Sunday, March 9th, 2014.
Woke up out on the pier before anyone else. Even Mamiya, Irako, and Houshou, who are usually the first ones up at base, decided to indulge themselves in a couple drinks, so I found them sleeping soundly at one of the tables with the carriers. Takao, as per usual, was surrounded by sake bottles and beer cans. I still can't get over the fact that the usually strict and austere Takao can be such a heavy drinker. I wonder why the destroyers like Akebono don't give her more shit for that. Probably because Takao would hand their asses to 'em.
So, I started cleaning up the place, first starting with the removal of the pit fires. I saved the remains of the burnt wood (I know there's a word for them but can't remember) since Mamiya and Irako can probably use them for the kitchens and got out the hose so we can hose down the piers once everyone's awake. Some of the destroyers who didn't drink (yes, all the destroyers can drink for some stupid reason), woke up at the sound of me moving stuff about, and Samidare, Hatsuharu (who ended up showing that she could hold her liquor really well, which doesn't surprise me for some reason), Fubuki, and Inazuma helped me pick up trash and cans and whatnot. By the time we were half an hour into it, most everyone woke up too and started helping out, but I had Atago and Yahagi carry back the drunk-out-of-her-mind-and-probably-hung-over Takao. It's a good thing I ate and fell asleep watching the girls have fun before they got all over me with their drunken stupors.
Yahagi reminded me shortly after we finished cleaning the place up that it probably wasn't the best idea for me to have slept outside when I knew there was going to be an attempt on my life soon. I said I'd be more careful next time.
Since the supply ladies were still sleeping, I fixed breakfast for today. Took me longer than usual with my sore arms, but it didn't matter too much. I had the girls who were hung over drink plenty of water to get the hangovers gone as quick as possible. Today's breakfast was just simple fried rice, bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns. A weird combo of American and "Oriental" (I put quote marks around Oriental since fried rice isn't really...well, it didn't originate in Asia, that's for sure) cuisines. But then again, I doubt the girls care since they just pigged out on American Southern-style barbeque cooking.
Kiyoshimo asked when we'd have another barbeque like that. I asked the girls if they thought that style of cooking was good enough for them to warrant another dinner like that, and they all unanimously said yes.
"Why do you even bother asking us that when you already know the answer?" I remember Kitakami asking me.
Well, I had to explain that I knew it wasn't really an Asian thing, especially not in Japan (at least, these were my perceptions) to just gorge out like we Americans do sometimes. That, and American cooking can go super overboard with taste. If we want BBQ sauce on something we won't just pour it on, we'll fucking lather the shit and dump the entire bottle. It's not just a stereotype, it actually is true sometimes. That doesn't personally describe me, mind you, but I know quite a few people who do, and they're just normal people who aren't muscleheads or in the military or anything. So I was intentionally holding back on the seasoning and whatnot last night and making sure to balance the mix of flavors for as optimal of a taste as possible for the meats.
Akagi at one point screamed out loud during breakfast, lamenting the fact that she already missed the barbeque. She grabbed me as I was walking out of the kitchens with my own breakfast and nearly shook the food off my tray, demanding to know when the next time I could barbeque for them was. Souryuu had to pull Akagi off me, but Souryuu, too, couldn't quite hold her own saliva back from reminiscing on the food.
Why do I get the feeling that I'm a bit better of a cook/chef than I thought I was? It's only because these girls haven't really tasted American-style cooking all that much, right...? Right?
After breakfast (a late breakfast, too), I decided to teach Akagi and Souryuu how to cook American-style barbeque for themselves, so we cooked throughout the rest of the morning into the afternoon in the kitchens, and we ended up serving freshly golden-baked chicken, medium-well steak, sauteed veggie mix, and fresh-cut corn and peas for lunch. The girls never had anything so heavy for lunch before, so at first I thought I'd made a grave mistake, but they ate it all anyway.
"We can't let food made by the Admiral himself go to waste," Murakumo said. I think she said that more because of her tsun-tsun side, because right after, Inazuma said,
"It's because Commander's cooking is the best!"
And the destroyers went into a chorus of similar praise. Murakumo was the only one who didn't join in. For good reason, I guess.
So I asked the question that I learned today that I must never ask:
Whose cooking would they prefer to eat everyday: mine, or Mamiya's and Irako's?
To my huge surprise, the entire mess hall went silent.
Finally, Kirishima pushed up her glasses and said,
"There is too much evidence on both sides of the debate to develop a conclusive result, Admiral. For this objective reason, we cannot give a proper answer."
So I asked her what she thought subjectively, and Kirishima, too, went silent.
I said that they didn't need to answer if they couldn't decide. I said I'd just stick to my proper post, and at this, the girls thought that I was suggesting that I would never cook for them ever again, and they all started panicking. It was pretty funny, but I'm going to remember never to ask that question ever again.
Afterwards, since Fubuki and her anime-watching friends finished up Guilty Crown and asked me what I would recommend, we headed over to Shinsengumi and marathoned through Fate/Stay Night, Canaan, Infinite Stratos, and Kyoukai no Kanata. We went well into the night with that, drinking Ramune and munching on snacks and completely skipping dinner. Not smart, but hey, who the hell cares, it's Sunday.