 16cm cannon shell impaled in her chest, and thank God it didn't explode, otherwise Kirishima would be back down on the seafloor...a second time. The others didn't fare much better either. Everyone had some sort of horrible wound.

Remember how I wrote earlier that I would do something that would make Ooi regret not going on today's mission? As it turns out, good ol' Re-class came along and did that job for me. After making sure that Akashi and Ooyodo were at the infirmary fixing up Kirishima and Murakumo, I walked by the dorms and overheard Kitakami yelling at Ooi for not going with them and possibly preventing their comrades from taking that much damage. I didn't hear Ooi say a single thing back, and I didn't hang around to see if she would say anything. After that, I went back to my office and emailed an emergency report describing the situation, along with the post-action mission report that Sazanami turned in in place of Kirishima, whom I had designated flagship for today's recon mission.

I barely had the motivation to fucking write this knowing that two of my girls're in the infirmary about three inches away from crashin' and burnin', so there sure as hell won't be a mission tomorrow with our only battleship barely alive. Not to undermine Murakumo at all, but we need Kirishima. Call me McClellan, but from here on out I'm only sending the girls on missions when everyone's participating.