Our Bonds

By late afternoon, the Mogami sister have returned to normal. Akashi did a check and confirmed that it was bad fuel that caused them to overheat. That was the problem. We shouldn't have any fuel that causes this kind of effect. They did mention that they were drinking last night. So the main cause is definitely the alcohol they had. To find out what was the main cause, I went to their rooms to check.

Mogami handed over an empty bottle to me. Thre was a strong sour smell and the labels were clearly non-Japanese. It looks like Russian. This is Vodka, isn't it?

"Where did you get this from?"

"That North Union cruiser with blue hair said it was what they drink back in their homeland. It was sour but delicious." (Suzuya)

"The hangover was unexpected though." (Kumano)

Blue hair... Chapayev.

Well, I can't blame any of them for this incident. Even I didn't expect Vodka to have this effect on them. I will be talking to her later.

"I feel bad for troubling Rei-san and the others." (Mikuma)

"Yeah. I heard the whole infirmary was hotter than a sauna when we were in there." (Suzuya)

"Is there anything we can do to thank them?" (Mogami)

"Well, that's for the four of you to think about. Anyway, I'm going to add a rule about checking whether foreign stuff are safe for consumption. I can't have another incident like this. You girls just rest for the day."

I left their rooms and head back to the office. I don't believe I was expecting a guest...

"Admiral, I did my best treating them, you know. Where's my reward?" (Rei)

Rei was waiting in my office when I returned. It looked like she just took a bath. Her wet hair was glistening in the sunlight. Her uniform wasn't put on properly. The buttons were misaligned and the insignia on her left shoulder was becoming loose Don't tell me she rushed here after bathing...

"Adjust your uniform properly first. And sit over there."

I pointed at the secretary seat of my desk. Zuihou is helping Akashi rearrange the planes in the Arsenal. She won't be back for a while.

I went to the bathroom and brought out a brush and hair dryer. I'm not an expert but I have done this more than I want to admit.

"Can you do this yourself?"

"Hmm? Hehe. Do it for me." (Rei)

There it is. The playful highschool girl aura of hers.

I let out a sigh and plugged the hair dryer into a socket. I set the temperature to low before turning it on.

"Isn't the temperature a little too low? I usually just start off with the highest." (Rei)

"Huh?! What are you-? You can't just go with high temperature at the start! It will damage your hair. Seriously, you didn't know this!"

I remember when I first tried drying Yuudachi's hair. She got angry and bit me after I blew hot air onto her head straight away.

"You are surprisingly knowledgeable about this kind of things." (Rei)

"When you work here long enough, you get to learn all sorts of things. Today, I just learned that Vodka causes shipgirls to overheat."

"Eh? All that was because of Vodka? I thought it was something more severe." (Rei)

"The girls here can react weirdly to all sorts of things. I'm just glad that they are alright."

I switched off the dryer and started brushing her hair.

"Say, how about becoming my boyfriend already?" (Rei)

"Again with this. I told you, I'm not interested."

"Aww~ But it's rare to see a male being able to do this kind of things." (Rei)

"Then you just have a view on how normal a man should be."

Besides, I have been spending a long time surrounded by girls. Of course I would have picked up on a few things girls do.

"You really won't reconsider?" (Rei)

"I'm a upright and faithful man. So I won't allow myself to simply dump a girl that has been with me for a few years just to be with another that I just met less than two months ago."

"Well, it's not like you will be getting married to Zuihou any time soon. I'll just take my time to steal your heart." (Rei)

"Yeah yeah. Good luck on that."

Marriage, huh. I still have the ring. The question is, when is the right time? The conditions for shipgirls to meet in order to have anything drastic done to them is hard for us humans to understand. What I do know is that, shipgirls with a ring will have their limiter released. The ring is a symbol of their bond to their Admiral and is a source for their power. That was the description in the ring box. It's true that shipgirls who were married are way stronger than what they were previously. Houshou was able to takedown two Re-class battlesh.i.p.s and heavily damaging an Armoured Carrier Princess by herself before sustaining heavy damages. Yamato, who was the married to the Marshal Admiral, took out a single Abyssal battleship fleet all on her own. At least, that's how the story goes. Even though the Yamato-class is one of the strongest battlesh.i.p.s in the world, there is no way she can singlehandedly wipe out an Abyssal Battleship fleet. Or can she?

"-miral! Admiral!" (Rei)

"Huh? Oh, what? What?!"

You got to be joking. Did I do that?

"Finally, you're back. I have been calling you for a while now." (Rei)

While I was deep in thought, I did something ridiculous. Rei's hair, which was let down previously, was now in braids. I must have braided her hair subconciously. In the first place, I didn't even learn to do that before.

"This is pretty well done. I think I'm going to keep it like this." (Rei)

"Please don't. I will undo now."

"Nope." (Rei)

Rei got up before I can undo this embarrassing mistake of mine, made a run to the door.

"I'm going to brag about this to everyone. Hee hee." (Rei)

"Oh no you don't. Lieutenant Commander Rei! Get back here now! That's an order!"