Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Commander's Early Rounds: Buried in Blossoms

Commander Alexander Cochrane had been on station for an embarrassingly short period of time, and already he was left with quite many lovely, energetic, and curious women, many of which seemed more interested in knowing about him than observing a certain kind of professional detachment. They were so friendly that, in some cases, it made him suspicious, and so when he needed a respite from that he retreated to his office.

It had been a few days since he arrived, and having encountered a Union barbecue as his introduction to the peculiar hospitality of Azur Lane, as well as the fact that some of the ships had more belief in him as a commander than he had in himself.

Still, if he was the commander, he was going to have to be onboarded, but he was also going to have to visit the various contingents to introduce himself. He had resolved to visit the dorms used by the ships of the Sakura Empire, and while that did sound ominous given history, it was merely an acknowledgment of the fact that they had an emperor, and the people of those islands had always turned to tradition in times of adversity.

The day that he was going to do just that, he was startled awake by a sharp boom near the windows of his office that morning, causing them to rattle slightly in their panes- even the thick bulletproof glass was shaken by the sound of what went off.

The commander quickly flung on his uniform and rushed outside to see what happened, and right outside was Repulse, giving him a smile and a wave, while a trail of smoke rose from one of the secondary guns on her rigging. "Good morning, commander!"

He was unsteady on his feet, and needed a moment to re-balance himself. "What... What's going on... What?" Was all he could reasonably manage to get out of his mouth.

Repulse giggled. "I heard from Nimi that today was an important day for you, so I decided to come on over and make sure that you got up in time. So... Are you awake, commander?"

"Hold on a minute..." His body was certainly awake, but his mind needed some time to catch up, having used its limited morning power to get him outdoors on the assumption that it'd be able to figure out the rest later. "Yeah, I'm awake... So... Repulse?"

"Yes, commander?" The cheery battlecruiser bounced on her heels. Alex didn't have it in him to lay down the law.

He shook his head. "Could you... Not do that unless I ask you to? I thought someone was shooting at us."

"Oh...!" Repulse brushed off her skirt. "...Sorry commander! It's just exciting to have a commander that's willing to come out and do fun things with us."

Alex didn't need to guess about the kind of people these girls might have worked under before being moved to Azur Lane. "I don't know how fun today is going to be- I'm going to go over to meet with the ships that have come here from the Sakura Empire... The Union girls have been nice, and it was nice meeting you, but..."

"Commander?" Repulse said, leaning over. "You seem nervous. You don't need to be worried that we're going to bite your head off all the time."

"Well..." He took his hat off and held it in both hands. "For a lot of reasons, it just feels strange that you people are just willing to entertain the idea that I'll be able to tell you what to do."

"Hm!" Repulse said. "...I guess they're just waiting to see what kind of person you are."

"Huh." That was the only reply he could make. "So, um..."

Repulse stood back up. "You've got a busy day commander, but cheer up! I'm sure the Sakura girls will give you a nice welcome, too!"

Alex wasn't going to argue. She seemed so sure of it.

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It was later that Alex walked up to the Sakura dorms. Nimi had told him that the dorm units were originally fairly uniform in their construction and appearance, but after the Kansen moved in, it didn't take long for them to acquire their own very distinct national character- The Kansen seemed to alter their homes to suit themselves, and as far as he could tell from the records, it wasn't entirely certain if this was entirely the result of conscious effort or not. There were discrepancies between the requested renovations and the total alterations that had been made, and no one had been able to square that circle.