Chapter 5: Thawing Heart
"Ara, what a nice office you have here."
"It's nothing really. But enough talk. We have work to do."
"Yes, of course, Shikikan. What is my first duty as secretary?"
"Ummm… help me sort these documents and put them in that cabinet over there while I finish signing this stack."
Both of them went hard at work for around two hours in silence. On occasion, Shikikan would stretch to prevent his back from cramping and taking glimpses at Atago who was busy organizing the file into their respected cabinets. His hand now cramped up from holding on to his pen for way too long, it felt like his fingers had fallen off from all the writing that he had done. His neck now being fixed to being craned to look downwards was now a burden weighed upon him. He gave his body a comforting stretch before he set his eyes back on Atago.
"Atago?"
"Yes, Shikikan?"
"Uhh… I ummm."
"Shikikan, I am here to listen to your thoughts as not only your secretary, but also your big sis."
"Okay… uh. What is it like having siblings?"
"Ara, what is this all about?"
"Well, I have an actual older sister. She is about two years older than me and I loved her as my older sister until the day that..."
He trailed off in his thoughts, his face now conveyed a despairing expression.
"Do you mind if I ask what happened?"
"Well, it's personal, but I'll open up my heart a little. She got caught in a blast in some artillery due to her selflessness. She just had managed to get out the blast, but ever since that day she had been in a coma for more than three years now."
"Ara? You've been with your sister for a while now and yet you don't remember your past as a child?"
"Well, I don't remember much from my early childhood with her, but she did stick up for me when I got bullied by the kids. I followed her everywhere like if she were mother goose. But, she moved on to help support my uncle and me by doing a few part-time jobs. Sometimes she wouldn't even come back until late at night. The things she did for the family and yet all I can manage to do is cook basic dishes for her."
He fought off a few tears from his eyes.
"Well, that does sound awfully similar to what my sisters and I do. We always look out for each other, Takao and Maya especially. They are always either physically stiff or socially stiff towards others. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the best I can as their older sister."
Shikikan craned his neck to hear cracking sounds coming from his vertebrates. Organizing a stack of papers to then place them in a folder.
"Do you want to come with me to meet the doc? She wanted to do some more biological comparisons with you ship girls or something along the lines of that."
"Well, I guess I can squeeze that into what I had planned for today. I don't mind spending more time with you if that is what you were implying~"
"Jeez, are you always like this? Yes! I want to spend more time with you. You are my daughter after all."
"Ah, that great hear from- Eh?"
Her face bewildered by the lines that he had just uttered. Shikian's face now with a newly dawned smile was across his face. He repositioned himself to the office door to then face back at Atago.
"Come on, Atago. The doc is waiting for us-"
Atago was standing a few inches away from his body. "Shikikan, what's the meaning of this? Come back here to onee-san, she still has questions for you."
Frightened by her approach, he bolted out of the room.
Don't look back. Don't look back.
He looked behind him to see that he was being pursued by Atago. He had never run for his life like this during his time in the military. But it sounded like every step he put down another two steps echoed behind creeping closer to him.
"Did you really have to joke around like that? You really aren't one to be cracking these types of jokes."
"Sorry, doc," Shikikan was breathless. "I just had to find a way to get back at her for always teasing me."
"Oh, Shikikan you are here? Why are you winded, Shikikan?" Enterprise was standing by.
"Enterprise? What are you doing here?"
"I was on my way to see Vestal until this crazed scientist pulled me in for her experiment."
"I told you, I just needed you for a few minutes. All I wanted was a small sample of shipgirl blood."
"Oh yeah, I brought Atago along to help you with your blood problem," Shikikan said while moving his sights towards Atago who had an expression that can only be described as a joyful smiling mask that hides her inner feelings of bitterness towards Shikikan.
"Ah, I see, so you did get my message. Okay, so you and you. I need to draw a little bit of blood from you if you don't mind. I want to see if shipgirl blood and human blood are compatible with each other. Since you have brought another girl that has extra features to a human, I guess hers can also juxtapose the others as well if you don't mind darling."
"Well, do you have human blood already?"
"Well, we don't have a blood bag with human blood yet. I put in a request for some a week ago and I have yet to receive a notice about it. It would be nice if we had a volunteer."
"Well, Shikikan over here would be more than happy to donate some of his blood."
"Atago, I didn't say anything."
She still had the same expression on her mask. She gave his ear a hard tug to the point where his center of mass would cause him to tip over if she pulled him any harder.
