Hyper Ooichi and Nuinui 14

I had heard some rumors about the fate of the expedition while at dinner.  Turns out that everyone is coming back victorious. That's a relief. I wouldn't want to be alone. I was just sitting at the desk, passing time with a crossword puzzle.  I also found out that Shiranui had taken some minor damage. I was thinking of going to visit her at the hospital...

There's sounds at the door, I can hear the lock being worked.

The door opens and Shiranui is standing there, her normal look of mild discontent on her face. She makes eye contact with me before speaking.

“Tadaima.”  [T/L note: you should know this]

She's still standing there, looking at me. I can feel my cheeks reddening. I look down at my lap as I reply with the traditional response.  “Okaeri.”

I hear the door close and a bounce of springs as shiranui throws herself on her bunk. “I've wanted to say that at least once...” Shiranui trails off and is quiet for a moments. “I'm tired.”

It feels like the proper thing would be to ask how her day was... But isn't that too cliché?  Still, I want to know.

“How um, did everything go today?”

I hear her take a deep breath before replying. “It went awful. I was awful. Nothing went right, and yet, we still came back as victors.  I was given a small command. My force was nearly decimated... I'm no leader: poor resource management, timing,poor grasp of our force capabilities. And yet, when we returned back not one ill word or chastisement was sent my way.”

“You still brought everyone back. Do you really want to be berated for your performance.”

“Maybe.” There's a hint of venom in her voice as she continues. “At least then I know something would be expected from me.  Maybe they didn't even expect any of us to make it out of there.”

“That's nonsense Shiranui, you're thinking too much into it.”

“How can I think too much into it? I have no excuses for when the blame is placed onto me for the damages sustained by the other destroyers.”

“Have you even talked to the other members of your group?”

“Well I did see Fubuki briefly-”

“...And did she show any sort of anger towards you?”

“No, bu-”

“You're trying to shoulder all the blame for everything that happened, and nobody expects that.”

I hear her sigh and pull the bed covers over her.  “Maybe I should share in some of your optomisim. Can you please turn off the lights? I'm going to bed. You can use the desk lamp if you wish.”

I didn't stay up much longer.

- -

I woke up first the next morning.  I was surprised by our conversation last night. Shiranui always seems so cool and collected.  It must have been rough on her.  I'll make some tea for her. Soon enough I can hear her stirring in bed as she rolls around a bit. After a few minutes she eventually gets out of bed and dressed.

“I'm sorry about last night.”
“Hmm?”
“I didn't think before speaking. I was being unrealistic.  I shouldn't have offloaded my problems onto you.”
“W-well it's nothing to be sorry about. Sometimes you just need a second opinion.”
“Still...”  Shiranui's remorseful expression slowly fades to her normal stoic appearance. “Well, did you have any plans for today?”

Before I can answer there's a knock at the door. Shiranui opens it to reveal a twin-tailed girl in the same uniform as Shiranui's.

“Yooooo~ Shiranui!” The new girl cheerfully exclaims.
“Kagerou. Good morning.”
“How'ya doing? You sure gave the abyssals a good beating yesterday.”

Shiranui seems almost shy around her.

“I'm doing fine Kagerou. Thank you for checking.”

Maybe shy isn't the right word. Maybe...? More receptive? Warmer.

“Hmmm, ok then...Hey! You've got a friend over, is that Ooi?”

I give her a wave.

“Yes. She's staying with me.”
“Ehhh!?” Kagerou almost jumps onto Shiranui, hugging her tight. “I'm sooo glad you made a friend!”
“It, hnngh, isn't that big of a deal.”
“Anyway. I'm very proud of you Shiranui. You know you can visit whenever right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I'll be off then, bye Ooi! Please be understanding with Shiranui, she can be a handful sometimes.”
“I-I... am not...”

And with that, Kagerou was off, leaving a slightly flustered Shiranui in her wake. Shiranui turns around to face me, and straightens out her already crisp uniform.

