Our Bonds

It's another normal day at Maizuru Naval District. The younger destroyers are having their lessons and firing practice. Patrols and expeditions are being carried out by tasked shipgirls. The battlesh.i.p.s are doing their own shelling practice. The Aircraft carriers and Aviation cruisers are also practicing their plane coordination. Me? Just slacking off as usual. Normally my secretary ship would try and force me do work, but this time, I've got the upper hand!

"Wa-wait a minute! I'm not prepared yet!" (Shigure)

I carried a struggling Shigure, brought her over to my bed and laid her down carefully. She tried to escape but I held her down and flipped her over onto her stomach.

"Nope. The sooner you let me do it, the better you will feel!"

"Wa-wait! Owowowow!" (Shigure)

"Endure it. You will feel better soon."

"It hurts! Ah, but it's starting to feel good a little." (Shigure)

"I told you so."

I continued massaging her back, pressing each pressure point firmly but carefully. Good thing I read those books on basic massage techniques.

It seems that Shigure didn't heal completely after the joint operation with Sasebo. For the past few days, she has been experiencing muscles aches. At least, that's how Yuudachi described to me. And she was right, judging by Shigure's reaction before. So right now, you can say Shigure is my first test subject.

"Honestly, you should have told me you were aching earlier."

"I didn't want to trouble you or anything." (Shigure)

There was a twinge of guilt in her voice.

"Nonsense. If you hid it, it would be more troublesome for me."

"But... Owowowow! " (Shigure)

I pressed a little harder to silence her a bit.

"No buts! Once I'm done, I will treat you to some ice cream, alright?"

"muuu. Alright." (Shigure)

I continued the massage. It's pretty interesting to hear her make so many different noises. Usually she is quiet and will only say what is necessary. The sounds she made are somewhat awakening something sadistic in me. Oop. That's not good thought.

After a while, I couldn't hear anything from her. Looks like she had fallen asleep. Can't blame her. Even I would feel sleepy after a massage. I flipped her on her back and tucked her in. It wouldn't be a good idea to carry a shipgirl back to her room during this time of the day. I suppose I can get a bit of work done today.

---------------------------------

Or so I thought....

On my desk laid a girl in a school swimsuit with an orange top.

"What are you doing, Shioi?"

"Oh! Finally you're out! No fair. You always play with Shigure-chan!" (Shioi)

"Don't make it sound weird. Well, you're not really wrong."

"Weird?" (Shioi)

"Never mind."

This girl here is I-401, better known as Shioi. She is a Submarine Carrier, the second ship of the Sentoku I-400 class. Among the submarine girls, she is the tallest. Looks like the submarine girls are back from their expedition.

"So, your report?"

"Great success! We retrieved more resources this time." (Shioi)

"Great job! Where are the rest?"

"They went ahead to Mamiya-san's." (Shioi)

"Tell her to put it on my tab. My treat."

"Really? Yay! I'll tell them later!" (Shioi)

"Later? Not now?"

"Yep! I wanted to spend some time with you, Admiral." (Shioi)

Eh? Her too?

"It's not fair that Zuihou-san and Shigure-san get all attention all the time. Pay attention to me too!" (Shioi)

Her face was so close to mine that I could hear and feel her breathe.

"Alright alright! Come here."

I stretched out my arms, inviting her in. Shioi jumped from the table into my embrace.

"Sorry for ignoring all this time. I didn't forget about you, you know?"

"Admiral you dummy..." (Shioi)

"How about you sleep with me tonight?"

"You mean the lewd kind?"

"Of course not! Tempting but you know I don't do that kind of stuff. Just being by my side is enough.

Well not yet anyway

"...."

"You don't want to?"

Shioi shook her head vigorously.

"No. I want to!"

"Good. I will see you tonight. 'Kay?"

With that, she left the room to meet with her fellow submarines.

I never thought Shioi would feel this way too. I expected Iku(I-19) to be like this, not the girl who is obsessed with canal diving. I need to make sure the girls don't feel too ignored, it seems.

Fun fact, Shioi was my first submarine girl. Maybe that's why she felt jealous when Zuihou and Shigure, who technically came later after her.