"Ow. Atago let go."
"You will help out the doctor right?"
"I'm not willing to give my liquid, red gold just yet."
"Like I said. You will help out the doctor."
Dr. Corrian broke in their argument, "Atago, you can't force the commander to have him draw blood for my small test. I'm not in any rush and if I was, I would have drawn some from myself."
"You know what doc, I'll do it. I won't hear the end of this if she uses this against me."
"You really don't have to Shikikan."
"Cut the chase doc and let me help you."
"Alright then, just have a seat over there while I prepare the withdrawal. You girls can wait over there while this process is happening."
Shikikan sat at a reclined seat where he would get his blood taken from him. His body twitched in anguish from the thought of a bag worth of blood being drawn from him. Sweat trickled down his neck from the anxiety that was building up within him. Dr. Corrian came back and prepared for the blood withdrawal.
"Looks like you and your secretary are getting along?"
Her words reached his head, a rush of dopamine flowed through his body which caused all of his nerves and body to relax.
"No, the faking game seems to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think I'm getting closer to her than she is to me."
Corrian poked his arm with the needle. His blood glided through the tube steadily as it transferred into an IV bag. Shikikan's mind now focused on the stream of flowing blood which caused a past to awaken within his mind.
"Maybe you should reconsider your choice. Can you explain to me why you rather have a false friendship than one that is genuine? You do have friends right?"
"I had friends. The only person that I have left is Monroe. I think he needs to stay away from me for a while. Don't want him getting involved in the military again after what has happened to the rest of my friends. I wasn't a hero or a commander by the time the war ended, I was a survivor who had seen things no man can ever unsee. Those bastards took everything I had left of the shadow of myself."
"Okay… So you are staying away from befriending these girls because you don't want to feel the need for loss?"
"I guess that is one way to put it."
"Well, what are you going to do? Hide away from others till the day that you die? At this point, you are just throwing your life away to live as a hermit."
"You don't understand what I have been through. My life seemed to be over when my family left me in the darkness. When I joined the military, I found people that I can lean on until they also left my life just like how my family left me in the darkness."
"Well, can you tell me more about your friends? Surely they like you for who you were."
"They were dependable, good people. They were like another family to me, a band of brothers that just joked around and kept each other's spirits up. Then one by one they disappeared."
"You really think that distancing yourself from others is something your friends want you to do? You need to get out there and make new ones, you didn't regret being with your previous friends, do you? If not, go on being friends with the people around you and give them the best time that they will have in their lives if you really think that they will disappear again."
"I'll consider it doc."
"Good, then you can be on your way then."
She removed the needle and patched him with a cotton ball and band-aid.
"This will be enough blood for a while. Now, I better see you make a few friends with your subordinates for the sake of my hypothesis."
"Like I said doc. I'll consider it."
Some time passed as he waited for Atago to be done with the blood withdrawal. Meanwhile, Enterprise struck up a conversation with Shikikan.
"So you chose Atago as your secretary?"
"Yeah, I thought that she would be a good choice. Why?"
"I… wanted to be your secretary to get to know you a bit more."
"Hmmm? What makes you say that? Am I that interesting to talk to?"
"No, it's just… I don't know, instinct maybe. Something tells me that we have suffered just as much from war."
"Again, what makes you say that."
"Well, it's either written on your face or it's just my guts saying so."
"Well, I can appoint you as secretary whenever you want and be honest. I might not even have any sanity left after having to deal with Atago's shenanigans."
Enterprise let out a small chuckle. Right before Enterprise was let out another word, Atago entered the room from her blood withdrawal.
"Okay, Enterprise it's your turn. Shikikan and I have to go somewhere."
"What do you mean, Atago? We didn't plan on an outing after this."
She quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him alongside her with his arm acting as a leash, Shikikan has to follow her lead.
"A-Atago? Enterprise, I'll talk to you about this later."
Her hauling of the commander was seen by all of the girls who were outside enjoying the late afternoon as the golden sun was settling past the shining orange-yellow ocean. Many exchanges of whispers were heard from the young shipgirls as to guess what quarrel had happened between the two.
"Where are you taking me?"
"You need to be patient, Shikikan. Onee-san says that you need to relax every now and then."
Here tugging finally came to a halt to his surprise, she had brought him in front of a pastry shop. The building wasn't anything flashy or unique compared to the other shops, just a white painted ordinary shop with a front display of prop pastries. As they entered the humble shop they were greeted by a Vichya Dominion ship.
