Thursday, March 6th, 2014.

The pain in my shoulders and my chest are beginning to subside, but just barely. It's not enough to mean anything, but any amount of improvement is an improvement.

I was able to eat my own breakfast, much to Samidare's disappointment. After seeing the downhearted look on Samidare's face when she saw me eating by myself, I called her over and let her feed me one last time. I blame my personal liking to Samidare for that.

Surprisingly, Wakaba, the chill destroyer girl who does whatever the hell she wants and doesn't give a fuck, sat with me and Samidare during breakfast. She asked me what I would do for her own launch day.

At first, I was confused, but then Wakaba pointed out that her launch day's on March 18th. That's less than two weeks away. Oh, shit.

I assured her that I'd think of something. I asked her if she wanted the same kind of birthday party as Inazuma, or a specific kind of present.

"You don't have to throw me a party. But a Kai upgrade would be nice," she said.

I guess all the ship girls want a Kai upgrade now.

I told Wakaba that I'd see what I could do. I'm pretty sure that Seal Team Six can't work on three Kai upgrade surgeries at once, though...

The weather's getting warmer, so I've been going around with the gangster officer look. You know how some of the stereotypical "delinquent" officer images that anime and manga depict show the guy wearing a tank top or a cool-looking shirt and wearing the military coat by just having it hang by the shoulders and not actually wearing it by the sleeves? That's the look I rocked today, with the icepacks on my shoulders and my bandages visible. Don't think that I was doing this so that I could look more badass, although the girls were definitely caught off-guard by the fact that I all of a sudden changed up my fashion style. They didn't think that I would ever consider walking around wearing my clothes in any other way than what was proper etiquette, which I laugh at since I was notorious back in my days commanding the U.S.S. George Washington for never bothering to wear a full officer set whenever superior officers flew aboard.

I guess it's because when I first came here two months ago, I didn't know what to expect or how exactly I ought to have behaved, so I was just coming in as polite as possible. Now that I've gotten more comfortable here around the girls, I guess I feel like I can afford to start doing things a bit more unorthodox and the girls won't mind as much.

It started raining a bit in the late morning. It's very rainy here in Okinawa, probably because of the winter rains, and it rained a lot over the past two months, but it's clear that it's stopped raining as much now that it's March and spring's more or less here now. I asked Ooyodo if the rains bothered the girls at all while they were out at sea sortieing, and Ooyodo replied that while the rain was kind of a bother whenever they were engaging the enemy, it wasn't going to be enough to make or break a victory or a defeat. After all, they were ships, they don't really give a crap about weather - or need to, for that matter.

Today's email from HQ indicated that because of the intel from yesterday's sortie, all Japanese military bases are set on high alert in case of an Abyssal land attack. I bet the vast majority of those bases have no fucking clue why they're being put on high alert, poor bastards.

But the photos for today are what really worry me. They're showing a new district in Sector B, one of the hard-to-reach districts that'll probably slap on another hour or two of travel time for the girls, should they deploy there. Dog District is huge - at least three times the size of Able District. Lots of islands out at sea that I'm pretty sure weren't there before. Do the Abyssals have some sort of wicked terra-forming technology or something? 'Cause some of these islands look sick.

But the beauty of the islands isn't the point here. They're big for a reason: hidden within the jungles and the brush of the islands are clearly all sorts of naval facilities, like docks, storages, manufacturing plants, and everything else we've seen so far. There're five major islands with lots of smaller satellite islands situated around them, and each island's big enough to be considered its own territory. Dog One to Dog Four are the four islands that're on the outside, and Dog Five's more or less the one in the middle, and that's the biggest island, though not by too much.

If there was ever a central heart to Sector B, this's gotta be it. There's only Easy District left, but it hasn't been mapped out yet, and for now, it's negligible, since it's nowhere near the size of any of the other islands so far.

Right now, clearly, Dog District is out of the picture. It's way too vast, and it's too heavily defended, even if we did completely wreck the Abyssal air capabilities. For now, I feel like concentrating on completely capturing and subduing the weakened districts is key. We still don't know what's exactly going on at Able Four, either.

For today's mission, I ordered the fleet to patrol Able District again and observe Able One, Two, and Three. I gave the protocol Observe and Pursue, since there didn't seem to be much Abyssal presence in Able District other than at Able Four.

Now that I think about it, I need to prepare for White Day. I already took a list of who gave me chocolates, so I know who to make chocolates for. The problem is actually making them with these fucking useless arms of mine. I went ahead and ordered lots and lots of chocolate and other stuff I'd need to cook up lots of chocolates, especially white chocos, for the girls, and I'll get started on making them once my arms start feeling like they can at least work for an hour or two at a time.