“As you can tell, that was Kagerou.”
“Yes, she's very lively.”
“I have great respect for Kagerou.  She always puts others before herself and takes care of the rest of the Kagerou-class.  I think she dotes on me particular though.”

I can see why. Kagerou must be overjoyed seeing Shiranui with someone.

“I noticed you didn't bring very much with you when you came over.” (I don't own much.)  “Do you want to go shopping today?”

“Ok, let's do it.” I replied.

“And ah,”  Shiranui turns her head to look at one of the pictures on her wall. “I wanted to get more clothes and I thought you... might be better suited than myself for picking something out.”

(S-she's cute!)

“Oh! Um, I think I could help with that.”

“Good.  We'll leave shortly.”

- - -

We just picked up some basics, and soon enough we were looking at clothing.  Shiranui seems like a sporty type maybe? Could try some capris and and nice collared shirt on her... I notice her gaze going over to some of the flowery dresses though.  I bet I could find something nice and simple for her.

“Wait here a second, Shiranui.”

-

I come back with some things for her to try on.

“Go on, go put this on.”
“...Right here?” Shiranui tilts her head slightly while replying.
“Yea-No. In the dressing room over there.”
“Oh. Of course.”

I sit on a bench while waiting for Shiranui to change. Although I'm feeling pretty good I can't get one thing out of mind.

I wish I was with Kitakami doing this...

“W-well... How do I look?”

Shiranui is standing in front of me, wearing the white sundress I had picked out. It's a front button-up, with some minimal embroidery, but the dress slowly turns transparent as it nears the bottom.  I also found a straw sun hat, and I tied a light blue ribbon above the brim, to match her hair bobble.

“It's wonderful, Shiranui.”

She slowly spins around looking in at herself in the mirror.  “If you say so.” Shiranui's cheeks are almost the color of her hair. One of the store attendants notices us.

“That looks great on you. If you want I can ring it up for you right and and you can wear it out.”

“That won't b-” I step infront of Shiranui and  raise my voice over hers.

“-That will be great!” I give the employee a big smile as Shiranui makes some cute noises behind me.

We end up getting a few more things before leaving, Shiranui making worried looks everywhere, like someone is going to sneak up on her.

- - -

As we're walking home I hear an electronic beep.

“Oh, that's my cell phone. Kagerou had given them to a bunch of us...” Shiranui reaches inside one of the bags she's carrying to grab her phone.

“Oh. There's going to be an Commander's call after dinner. Let's drop off our purchases first before getting something to eat.”

- - -

Shoukaku is standing at the entrance the the building of where the assembly is being held, clipboard in hand.

“Hello Ooi-san...  And is that Shiranui!? Ahh! She's so cute looking.”

Shiranui is doing her best to hold her neutral expression, but it isn't working very well. “Hello Shoukaku-san, we went shopping today.”

“I'm a little jealous.  Anyway, the auditorium is down the hall to the left.”

As we enter the auditorium Kagerou stands up waving to us.  Shiranui sits next to her, and I take the adjacent seat.  More girls make their way in and take seats,  Tatsuta and Tenryuu end up sitting on my other side.  I doubt Kitakami is here, nobody probably told her about it...

My attention is turned to the stage, where two of the Kongou sisters are currently pulling Kongou herself. Hiei and Haruna both have one of Kongou's arms held tightly to their chest as they slowly pull her off the stage.

“Noooo~, I have to stay on the stage and give morale support to the Admiraaaaaal.”
“Don't you remember what happened last time Nee-san? Just like I'm not allowed in the kitchen anymore, you aren't allowed up on stage.”
“It's alright, we can all sit in the front row, there's no way he can miss you then.”

Kongou is all but thrown into one of the seats, as her sisters take the flanking seats, each placing one of their hands on Kongou's knees, to reinforce their decision.  The lights dim as the stage spotlights come on, illuminating Admiral Goto.
“Hello, everyone.” He starts.