"Ah, welcome. Oh? Commander, you decided to come to visit my shop?"
"Well Dunkerque, I was planning to visit tomorrow until Atago brought me here out of my will."
"Ah, I see. Well, how may I interest you today?"
"I'd like a few macarons and some tea for the both of us."
"I believe that I didn't ask you to order for me," Shikikan rudely interrupted Atago's orders but she cupped his mouth with her hand and continued.
Dunkerque gave a little giggle at the sight of the two, "Ah sorry about that but, are you two already in a relationship?"
"No, more like sibling rivalry," said Shikikan swatting Atago's arm away from his face.
"Shhh. The adults are talking," said Atago cupping her hand on Shikikan's mouth once again.
"You know what, Atago? I feel like going back to my office. When you are done here, report back to me."
"Wait, Shikikan!"
"If you're asking for forgiveness, forget it. Also sorry Dunkerque, I'll join you tomorrow, that's a promise."
Shikikan left the shop leaving Atago behind to eat her sweets singly.
"Jeez, he can't take everything seriously. How does he expect us to follow his lead if he is always like this?" Atago sat herself at the nearest table enjoying her macaron.
"Well, what have you been doing to him to cause him to be this ticked off?"
"All I did was tease him a few times."
"It seems to me that you have been pushing his buttons too much. It also looks like he wants to be left alone for a while so why don't you stay here for a while and talk about what had happened."
"Well, he appointed me as secretary when we were eating at the canteen. We only worked for a little bit and he told me about his sister and how she isn't doing well."
"He has a sister? Hmmm, he is full of surprises still."
"Soon enough I started teasing him a bit and had our blood drawn for the doctor. He said that he met you right? How did you two get appointed with each other?"
"You see, I met him while the banquet was going on and he uh, accidentally stumbled into me while I was busy feeding the destroyers my sweets. Ended up getting a tart spilled on me due to his carelessness. At first, I thought he was a person just looking for attention, but turns out he was a bit busy drinking on the go. He apologized profusely for his actions, it was priceless really for him to be like that. He then offered me his handkerchief to clean myself with. Which reminds me, can you give him back his handkerchief when you go back?"
She handed her a small white handkerchief that has been neatly folded. Atago observed the cloth for a few seconds before happily accepting the request of bringing back his handkerchief.
"So, what happened after the incident?"
"I was just getting to that. We had a nice conversation about his pastries and my own. Who knew our commander knew a surprising amount of recipes for different types of desserts. Of course, I just had to bring him to show me his baking skills, so I invited him to be surprised that you pulled him here to eat my sweets."
"Well, I still wish I can do something about his cold behavior."
"Is that how he has been? I really thought that he was a kind person from my experience. I thought he was just a rough day in the office."
"I can only guess that is how he really is when he isn't around us."
"Since you are going to apologize to him isn't that right?"
She nodded at her question.
"How about you enjoy these pastries with him that I made. It's on the house."
She handed over a basket with different types of delectable, fluffy sweets.
"Thank you, Dunkerque. Thank you for helping with our affairs."
"No need to thank me. Just hurry up and reconcile with the commander already."
Shikikan took a stroll around the residential area pondering about the decisions and choices that he had made.
"Shikikan!"
"Hmmm?"
He broke out of thought to pop back to reality. Pointing his eyes in the direction of the source of the sound he recognized the figure rather, the figures that called out his name.
"Ah it's you three again and you Nimi."
"Jeez, you don't have to isolate my name out of the rest of them."
Her face now flushed and turned away from the commander.
"What's wrong? You okay Nimi?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Shikikan, what's wrong?" Javelin questioned.
"Long story really. I have to clear my from Atago for a little bit."
All of them had cheeky grins on their faces as soon as they heard that.
"Hey, are you in love with Miss Atago?"
"Love? Oh no, I should have worded that a bit better for you kids since you kids are always thinking of these kinds of thoughts. It's more like I needed to clear my head after what she has been doing lately to me."
"What did she do," questioned Nimi.
"It's just her treating me like a child. I just got fed up with her teasing me. She doesn't even see me as her commander but some sort of victim for her own amusement."
"You look sad, Shikikan. Maybe you should play video games with Ayanami to clear your mind."
"Maybe take a nap. It always works for Laffey when Laffey gets tired from…" Her voice trailed off. Her eyes started to fall steadily, her face creating a blissful expression. Soon enough she was snoozing and was on the verge of collapsing over.
