Commander's Rounds

Entry 23- No Need for Fame

While Azur Lane was mainly known for its battles against the Sirens, the commander had other uses for the fleet- more mundane things that were essential but unlikely to be, as he would put it, "movie worthy".

While he did bring back a haul from his first visit to Sector A-14, he had been using his standard transports to continue pillaging the abandoned base's research data and other equipment for use at Azur Lane. Yuubari had told him that their research into Wisdom Cubes was, in some ways, more advanced than their own, so the commander was going to yank every piece of hardware out of there that he could.

However, escorting those transports meant assigning ships. There were ships he always wanted to have on hand for frontline battle against the Sirens or any other possible enemy that wanted to have a go, and those he could spare for other duties. Not that he considered them less valuable or even in less danger, especially since Sirens could show up at any time and at any place wherever there was an ocean.

And because of this, he was always encouraged to greet them when they returned from convoy or survey duty or whatever.

And so, he did.

For this round, while many of the ships were supervising the unloading, there was one who just wanted to take a load off, and he ended up getting her attention. "Commander!" She began running towards him. And since he knew who it was, he stepped forward. "Whoa!" Because he needed to be there to catch her when she inevitably tripped. He moved in and caught Furutaka before she hit the floor, and then she looked at him with a smile.

When he first encountered Furutaka, she wasn't "made" at her full strength, but through some work, they restored her to her real ability, which also had some... effects on her appearance. Even restored, she wasn't really one of the superstars of the fleet, but that wasn't something everyone needed to be. Sometimes clumsy, other times sleepy, her case of perpetual bedhead, fluffy ears of some description, and peaceful demeanor meant she could never really play off being either innocent or alluring- she was just... Generally cute. She was also oddly casual with herself- when she got... bigger... after her upgrades, she invited him to have a close look if he was curious.

And he still didn't know what kind of ears those were. He didn't know whether she was supposed to be some kind of cat or dog, as "friendly" and "likes to sleep a lot" were common qualities between the two.

That was the ship he had caught as she fell, and was currently holding in his arms until he made sure she was on her feet. "Hello, Furutaka. Were there any problems along the way?"

Furutaka yawned. "...Ah? No problems at all. It was just a quiet time at sea, really." She smiled at the commander. "But... Everything came back safely, and so did everyone."

"Well, then you all did a good job- but remember, it's more important for all of you to come back."

Furutaka smiled, and blushed a bit. "...Thank you, commander."

That was the way things were with Furutaka. She seemed to want to be told she did a good job and have a comfy place to sleep, and that was more or less it. The commander gave a nod to her. "Well, you can stand down- I don't think anyone is going to object to you hitting the sack for a while after completing a mission."

She gave him a warm look through her half-closed eyes. "Don't worry, commander, I'll be ready when you need me."

And then he remembered that he needed to let her go.

Furutaka then dashed off to do her thing, and it was even odds whether she would make it all the way back to the Sakura dorms before finding some other comfortable place to nap- even if she didn't, Shinano would probably scoop her up and take her back.