super ktkm and ooi adventures 8

The rest of the morning wasn't nearly as... exciting.  I wanted to walk Shiranui back, but she assured me that she was fine, and Kitakami was giving me weird looks.  The two of us just took a walk around base, a normal occurrence for us. Kitakami seems to enjoy what little nature we have on base. She once said to me: “People bother your less if you're moving.” I agree that there's some truth in that.  We're not out too long, as it starts to heat up quite quickly with the midday sun.

- - -

We're back at our room, I'm in the bathroom straightening out my hair when I hear a knock on the door.

	“Kitakami, can you see who it is?”
	“Dooon't wannaaa~”
	“Pleeeeease?”
	“Oooooh kay~”

 I hear Kitakami open the door and then comes an immediate snort of displeasure.

	“What do you want?”
	“I uh-uh-uh was just trying to find out if-”

I look out towards the entrance and see Kitakami slowly closing the door on the girl.

	“Wait! Wait! I just trying to find out if this belonged to you!”

I see a pair of hands thrust out a portable radio through the doorway. Oh... Hmm, I've seen that before.

	 “Isn't that the american's radio?” I call out from the bathroom.
	“Eh? It could be.” Kitakami replies.
	“Ah, well thank you!”

Kitakami closes the door as soon as the doorway is cleared.  I finish fixing my hair soon after.

	“Do you want to see what's going on in the common room, Kitakami?”
	“Ehhh... Maybe later...”

I sort of expected this reply, unfortuantely.

	“Well, I'm going to go hang out there, I'll be waiting for you.”
	“Mm. Bye Ooichi.”

It feels wrong to leave her here alone. Maybe I'm being selfish but I don't want to bored all day.

- - -

As I enter the common room I'm greeting to the loud noise of an electric motor grinding. Yuubari greets me from behind the small bar area, where she's operating a blender.

	 “Aha! Ooi! What's going on?”
	“Just seeing who's around...”
	“I hear ya, but where's your partner in crime? The artificial difficulty to your dark souls, so to speak.”
	“Huh? Oh, you mean Kitakami? She's just.... she said she would catch up later.”

Yuubari nods. “I see, I see. Anyway, I'm making smoothies, do you want one? I've got all kinds of fruit.”

	“That would be nice, I'm not too picky about what's in it so you can surprise me.”

As Yuubari reaches for ingredients for the smoothie underneath the counter I peer around the room.  A few girls are watching TV, while Fubuki seems to be practicing with the dartboard.  A couple of girls come this way;  Kiyoshimo and one of her sister ships, Hayashimo.  They take a seat up on the stools to my right.

	“Do you girls want one too?”
	“Yes! Yes! Please make one for me Yuubari-chan!” Kiyoshimo answers with gusto.
	“Strawberry daiquiri. Hard.”
	“Ahaha... I don't have anything like that.”

A few minutes pass of us intently watching Yuubari mix, blend, and pour our smoothies into tall glasses, placing one in front of each of us. I take a sip of mine. It's got a mostly strong melon flavor, with hints of strawberry and bannana.  It's really nice.

	“It's delicious Yuubari, thank you.”
	“No problem, I had to practice a lot to get it right anyway.”

The other two ships also offer their praises.  Kitakami is really missing out... Kiyoshimo interrupts our quiet drinking

	“Hey Hey, I heard that the Americans brought over a battleship! A real honest battleship! I can't wait to see her!”
	“Well, I've never seen her... I've never seen any except that submarine and that useless destroyer.”
	“You think a battleship would be pretty imposing and visible, but I haven't seen her either.” Yuubari adds.
	“I heard it from Inazauma, there's totally a battleship here! I'm so excited.”
	“... What about the Kongou sisters?” The soft spoken Hayashimo.

Kiyoshimo looks at the ceiling for a second before answering.

	“Well.. they're... They don't really give off that whole battleship vibe thing! It's hard to explain.”

Yuubari leans over towards me, a sly smile on her face.

	“Heyyy Ooi, you should totally come over tomorrow. I just got a big tv and this super cool sound system, and it would be a shame just to watch anime by myself. Kitakami is invited too, of course.”

Shiranui had already invited me to come over on that day.

	“Tomorrow isn't really good, what about tonight or in a couple of days?”
	“Hmm Hmm! You drive a hard bargain but I think tonight will be fine.”

The second floor door opening gets my attention and I see Kitakami standing in the doorway, a look of displeasure on her face when she sees who I'm sitting next time. I think she's about to turn around and walk away but she just grits her teeth and takes at seat on my left.  Yuubari offers her a smoothie, Kitakami accepts.

	“Rough morning, Kitakami?” Yuubari asks.
	“You're not the first person to say such a thing.”
	“You just have to take a more positive attitude on things.  I once heard Kongou singing a song about that. It was pretty catchy.”

	I poke Kitakami, “Yuubari invited us over later tonight, are you up for it?”
	“Huh? Yeah, that's fine.”
	“That's great then, I got this movie called Patlabor that we should totally watch.” Yuubari cheerfully replies.

The room's attention is suddenly caught by the unmistakable thumps of someone running up the stairs. The stairwell door bursts open and out comes Kongou sliding on her knees, both arms pointing towards the door from which she came.

	“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!  I present to yooouuuu a ne~w face!”

From behind Kongou appears one who must be one of the American ships, a stoic looking expression on her face, followed by Haruna.

	“The American Battleship, Arizona!”

Kiyoshimo's face lights up and and makes a 'haaaa~' noise as she sees the American battleship. She launches out of her seat and stops not even a meter away from the somewhat surprised battleship.  Kiyoshimo immediately launches into a barrage of questions which catches even the … excitable … Kongou off-guard.  Haruna kneels down next to Kiyoshimo, before speaking to her.

	“Well, you see, Arizona-san doesn't really talk a lot.  She's very quiet.”

Kiyoshimo's expression saddens just for split second before perking up again.

	“Oh! So she's like that one expression, 'Don't talk and hit people with a big stick'! Or maybe she's sworn an oath of silence for her fallen comrades? Ah, no her voice is really her secret weapon, experimental sonic based weaponry!”
	“Haruna isn't too sure....”

Kongou suddenly jumps up and whispers something into Arizona's ear. The latter turns to look at Kongou who gives a few quick nods.  Arizona then reaches down and pats Kiyoshima on the head.

	“Haaa! I hope we can become good friends Arizona-s..... Ms Arizona!”
	“I'm gonna puke.”

I turn around to Kitakami. She doesn't look particularly sick.

	“Eh? Did the smoothie not sit well with you?”
	“Huh? What? No, not that.”

Before I can ask what was Kitakami was talking about the unmistakable sound of  a warbling air raid sirens.