Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Gaiden Entry 67.5: Laid on Thick

Zara and Pola were both in a daze.

In a matter of an hour, they and the entire Sardengan contingent of Azur Lane, along with others, were surrounded by and seemed to face certain destruction at the hands of Tester's forces, but were just as quickly delivered from danger by a sudden assault from their comrades. the only thing that was keeping Pola anchored in reality was the fact that Zara was holding her hand as she led her back to the fleet, following Littorio's direction.

It was only when the two damaged cruisers saw more of their comrades that either of the damaged cruisers realized they had been actually saved, and were not on a journey to some ship Valhalla or wherever girls like them would go after the end.

Littorio had gone off to talk to someone else about what just happened, so the two of them went off to find the nearest cruiser to help get their own bearings.

Eventually, Zara came across Tallinn, who was no-nonsense enough that she could at least get a straight answer. "I don't think I've ever been as glad to see you. The commander responded very quickly."

Tallinn shook her head. "The commander and King George have been missing ever since Tester launched her surprise attack. He has some of the submarines with him, also, but wherever he is, he's not with us right now."

Zara blinked. "Then who's in charge now?"

The Northern cruiser pointed towards the carrier groups. "Hornet took command of the whole fleet after the commander went missing, she's the one who ordered the counterattack that broke you out of the encirclement. Anyway, there's no time to talk further, the Sirens are still here and they need to be shot. If you have to retreat to the rear, do it, but there's still fighting for the rest of us to do."

Tallinn went off after delivering that statement to follow her own advice, but Zara and Pola were left to consider the subject of that Union carrier of action.

But not for long, there was still work to do.

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Back in the present, however:

Pola smiled and waved from behind the counter. "Come over and have a seat! I and older sister have plenty of goodies to offer, as you can see~"

Even with things like exercises, training, and other aspects of fleet life at Azur Lane, the ships had time to pursue whatever hobbies they liked. And for Zara and Pola, their hobby was pizza, which was a blessing for anyone who had been used to getting it from chains. They had set up shop practically right after they had arrived, and it took a little while for their reputation to spread that they were doing something just that much more elaborate.

However, more recently, they had reason to notice that one of their more frequent customers was Hornet. It's not as though Hornet wasn't curious about their offerings before, but more recent events had caused the sisters to notice Hornet just that much more whenever she was around. Hornet would just be her usual self- come up to the counter with a big smile, order a couple of slices of whatever caught her fancy at that moment, blush as one or both sisters gave her a little tease here and there, and then she'd go off to some booth and eat.

But when Hornet showed up more recently, the feelings had started to become a bit more complex, sure, she was still the same, energetic and friendly cowgirl who was fun to toy with every now and again, but...

It was really something that had to be brought into the open, and both of them did that at the same time that evening. Or perhaps more precisely, the very wee hours of that morning. Zara lay awake in bed next to her sister, staring at the ceiling for a good long while. Knowing that she could share everything with Pola, she turned to have a look at her, and noticed something. She saw that Pola's eyes were closed, but any sign that her sister was actually asleep wasn't there- Zara could tell these things.