Our Bonds

That was unexpected. The volcano we discovered last week erupted all of a sudden. Tenryuu's fleet discovered it spewing out lava and ash while they were reviewing the new route I planned out.

"We can't do anything about it. I'll report about this."

"Why are all these weird things happening?" (Ooyodo)

"I don't know. I thought it was the Sirens at first but what can they gain by randomly altering the sea?"

Apart from giving me more work, there is no merit in doing this. I tried asked Azur Lane about this but they don't understand their actions as well.

"Alert! Enemies spotted near the base! Enemies spotted near the base! It's a Siren!" (Alarm)

"Again?"

I made my way to the port. Everyone is gathered there already. Standing in front of us is the Purifier and Observer. These two have been coming to the base for the past three days.

"This time, I will definitely destroy you!" (Purifier)

"We will obtain the information we need." (Observer)

Purifier is the one that does the attacking while Observer just, well observe. She is trying to figure out why our attacks can hurt them.

"Haah...Fusou, you know what to do."

"Got it. Main guns, secondary guns, fire-!" (Fusou)

On cue with Fusou, the entire fleet rained fire on the two Sirens. As usual, they could not summon their minions in time. Apart from wasting our resources, I got to admit, this is a pretty cool sight. It's like a light show, but with loud noises and mostly fire and explosions. Oh gross. Is that Purifier's head? Yikes.

"Tch. We will be back!"

Observer escaped carrying the head of Purifier. What was left were debris and some tentacles. They soon disappeared into blue dust though, so we couldn't study the components.

Maizuru Naval District isn't the only one getting attacked. Yokosuka and Brunei Anchorage were also targets. Yokosuka got attacked by a someone who called herself 'The Empress" while Brunei got tickled by a jellyfish girl. The results were pretty much expected. A one-sided massacre.

"Another report to write up. I got to inform Azur Lane is well."

"Should we focus on expeditions for the time-being? Our ammunition is decreasing fast." (Ooyodo)

Really? I mean, I did deploy the entire fleet against two enemies, but I didn't expect our ammo to decrease at such a fast rate.

"Maybe I should make a fleet dedicated to repelling the Siren invaders."

"For now, I have made a list of expeditions which give us the highest yield of ammunition." (Ooyodo)

As expected of Ooyodo. She is so efficient

"Thanks Ooyodo. I knew I could count on you."

She is trying to hide it, but I can tell Ooyodo is pretty happy. Now then, back to work.

There are a few Abyssal problems near the Northern sea area. I already sent three fleets to clear them out. Zuihou, Shouhou and Ryuujou each led a fleet of Destroyers and Light Cruisers to the respective areas and eliminate the Abyssals there. I know Ooyodo just said we need to conserve ammunition but this was actually an order from HQ. I will need to submit a request to stop all sorties for the time being.

"Who will be in the defense fleet?" (Shigure)

"Oh. You heard me."

Shigure sat on my lap, receiving her daily headpats. Previously, she would just crouch down to let me pet her. Now she would sit on my lap. Looks like she got inspired by Zuihou.

"I was thinking of assigning Fusou to lead the defense fleet. Not sure about the rest."

"How about Kuma-san?" (Shigure)

Kuma... She is usually part of the expedition fleets. Good idea. I can just make it a rotating shift. Each week there will be different shipgirl's assigned to either the expedition fleet, patrol or defense.

"You're so smart, Shigure!"

"Eh? What did I...Hau~" (Shigure)

She looks like she is in paradise. Is the flaps on her head moving? Must be my imagination.

"Yahoo! I'm here to play!" (Rei)

Rei came in excitedly, wear her new white naval uniform. The female uniform is similar to the male variant, the difference being that instead of pants, they wear a skirt which reaches above the knees. Seeing Rei in uniform reminds my of Takao. Both of them are almost the same size.

"Lieutenant Rei! For the last time, knock before you enter! And why are you back so early?"

Rei's transfer to IJN has been completed. As such, she has to attend a course at Yokosuka Naval Academy to learn about our operations and other details. It was supposed to be a one week course, but she is back one day early.

"Hehe. They finished the graduation ceremony early. Now I'm a Lieutenant-commander!" (Rei)

Rei showed off the two thick golden stripes on her sleeves and the two thick yellow stripes with a star on her collar.

"Nice nice. So you know all about our operations and jargon?"

"Of course. I got full marks for the test. Ask me anything and I can answer it." (Rei)

Oh really? Let's see.

"What does LBAS stand for?"

"Erm... Land... something something support?" (Rei)

"Close but still wrong."

"They didn't have that question during the test!" (Rei)

"Then what makes the oxygen torpedo so effective for torpedo squadrons?" (Shigure)

"Huh? What's that?" (Rei)

"Shigure... They don't teach that in the human academy."

"They don't?" (Shigure)

Shigure looked so shocked and confused. Wait, she genuinely thought we learnt that in the academy? The academy only teaches us about tactics and our roles in the naval district. I learnt about their equipment only after I was posted here.

"Oh well. Congratulations on your promotion, Rei-san"

"Congratulations." (Shigure)

Rei turned red for a moment there. She had a little smirk on her face.

"But you still have a long way go."

"Geez. I know that. At least let me bask in this moment." (Rei)

Suddenly, a loud rumble tore through the air. Thunder?!

"Eek!"

Shigure turned out a clasp onto me. She is still afraid of the thunder. Sounds of rain pattering on the window soon followed.

I did my best to comfort the quivering Shigure.

"There, there."

"Hey. How about me? I'm scared too." (Rei)

Rei did her best impression of a scared little girl. That's creepy.

"Yikes. Stop that."

"Huh?! So mean!" (Rei)

"Geez! Why did have to rain all of a sudden? Now I'm all wet." (Suzuya)

"Welcome back. That was fa-. Wow. You're soaked."

Suzuya walked in, soaked from head to toe. She was carrying a bucket with bathing accessories in one hand and drying her hair with a towel in the other.

"I'm back. I'm gonna borrow your shower, 'kay?

"I don't mind, but why aren't you using the docks?"

"It's full. Tama-chan and Samidare-chan got damaged so I let them and the others go in first." (Suzuya)

"I will hear your report later."

"Kay~." (Suzuya)

Suzuya disappeared into my bathroom.

Shigure seems to have calmed down a little. She is still shaking a bit but she should be fine.

"You have a bathroom here?" (Rei)

"Yeah. It was a bit of a hassle to walk to the docks for a bath. So I had Akashi build one for me."

Not to mention the number of times I walked in on girls changing. Of course, I'm not going mention that.

Later, Ryuujou returned from her sortie. It was a perfect victory. Surprisingly, she wasn't wet at all.

"Eh? Oh. I actually dried myself off before coming here. I didn't really get that wet." (Ryuujou)

Now only Zuihou's left. Suzuya came out with a new set of clothes, the wet ones were in the bucket she brought along. She decided to read some manga with Rei on the couch. Hmm? Since when did the two of them gotten so friendly with each other?

By this point, Shigure had calmed down and joined Suzuya and Rei in their manga-reading session. I guess Rei has already fit in with everyone. The rain is also starting to let up. Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this. Something like this happened before, didn't it?

"Admiral, this is an emergency! Zuihou's fleet just sent out an SOS beacon!" (Ooyodo)

Ooyodo rushed in with that announcement.

...Yeah, that's what I figured.