Commander's Rounds

Entry 32: A Little Bit of Art

The commander had recovered enough to get back to work behind his desk, and, more importantly, well enough to resume dealing with the shenanigans his fleet provided him on a daily basis.

For that matter, he received an announcement from the research department, which meant that Yuubari and Akashi had discovered something on purpose or created something by accident, and from the way things were worded, it was once again the latter.

The rather apologetic message from Yuubari and Akashi danced around the fact, but they said they had, by accident, created "another one", which meant only one thing- someone on the port was about to get a surprise family member.

The first set was certainly a shock, and the fact that they could just accidentally create something like children in something other than the usual way was something the fleet would just have to get used to. More and more had shown up after the initial three, and even now a new one would pop up every now and again. At this point, Akashi and Yuubari had set up an alert system to let the fleet know when another one had been let loose, which was a cue for everyone to drop everything and look for something that looked small, confused, and lost.

The commander had to catch up on work that he missed, so he hoped that someone responsible would pick up whoever was wandering around this time. There was a lot of port to cover, and he was just one man who had finished coming off of a sickness.

And that's when someone bothered to use the doorbell.

The commander got up from his desk and walked over to the door, and opened it to find Ark Royal carrying a rather pouty passenger, and it became immediately obvious who would be getting a new addition to their household- those downturned fox ears, the blue mask, the poofy, fluffy tails, and then there was the fact that she was holding a big sketch pad in one hand and a box of colored pencils in the other. Tosa-chan seemed a bit grumpy about being hauled around like she was a stray cat by Ark Royal, but Tosa herself seemed to live under a cloud from time to time. This was understandable, as she was Kaga's sister.

Ark Royal spoke up after a moment, as though she had to figure out what words to use. "Oh! Commander... I found her wandering around and thought she might be a destroyer, but when I saw the alert, well..."

The commander spoke up. "If you saw the alert, then why did you bring her here?"

Ark Royal shook her head. "Well... The rest of the foxes are out on exercises for the day, and some of the Sakura are suspicious of me for some reason, so I think me carrying someone would cause trouble. But I know she'd be safe here, because a lot of people come to you when they don't have anywhere else to go."

The commander had to make a decision. "All right, I'll keep an eye on her. You did send a message out, right?"

Ark Royal nodded quickly. "Of course! So, you won't have to look after her for more than the rest of the day... That is, Tosa and the others are out on exercises, so you may have to wait, but it won't be for really long."

The commander was relieved, though this shouldn't have been a surprise. Ark Royal had some true achievements to her name and could be relied on to do things correctly, she just had certain quirks in her behavior that some could find off-putting. "Sounds good to me."

Ark Royal gave a nod, and set Tosa-chan down on her feet. "All right, little fox, try not to cause trouble for the nice man."

Afterwards, Ark Royal left, and the commander and Tosa-chan were left alone with each other. They just looked at each other for a while, before the commander spoke up. "So... You're Tosa?"

Tosa-chan gave him a nod, and before the commander could say anything else, she started drawing. She occasionally looked over at him, but he didn't ask her any questions- it wasn't likely to do him any good, anyway, as interrupting regular Tosa's art could have consequences.