I also ordered off Amazon some refurbished consoles, older gens like the Gamecube, the old Wii, the 360, and the PS3. Since I've never really taken a real leave from the military, all the salary money that's gone into my bank accounts as savings are collecting dust, and it's not like I'm going to make any heavy investments any time soon, so I can afford to drop a couple G's if I want to. I also got the necessary accessories and games that I felt the girls would like, including some of my own favorites and likings. They'll probably come in next week or so.

I finished my pistol holster just before the fleet arrived, so now I can wear my ceremonial saber and have my M-9 handgun holstered at all times. At least a step closer to self-defense. If I was super paranoid, I'd also invest in some body armor, but I don't know if I'm too keen on dropping money for that. It's probably worth it, but...eh. I'll decide later. Body armor's heavy as balls.

The fleet returned with only minor injuries from skirmishing against some Abyssal destroyer-light cruiser squadrons, which they shrugged off easily. Looking at the post-action mission report, Able One, Two, and Three were more or less abandoned, and whatever was left behind got intentionally destroyed or taken down so that Abyssal intel wouldn't fall into our hands. We can effectively mark off those territories as areas of serious contention for the time being unless we find out that the Abyssals are going to reclaim them later.

Hiei, whom I made flagship for today's sortie, asked me why I didn't just have the fleet directly attack Able Four. I said that I didn't want to risk a mission like the one in which Suzuya captured Kuubo-Hime. I was only going to commit the fleet to a risky mission like only under any one of three conditions: first, if the mission reward potential was so great that not sortieing the fleet to that particular mission would be folly; second, if we had so much mission intel regarding enemy position, fleet composition, and guaranteed air superiority that it would be difficult for the fleet to sustain much more than moderate damage; or third, if we simply didn't have a choice. Hiei remarked that I was being too soft on them, that I was underestimating their ability. Surely I could see that I could trust them to be able to handle risky missions by now?

I told Hiei that if that's what she wanted, then next week I would make her flagship again and sent the fleet on one such mission. Hiei tried to protest, saying that she didn't really mean what she said, but I just shrugged back at her. I told her that while I could be chill and laid-back, she still needed to watch what she's saying around me. That made Hiei really angry, and she stormed out of my office in a fit. That prompted Kirishima to come into my office a bit later after dinnertime, and she asked me to please forgive Hiei, that she was just a bit of a hot-blooded girl who tended to get overexcited about stuff. I told Kirishima that while it was good to know that Hiei was a girl with lots of energy to spare, she still needed to first watch what she says, and second learn that she needs to learn that words shouldn't just be thrown around with no backbone. Anyone can say any amount of random, stupid shit; only a tiny percentage of those people are willing to back up whatever stupid shit they've said, either because of their own naivety or their own confidence. And unfortunately for Hiei, I liked to consider myself part of that tiny percentage. I did say that the mission wasn't going to be a death trap or anything, but it would definitely be more daunting than the easy mission Hiei had to lead today.

Afterwards, I brought out Mamiya, Irako, Houshou, Yamato, and Yahagi to the pier, where we discussed where we'd have our Saturday night barbeque, where the tables would be, where the food ought to be cooked and placed, where the big bonfires would be, what kinds of appetizers, drinks, side dishes, and desserts would be, all the planning that goes into making sure a nighttime outdoor barbeque goes right. We already have the food flown in and stored for now, so we just need to grab extra party supplies from the nearby town and we should be set.

Before we headed in so that I could go to bed, Yahagi stopped me and asked me if we could talk in private while we were still outside. I told the others to head in first so I could speak with Yahagi. She asked me if I was doing well, if my injuries were healing fine, and I told her not to worry about it.

Yahagi told me that there were rumors circulating quietly throughout the base that there would be a second assassination attempt aimed at me soon, and that the girls were worried about me but didn't show me since they knew they weren't supposed to know about it. I asked how the girls got wind of this intel, and Yahagi explained that she'd overheard Inazuma telling the other starter destroyers in secret when she herself had heard it from Ooyodo discussing it with Akashi in the workshop, and from there, everyone else heard.

I explained to Yahagi that right now, the people who were doing the Kai upgrade surgeries for the girls were the same people who gave me that intel in the first place, and that they were keeping an eye on things to make sure that if there was indeed going to be another incident like that, I would know and prep the girls for it. I also explained that that was why I'd started going around wearing my sword and handgun starting today, which the girls also noticed and correlated with the whole second assassination attempt thing. I thanked Yahagi for her consideration, that she was a kind young lady for worrying for me.

Yahagi was more confused than flattered. She said simply that this was part of a subordinate's duty, to look out for her superior if she knew something was going to happen to me. She asked me why I felt the need to thank her for something as simple as that.

I said it was because there weren't enough superior officers in the world who recognized the need to demonstrate their gratitude towards their subordinates, and that I thought I'd break away from that tradition.

Yahagi said that the ship girls were the ones who needed to show more gratitude to me for being the commander that I am. I said that Yahagi was the one flattering me at this point.