Azur Lane: Return of Davis

Chapter 22: Unity

March 7, 1942

Grappling onto the Honolulu (shut up), I meet up with her, holding binoculars.

Honolulu: "C-Commander!"

"Yo, Honolulu. Something out there?"

Honolulu: "Y-Yeah... They look like ships." She hands them over to me.

"I'd figure..." Sure enough, those're ships, alright. Wait...

"Isn't that... Tell me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that flag have what looks like a flower as the emblem?"

Honolulu: "Wait, let me..." She took the binoculars back, and after a minute... "Yeah, that's the Sakura flag."

"Why are they following us...?"

Honolulu: "No clue..."

"Okay, plan. Honolulu, slow us down."

Honolulu: "Hold up, what?"

"I want you to slow down. Get us closer to them, if they open fire, fire back and speed up to catch up with the team. We won't be too far away."

Honolulu: "Can my cannons even swivel that far back?"

Even though she's griping at the illogicality, Honolulu starts losing speed. Arizona spots us slowing down and I throw a thumbs up at her.

I look back to our tailers.

"Sakura Empire... Just what is it you want?"

--

Aoba: "Zuikaku! One of the ships is slowing down!"

"Do they want to meet with us?"

Aoba: "Hold on..." She looks back to them. "...No signs of hostilities, and the Commander is on deck, so I doubt they want to risk his life."

"Wait, the Commander?! Wow. Lucky break, I guess."

Aoba: "More like lucky crane, yeah?"

Silence fills the air for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Aoba: "Yeah, I'll see myself to a sea mine or something..."

"Ayanami! Switch with me! I'll meet with the Commander!"

Ayanami gives me a thumbs up, and activates her rigging to get behind me as I speed up.

"Commander... Just what is it you're thinking?"

After a bit, I shift port side a bit, before hopping onto the deck of the Eagle Union ship.

Commander: "どうも、奥様。僕のアズールレーンの指揮官です。お会いできて光栄です...ええと..." (Greetings, ma'am. I am the Commander of the Azur Lane. A pleasure to meet you... Uh...)

I can feel my face heat up a bit. "Zuikaku. And you can drop the Japanese. I can tell you aren't used to the language. You just called me 'wife'. 'Onee-san' is the right term for 'miss'."

The Commander goes beat red: "R-Right... Zuikaku. Got it." He clears his throat, as the woman next to him looks absolutely done with this.

Commander: "Again, welcome aboard. I'm the Azur Lane's Commander, and this is USS Honolulu, the kansen we're on."

Honolulu simply nods at me, and I bow to her.

"Right. So, why did you slow down?"

Commander: "I wanna know why you're tailing us? We aren't dumb, you girls show up on radar."

"Wait, we were still in radar range?! Damnit, and I thought we weren't!"

Commander, chuckling: "Again, why were you following us?"