Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
The living room had a warm, cozy feel to it. The one who reacted to the knock was Matthew, sprawled comfortably on the sofa. Bremerton opened the door, looked around, then walked over toward him.
“I heard you called for me, Education Officer?”
“So that’s what we’re calling it now? Soon I’ll be.... no, never mind. So you’re the one.... Oh? Bremerton, was it?”
Matthew slowly looked Bremerton over as she stood there. He nodded, then rose from the sofa and circled around her.
“I heard about what happened to you. I knew the previous Commander, too. I heard him praising a shipgirl named Bremerton so much, and then he goes and pulls something like that. Let me apologize in his place.”
“It’s already in the past. Just forget about it and help your comrades and the Commander, who are having a hard time!”
At Bremerton’s faint smile, Matthew smiled back in satisfaction and nodded.
“That guy was an idiot. He’d never even properly been on a ship, and yet he still acted like that. But I’m different. I’m a real seaman who’s actually served as a first mate on a proper ship.”
Turning slightly, Matthew stood in front of Bremerton and slowly reached out to rest a hand on her shoulder. He kept smiling, but his body gave a slight twitch.
“Now that I’m here, you can relax. I’ll heal the wounds you’ve received, and I’m better at handling shipgirls, too.”
“....”
Bremerton shook her head at the odd feeling that he was talking as if he were the Commander himself.
-------------
Click.
Matthew left the meeting room. Jinseong watched him go until the very end, then flopped face-first onto the desk. New Jersey, who had been standing in front, came over with a playful smile.
“Ugh.... What crime did I commit that I have to study inside when I could go out and do it later without being late...!”
“You’ve been collapsing at the end every single day lately~”
“How am I supposed to not collapse and just endure it! Hah.... Thanks for always putting up with the translating, New Jersey.”
“Yep! Don’t mention it! There’s no language barrier with shipgirls, you know? Convenient, right?”
“That’s convenient for you, not for me, isn’t it?!”
“Hehe~ Then the Commander should make good use of the shipgirls, shouldn’t he?”
“What was that thing the Education Officer said on his way out?”
“Ah, he said we’re heading out on a special mission this afternoon, so get ready. You knew that already, didn’t you, Commander?”
“So today, huh.... That’s bad....”
New Jersey laughed as she poked at Jinseong’s slumped shoulder with her finger. Thanks to the matter of the theme park supplies, her impression of the Commander had changed a lot over the past few days, too.
Even though he came from a different background, he still looked at her and tried his best to communicate by translating. When they were restoring the theme park, he got along well with the destroyer shipgirls, and even though there were some misunderstandings that he might be trying to mess with the children, he still stubbornly kept the base lively. Above all, the way he was steadily growing closer to Yorktown, Laffey, and Saratoga made her feel reassured as a flagship.
“I should get ready.... I need to check the command ship, too, since it’s just been sitting in the harbor all this time without moving....”
“Ah.... Right, that was a thing? But Commander, aren’t you thinking of riding one of ours?”
Jinseong, who had gotten up and gathered his books, made a strange face.
“That wording is a little.... weird, but you mean the mass-produced shipgirls’ ships, right? The ones the shipgirls can summon in a flash besides their flagship?”
“Hehehe. Then? Of course I mean those mass-produced ships.”
“There’s already a special command ship made just for me, so why make things harder than they need to be? Ah.... if I board a mass-produced ship belonging to a specific shipgirl, does that shipgirl become the flagship for that operation?”
“Oh, you’ve learned something! Correct? There are exceptions, of course, but usually that’s how it works.”
Jinseong had lunch with New Jersey and headed to the harbor. While they were eating, he heard that Yorktown and Laffey had already gone out to sea early to help Enterprise prepare for the mission, so on the way to the command ship he took a brief look around the shore.
“Hm? That ship already out there is.... Bremerton?”
One mass-produced ship was already moored there. He couldn’t tell by the ship’s shape alone, but seeing the two people standing in front of it, Jinseong could tell who it was.
He walked over slowly and greeted them. He had just been thinking that after sending Bremerton to assist Matthew, he wouldn’t get to see her face for a few days.
“Ah.... Huh? C-Commander?”
“You were already here, Bremerton? And the Education Officer is here too?”
New Jersey shrugged behind Jinseong, and Bremerton took on the role of interpreter instead. Matthew spotted Jinseong and burst out laughing.
“I finally get to board one! They say it’s different from an ordinary warship, so I’m definitely looking forward to it. Support me well, Bremerton.”
“Ahaha. He’s saying he’s excited because it’s his first time boarding a shipgirl’s mass-produced ship. Hmm....”
Matthew naturally slipped an arm around Bremerton’s waist. She kept smiling as if nothing was wrong, but Jinseong began to sense a flinch coming from her.
Was this also something like the connection he’d felt with Yorktown or Laffey? Jinseong let out a troubled sigh.
“Bremerton, are you okay?”
At Jinseong’s question, Bremerton looked slightly startled, then shook her head.
“I’m fine~ I don’t want to worry the Commander over something small. Let’s do our best on today’s special mission! Ah, the Education Officer is asking which shipgirl the Commander is riding with?”
“Ah, I’m boarding the command ship that was built separately for me, so I won’t be riding on a shipgirl’s mass-produced ship.”
“What? A Commander of Azur Lane should be boarding a shipgirl directly and properly sharing the sea with her! I’ve hardly ever heard of past Commanders using special command ships, either.”
“Haha. That’s how it worked out. Besides, it would be a shame to just keep the command ship sitting in harbor when it was built with the help of the shipgirls in the first place, wouldn’t it?”
