End of The World (Azur Lane: Origins 3)

Chapter 2: Spar

After thinking for a little too long, I decided it was time to ask the commander if he was ready to spar with me. Surely he wouldn't mind, right? I mean, the fleet is so small that he has hardly any paperwork to do. Just as I knocked on his office door, the Brisbane look-a-like appeared at my side. The door opened to reveal the commander with his usual goofy smile. 'Please come in.'

'Sir, we've spotted a small Siren scout fleet.' Is that because of yesterday? Is that because of the curse?

The commander's expression barely wavered before he asked, 'Can you and Atago deal with it?' the look-a-like nodded curtly in response and quickly left the room without acknowledging me at all. I wasn't surprised; we didn't know each other. After a few minutes of silence, the commander asked me, 'How are you? Have you done anything interesting since our chat yesterday?'

'I'm still fine and no, the most interesting thing I did was talk to Atago about-' I turned away, realising what I was about to say. I shouldn't have let my guard down. Maybe it's just the sleepy, relaxed atmosphere.

'About?'

'N-nothing...' I glanced at the commander and saw the same expectant look on his face from yesterday. 'And you?' That should distract him.

The relaxed smile on the commander's face disappeared as he groaned. 'I spent too long dealing with the paperwork and unpacking the rest of my stuff...' I nodded before he asked, 'what was it that you came here for?'

'I was wondering if-?'

Unfortunately, I was interrupted by an angry Kaga slamming the door open. 'Commander!'

'Yes?'

'Why did you send those two to deal with the Sirens? We are more than capable!' I had a feeling that this might happen.

The commander was unphased by Kaga's outburst. 'I don't want you girls fighting more than you have to; you did more than enough before I arrived.' Kaga turned away, her arms crossed. 'I'll send you next time if you want to fight that badly.'

'Good.' I barely registered Kaga leaving as I felt my eyes start to close. I shouldn't be tired; I slept very well last night and it's not even midday. But the couch was very comfortable. And the temperature was perfect for sleeping. Wait! I can't fall asleep now! I need to ask the commander to spar with me! I need to ask him... to spar... with... me...

I groggily opened my eyes and almost yawned, a blurry white blob obscuring part of my vision. Hang on... Did I just... fall asleep in the commander's office? Was the blob his shoulder? And... is he... stroking my hair?

Finally realising the situation I was in, I jumped and yelped, 'sorry commander!'

The commander chuckled. 'It's fine, Kawakaze. You weren't asleep for very long.'

'Did anyone see that...?'

'Brisbane and Atago reported to me after completing their mission. I told Atago to keep it a secret, but she definitely won't.' I groaned as I leaned back against the couch. Now I'll never hear the end of it. And everyone else will know as well. Great. 'Would you like to spar to take your mind off Atago?'

With a nod, I stood up and led the way to the training grounds. I was glad he asked me because I had forgotten after falling asleep.

The commander and I stood facing each other in a fighting stance, holding our katanas out in front of us. We slowly began to move in a circle around each other, waiting for the other to strike. The commander did just that and I easily blocked his attack. And the ones after it while remaining defensive, learning what I could about the commander's abilities.

After a few minutes, I was pretty sure I had learned everything I needed to. The commander was good, I won't deny that. But his reaction time is somewhat lacking. If he responds on instinct, he can be fast. He also has a limited number of stances and attacks that he uses.

Finally ready for my counterattack, I let the commander stab at me. I effortlessly dodged to the right and slashed my katana up. Apparently, I had misjudged the distance between us as I had to pull my katana in as close as I could to my body to avoid killing the commander. Luckily, I only scratched his neck.

Using my momentum, I spun on my heal and, this time, my katana met the commander's. He was seemingly unaffected by the shallow cut on his neck. His teeth were grit and his brows knotted in concentration.

I slid my katana down the commander's until it caught one of the damaged parts of the blade. I used this to disarm him and, slowly and deliberately this time, brought my katana down until it was just in front of his neck. That was pretty fun.

The commander stepped back with his hands raised as I sheathed my katana. I saw his mouth open but heard the Brisbane look-a-like's voice instead. 'You went way too far!' She stomped right up to my face. I could guess what she was mad about.

'How so?'

'You would have killed the commander if he had not dodged in time!' What? Since when was she watching? Since when was it her business? And the commander never dodged my strike, I pulled my katana back!

'His reaction time is not fast enough to dodge that. I miscalculated the distance between us, realised, and compensated before I did any real damage.' I just stood there and watched the girl shout at me while ignoring every word. Eventually, she walked up to the commander and dragged him away right after he retrieved and sheathed his katana.

I moved over to a nearby bench and started cleaning the small amount of blood off the tip of my katana. Soon after the commander was stolen, I heard the Brisbane look-a-like shout something from wherever she was, followed by the commander screaming, 'Enough!' Sounds like he's done with her as well.

Shortly after returning my attention to my katana, I could hear someone panting, followed by the commander's voice. 'Kawakaze!' I looked up hesitantly to see the commander panting, blood still dripping from the cut on his neck. Gently placing the katana beside me, I stood up and fished a small first-aid from one of my pockets. I stepped up to the commander and asked, 'did you disinfect it?'

The commander shook his head and responded, 'I trust you keep your katana clean enough.'

Almost smiling, I reached up and carefully wrapped a bandage around the commander's neck, making sure it covered the cut. 'It's shallow enough to heal overnight.'

'Thanks for sparring with me. It was fun.' I felt my face heat up slightly as I nodded.

'You were pretty good.'

'That's what I thought until I found out you were holding back the whole time.'

I chuckled. 'I'm sure you would rather that than be lying dead on the floor.'

With a grin on his face, the commander said, 'Idunno about that one, Kawakaze.' I was nice being able to have a properconversation with the commander; even joking around a little. Why couldn't wedo this yesterday? Why couldn't I do this yesterday?