Commander's Rounds Volume 1

Entry 123: Beloved Selfish Girl

Alex thought she had been joking.

However, the first clue that something was amiss was when he felt someone climb onto his bed, even though he knew very well that he lived alone in the headquarters. He froze up, not quite knowing what he was in for from whatever intruder had made their way in, plus he was only barely awake, so moving was out of the question.

He braced himself for what came next. And then...

Alex felt someone nuzzle his cheek.

He blushed a bit after he felt that, and then slowly turned his head to find that the perpetrator was Atago, who was now sitting up on his bed, smiling. She giggled. "I told you that something like this might happen~"

Alex blinked. "...You did, didn't you?" She had. When they had first met, Alex had told her about how when he was very young, he had a family dog that would sometimes nuzzle him awake in the morning, and then Atago had teased him about whether he would like her to do that for him while he was here.

And, looking back on it, he hadn't actually said no...

So now, the Sakura cruiser was right here, looking right at him with her golden eyes and that ever-present smile.

Atago put her hands in her lap, her fuzzy ears twitching this way and that. "Hehe... Just the thought of the cute commander always being on his own in the morning, without even a sister around... I couldn't stand it, so here I am~. Isn't it better to wake up like this, commander?"

He blinked, and just looked at the completely earnest Atago, and didn't know how to respond to her. Even though she said it with a bit of a teasing voice, she also just seemed so earnest in her affections, he couldn't find it in him to send her away. So, there was only one thing he felt he could do in good conscience. "Ah... Just... Just come down here..."

Atago lay down beside him, and the commander began stroking on and between those canine ears of hers. She closed her eyes as she received his attention. "Hehe... there we go... We'll probably have to get breakfast sometime, but I can stay like this for a long time~"

If Alex was being honest with himself, so could he.

=============

"Commander, I believe something is wrong with my sister."

Back in the present, the commander was taken aback by what Takao was telling him. The commander wasn't used to people from the Sakura Empire asking to help with family matters, as those were usually things they kept to themselves. If Takao was here, then that meant it was something she couldn't address herself, and that it was something only he could deal with. "...All right, tell me more."

Takao sat straight up at full, disciplined attention. "Commander. You know of my sister's usual disposition at most times, both towards you and myself." She paused. "...It occurs to me that I should assume that you do by this point."

"I do." He replied, adding nothing else.

"The truth is, she has been behaving more pensive lately, almost like there's a certain melancholy hanging over her. I thought it might be because she was being haunted by her ghosts again and I offered to relieve her of them, but it just doesn't seem like that's the case this time. It's not something she's scared of, but I think she has a longing for something." Takao blushed a little. "...Also, during a dueling exhibition we had recently, my skirt flipped up without me noticing, and Atago declined to tease me over it."

"Hm." He leaned back in his chair. An Atago that didn't tease her older sister must be in some serious doldrums. "...Do you think she's homesick? We can let her take some leave in the Sakura Empire if we need to."