A chorus of replies of varying enthusiasm.

“I'm glad to announce that the amount of physical altercations has gone down significantly, even with the introduction of American ships. Please keep this trend up.  I'd also like to congratulate the members of the last successful expedition: Tone, Chikuma.... “

He continues on to list off the participating ships, going to highlight some of their accomplishments. Shiranui nudges me, before whispering something in my ear.

“I had guessed that this was going to be an award ceremony, but I guess I forget they don't give awards out to ships, just people.”

Goto finishes talking about the expedition, but I'm not listening, still in shock from that comment.

“I'd now like to take this time to introduce a few new arrivals.  First off is the American heavy Cruiser Northhampton.”

From stage left comes a pretty well built and... honestly pretty good looking... man. He's looks a little confused though.

“Uh, yeah. Hey.”

The entire auditorium erupts with banter, with some particularly enthusiastic calls from Tatsuta nearby.

“Wow. Wow.  If I knew everyone was waiting for me I'da have came back sooner.”

He waves before heading off the stage and Goto takes up the podium again.

“I'd also like to introduce our own new arrivals, Sendai herself has finally arrived at our base.”

As if appearing out of nowhere, a girl clad in a similar orange outfit to Naka and Jintsuu, steps out from behind the back stage curtains.

She approaches the front of the stage, and does a bow.

“Domo.”

That's it. She walks off stage after that. A few snorts and giggles come from around the room, particularly the younger destroyers. Goto is slumping forward, his hands propping up his forehead. He doesn't even bothering looking up before speaking again.

“And then we have this person I wasn't even told her name why do I li-”

The 'girl' places her arm on Goto's back, interrupting his despair.   Calling her a girl would be somewhat inaccurate. She has the appearance of an lady, although not very tall compared to some of the other ships.  She's wearing traditional japanese clothes and her hair is tied up in a long high-top ponytail. She gently nudges Goto out of the way to take the microphone.

“Ahem... Hello everyone! My, there are certainly a lot of you here.  Ah? I think I see some other aircraft carriers around too? You all look wonderful. Ah, excuse me, my name is Houshou. I hope to get to know every one of you, I'm not really familiar with this base, so please assist me in the upcoming days.”

She's the only one to receive any applause. Houshou huh... She's one of the first aircraft carriers I think.

Admiral Goto looks a little better, than earlier taking the stand for the last time.

“Uh.... Good work everyone, you're all dismissed.”

At those words, Kongou bolts upright and nearly jumps onto the stage... If not for Hiei catching her arm at the last moment, causing Kongou's forehead to be introduced to the front of the wooden stage. It's barely an inconvenience though, as she recovers quickly and attempts to climb up with Hiei still clinging on.

“TEEIII TOOOOO KUUUUUUUUUU~!”
“I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I CAN HOLD HER FOR ADMIRAL!”

A look of abject terror is on Goto's face as he slowly pieces together what is happening, doing an about face and making his best flank speed out of the room.

We both say goodbye to Kagerou before leaving.  Shiranui receives a few compliments on our way out, getting redder with each one.

Before we're outside the building, Ise and Hyuuga call out to me.

“Hey, Ooi. Did you ever find Kitakami?”

“Or maybe did she find you already?” Ise adds.

“... What are you talking about?” I asked

“Oh well, we ran into her earlier and she looked kinda disstressed and-”

I interreupt Hyuuga. “We're not together anymore.”  Ise and Hyuuga's mouth's both make a small 'o' shape and they shoot embarrassed glances at each other.  I don't bother waiting for a response, as I grab Shiranui's hand and pull her towards the door.  I can still hear them talking behind us.

“Hey Hyuuga, you wouldn't leave me in the middle of the night, right?”

“Of course not Ise, you'd have to be awake for my parting gift.”

“Oh? What would you get me?”

“A black eye.”

- - - -