"Laffey!" Said Nimi and Javelin.
They just managed to catch her in time before she had hurt herself. Carefully, they rested her at the nearest tree under the shade.
"Is Laffey always like this? Does she have narcolepsy or something?"
"No, she's always like this. I can only guess that it has to do with the amount of sleep that she gets a night," said Nimi.
"Well, it isn't good for you kids to be sleeping late. All of you should be getting at least eight hours of sleep a night."
"We aren't kids, Shikikan!" Claimed Javelin.
Exactly like a kid.
"Maybe you need to loosen up a little bit, Shikikan. You are a bit tense as of right now. Have you thought about going to the hot springs in the Sakura Empire for a dip? You can relax there for a bit maybe."
"I appreciate the idea, but look I get that you girls want to help me with my problems with Atago, but I need a bit of time by myself to think about what I need to do both about her and my work. So for now I'll see you tomorrow when the daily exercises start."
"Ehhh? Our break is already over?" Javelin complained.
"Yes, Ayanami wanted to play more of her video games during the days off, but now I can't anymore."
"Don't worry about it. All of you will be able to enjoy the downtime when your training and testing are done. For now, I really have to get back to my office."
Shikikan finally made it to his office door without any sort of interruptions from other girls that were trying to talk to him. Shikikan reached his office door until his phone started chiming to tell him that he had received a message from someone. He whipped out his phone to anticipate that it was Monroe yapping his flabby lips again, but to his surprise, it was his ex-girlfriend who's trying to follow him on Juustagram.
What? How did she find out that this was my account?
Another notification came in from Monroe.
Hey, bud! I hope that you don't mind that I tell "her" about your account that you have
Probably should have approved with you first :p
Anyways, I can't wait for the news to tell the world about what this new worldly organization is all about
Goddammit, Monroe. Why do you have to bring up something like this?
All of a sudden he felt two hands planted upon his shoulders.
"Ara, who are you talking to?"
It of pure instinct, his body unconsciously strayed away to see Atago standing before him.
"Jesus, you startled me. You really shouldn't sneak up on your superior like that."
"Ah, sorry. I just couldn't help but surprise you since you were distracted. But now I don't regret a thing after seeing your cute reaction."
"Glad you found that amusing to you," he said. He lowered his eyes to notice the basket of goods that she was holding. "What's with the basket?"
"Ah, Dunkerque asked me to share this with you."
Shikikan entered the office and dropped himself on the couch as he said, "I see, so it's from Dunkerque. I guess we can enjoy her sweets. I am a bit hungry at the moment."
She put herself down next to him and observed the contents that Dunkerque had packed for the two of them.
"Fruit tart, cookies, cream-filled croissants, and two macaroons."
"Man she is too kind to just give away two macaroons to us."
"Well, I guess she was feeling generous today. Shikikan, what would you like?"
"I'll take a fruit tart."
"Okay here you go, now say 'Aaaaah.'"
"No, I can…"
Maybe I should loosen up for the sake of the experiment.
He willingly opened up his mouth to be given a mouth full of tart in his mouth.
"You're such a good boy letting onee-san feed you. Is it good?"
He nodded as he gladly came in for another bite.
"Ara, even your expression when you're eating is cute. I could just keep feeding you forever and never get bored of your cute eating face."
He finished up the last of the tart. His face covered in small specks of crumbs and tart filling.
"You are such a messy eater you know Shikikan. Ah, I almost forgot."
She pulled out the commander's handkerchief then started wiping his mouth. Shikikan decided to just allow her to take care of him for today.
"Where did you get my handkerchief?"
"Dunkerque wanted to give you this back to you when you decided to come in until… uh you know."
Her ears started to droop down along with the smile that she always has on her face. Shikikan realizing the situation that had appeared before him, he quickly reacted with his own words.
"Sorry, it's my fault that I caused such an inappropriate reaction to your teasing. I was just in a bad mood earlier today that's all."
"No, I should be the one apologizing for pushing you over and over again until you burst."
She pulled his head into her bosom and gave him a tight hug.
"I should have realized that you were at the edge of tipping over."
He didn't know what to do at that moment. He felt even worse than when he started when he made up the lie that was meant to cheer up the both of them. Now, he felt like he had just stolen an old woman's purse to then cry about what he had just committed. His eyes were barely maintaining to keep back the tears from flowing. The warmth from Atago made his lonely heart feel whole again. He felt himself drifting away from reality, this time the void seemed a bit brighter.