Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Entry 36-4: The Commander's Promise- Enterprise's Rounds

The commander took a sip from his fresh cup of tea, which had just been refilled by Shinano. He had eventually been able to piece together that, by some means or another, Shinano had managed to bring him into one of her dreams and keep him in a comfortable setting- in this case, her room. There was no telling how Shinano was able to do this, but he wasn't sure there was any way to test any hypothesis that he might have about it. But he did have more practical questions about his current state. "By the way, how long has it been since I was brought back from Azur Lane? It's basically impossible to tell the time in here."

Shinano sat back down with the commander. "It has been over a week, at least... I am sorry I cannot be more exact, I have spent much time sleeping as well."

"Ah, all right." The commander had another drink. That certainly made quite a bit of sense- she would have to be sleeping in order for her to set up this shared dream for the both of them. "So, I have another question."

"Yes, commander...?"

The commander pointed to the occupant of his lap. "What's Laffey doing here? I didn't know you were able to bring others around."

Laffey was indeed in the dream room that Shinano and the commander had been occupying. She was half-laying under the kotatsu, with her head resting in the commander's lap. The commander had been stroking over her long, thick hair even before he realized the sleepy destroyer was even there, and while he didn't object to the Laffey's presence, there was usually some sign of someone entering a room before they ended up in one's lap. At least, that was his experience in the waking world.

Shinano took a moment to answer. "...Ah... Well... she was very easy to pull into our dream- easier than yourself, actually..."

The commander blinked. "But I'm in a coma. I don't think I could be any more asleep at this moment."

"Yes... Well..." Shinano adjusted herself in her seat. "It is more the commander's nature to be active, but sleep comes easy to Laffey. I believe that Furutaka or Nicholas would be similarly simple to retrieve. So, it is a matter that sleep is her nature."

"I've noticed." He looked down at her. "Even inside this dream, she's still basically asleep. I wonder if she usually dreams that she's sleeping somewhere."

It was right then that Laffey stirred, and blinked a little, slowly looking up at the commander with half-open eyes. "Oh... It's commander..."

The commander smiled. "Hi there, Laffey, and yes, I'm the commander. How is everyone?"

Laffey yawned a bit. "...Worried..."

The commander looked down at Laffey. Short, but also informative. "Well, you can tell them that I'm doing my best to get back as soon as possible, all right?"

"...Mmmm..." Laffey gave a slow nod then went back to resting quietly in the commander's lap, not seeming to question much about his presence or her surroundings.

The commander sighed. "To be honest, I hate that this is all I can really do while I'm in here. I've been in command for so long that it feels strange to be utterly powerless when the people I care about are worried." He went back to tending to the resting Laffey. "Anyway, if it has been this long, we'll say a couple of weeks, then Yuubari must be getting ready to execute our plan."

Shinano's ears perked up. "Your plan, commander...?"

"Yeah. The first part of the plan was to give orders to everyone to lock things down and make things appear to be business as normal. Shangri-La, Gascogne, and a few others are dealing with all the administrative stuff so that from the outside, it looks like business as usual."