Flame Of War | Azur Lane

Chapter 3 | Choices

---Bismarck Point Of View---

I wheel my wheelchair out of the door, stopping outside the doorframe, I turn, and watch Kaiser walking down the hall with a calm blush, and smile that showed how grateful I was. So far, he appears to be just as the history books depict him. Respectful, careful minded of others around him, and a number of other things. Based on what I can see of him this far. He's the exact man, they claimed him to be. This brings me peace, I know now that if I don't pull through, then there will be someone strong, and capable to take the place of flagship whom knows the responsibilities and understand the position well. 

With in my thoughts of the moment, I am forced upon by a flurry of heavy coughs, my body trying to hack up blood and mucus as it fights the very sickness Amagi, and Kaiser has... Mine being ever so progressing in nature with my ship in such a horrific state of diss repair that which it is nearly unfixable. Coughing, into a hand of which I raise to my mouth a few coughs late. I cough blood and mucus into my hand. As my coughs subside, I lower it chest level, and stare at the small puddle in my hand. I feel exhausted, just 2 hours out of a hospital bed has drained me. "Bismarck, what are you doing outside of your bed?! You know your not supposed to be off your IV or out and about! You're never going to get better if you don't get the rest and treatment you need!" Scharnhorst passively scolds approaching in a jog towards me.

---Two Days Later---

"--- We can't keep stumbling around like this-" The commander with his hands behind his back paces back and forth by the open window. With a firm tone he speaks, raising his hands in front him, opening one, and slamming a fist down atop the other as he spoke. "We need something that can restore faith in the people! Our navy has fell to shit! We have nothing to show for strength, for power, or anything of it to bring faith into the peoples hearts of the supremacy of the Krieg marine! All we have to show, is we've Sunk the British's Number one, at the cost of our own number one warship! Which simply isn't enough!" He explains, stopping, turning towards me, and sighing with this look of defeat.

"Bismarck, I know it's a near impossible request, but I need your help. Is there anything, anything we can do, to bring you back to health? I fear you returning to seaworthy is the only way to bring the public's moral up again!" He asks, desperate to make it so. I continue to stare at him, then I look away rather slowly towards my legs beneath the covers. I think for a moment. There's not much to think about. "No... Afraid the best that anyone can do for me, has already been done." I answer, I then glance over at my wheelchair, it reminds me of my talk with Kaiser earlier in the day. Bringing me into a short flash of remembrance to the moment just hours ago-

"-You said you sunk HMS Hood right?" Kaiser asks, sitting on the left corner edge of my hospital bed, looking out the window at the beautiful sunrise reflecting over the distant ocean before the dock and harbor of Kiel. "Yes, though I wasn't alone during the engagement. I was the one who ultimately destroyed Hood with my 5th salvo within 5 minutes of engaging her." I answer him, there's a hint of sorrow in my voice, like I had some form of- "And you regret that?" He picked up on that immediately, zero hesitation to ask me. He keeps eyes out on the ocean. I pause, I'm unsure what to say. But eventually, I'm propelled to say the truth. In hopes of taking it off my mind. "I know that the Royal navy is the enemy. I fired without hesitation, and had no remorse, up until I watched her erupt in flames. Watching another ship burn alive, from the inside out, then to just explode, crack into pieces, and slip beneath to their death all in one swift motion... With in 5 minutes, a person, a mighty warrior, killed and gone with out a trace to the world. The pain and screams of another... It's-" He interjects.