“What a strange man.... I really like Bremerton. Then I’ll see you at departure time.”
Matthew led Bremerton away toward the mass-produced ship. New Jersey watched them go with a sour expression, then lightly tapped Jinseong.
“When did Bremerton get that close to the Education Officer? It feels like there’s still a weird distance, though....”
“...Doesn’t look like she got close because she wanted to.”
Jinseong took New Jersey, who was staring faintly at Bremerton’s mass-produced ship, and headed toward where the command ship was moored.
-------------
“You should’ve known the moment I said I was from the army, you spineless bastard!”
With the rough sound of something being struck, the baton in Matthew’s hand sliced through the air.
“....”
“This is a battlefield! On the battlefield, if you don’t obey your superior’s orders, you get shot! Where did the command I taught you go, Lieutenant!!”
The baton in Matthew’s hand, blazing with anger, came down on Jinseong’s shoulder. New Jersey, standing beside him, was frozen stiff as she stammered out the translation, and Bremerton was nowhere to be seen despite being on her own mass-produced ship.
“You’re looking down on me just because of your aptitude score! Do you know what my aptitude score is? A whopping 17%! Do you think that’s a number you can ignore!”
“I’m sorry.”
The special mission was in the same format as a practice battle, and unlike the training exercises with models or drones, this one had Eagle Union shipgirls playing the role of the enemy.
Unfortunately, the mission itself ended in the worst possible way. Matthew’s command and theory were extremely orthodox, and even from Jinseong’s perspective, they were enough to make him think, “Wouldn’t it have been much better if this guy had been the Commander instead?”
But Jinseong, who had only taken a few days of lessons, couldn’t follow orthodoxy and theory to the letter. Instead, he made better use of the shipgirls’ unique ability to communicate and sync with him, sending Laffey, who was best at bombardment, a little farther forward, or assigning Hermann, who was close with Yorktown and used to escorting carriers, to escort duty. In other words, he relied on the shipgirls’ preferences in his command.
And naturally, the result was exactly what Matthew was seeing now.
“It’s different from the command I know, but.... it was more than good enough for us.”
Whether she heard New Jersey’s muttering or not, Matthew kept barking orders, while Bremerton slowly approached the deck where everyone was standing. The moment Matthew saw her, he strode over.
“You failed! The mission evaluation is over. Bremerton, I can’t stand by and watch a shipgirl like you remain under this kind of command. Bring shipgirls like yourself to me. I’ll select them and save them.”
“Ngh....”
Matthew yanked Bremerton close by the shoulder. Even to Jinseong’s eyes, the smile she had kept before departure was no longer there. Jinseong looked at New Jersey, but she was just as cold-faced, and he still couldn’t understand what Matthew was saying.
“Did I really screw up that badly? Translate it for me, New Jersey.”
“No. It’s not something the Commander needs to understand. This is just me....”
“I’ll make sure to report this properly to the upper echelon of Azur Lane. Eagle Union can’t be left in the hands of a Commander like this. If I become the Commander here....”
Bremerton couldn’t even hear Matthew out to the end before shaking off his arm and running off. As she hurried past Jinseong, he grabbed her hand.
“C-Commander...!”
“Ah.... Now that I’m holding your hand, I can feel how you’re feeling. I kept doubting it all the way to the end, thinking maybe, just maybe, I was wrong.”
“Ahaha. The Commander’s hand really is warm...? B-but could you let go this time?”
Bremerton forced a bright smile back onto her face. But to Jinseong, that smile was already gone.
“What happened?”
“No! It’s really nothing! I don’t want to worry the Commander over something trivial, okay? I’ll be back in a bit. I’m just going for a walk!”
“Bremerton, who is the Commander of this base?”
As Bremerton tried to pull her hand away, Jinseong tightened his grip instead.
“....”
“Who is your Commander?”
“...Lieutenant Yoo Jinseong. It’s you.”
“Say it. What happened?”
At Jinseong’s clear, firm words, negative emotions surged into him from Bremerton’s hand like a burst dam. The sticky, pounding sensation was so unpleasant it felt like a headache was coming on.
“Sob.... sniff, hngh.... Why.... why is it me again...? It happened not long ago, too.... Why does this keep happening to me?”
In front of Jinseong, Bremerton’s shoulders drooped helplessly, and tears fell from her eyes.
“I’m sick of hearing that I’m beautiful.... I’m sick of people touching and hugging my body however they want like it’s fine...! And I’m sick of the problems spreading to the people around me, too....”
Matthew shouted something as if asking what was going on and tried to approach Bremerton, but New Jersey blocked him.
“But why, why is it me again? Why only me.... Sob, sob....”
Jinseong lowered his head, first wrapping both hands around Bremerton’s and patting them lightly to send her reassurance. Then he looked toward Matthew and grinned.
In that split second, Jinseong smiled as he ticked off each point one by one.
That bastard laid hands on one of my subordinates. And over a sexual misconduct issue, no less.
That bastard is a professional, and I’m a conscript.
This isn’t Korea.
“I wasn’t planning on it, but I guess I’ll just discharge myself like this.”
Step, step.
Clean footwork. Power driving up from the toes. A twist rising from the waist through the whole body. A fist thrust out with perfect precision.
Boom!!
With the sound of something exploding, Matthew was sent flying backward with tremendous force.
“Huh?!”
“Eek...?!“
“You said you hated it, you bastard!!!”
The Commander’s shout, one that had no business echoing across the base, rang out loud and clear.
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