The Betrayed Commander and The Abandoned Tsundere (Azur Lane: Origins 1)

Chapter 18: Uchinishikichi

It has been so long since the chapter that this one is continuing on from that I have had to skim over the last couple of paragraphs. I will summarise briefly for those who cannot be bothered to look at it again. Previously, in the last cannon chapter, chapter 17, we ended with Hipper and Sora chilling in Sora's room with Hipper being scared of a storm and me having written a cringe and overemotional ending to the chapter. Now, back to our heroes... wait. This isn't Pokémon. Moving on...

Sora looked at his watch. It was nearly lunchtime. This was normal for him, or had been ever since the final battle with the Sirens. What was not normal, however, was a certain Ironblood heavy cruiser sleeping on the bed next to Sora. The commander panicked and, after checking that his pants were, indeed, still where they were supposed to be, remembered the events of the previous chapt- uh, day.

Oh yeah, Sora thought. *Author proceeds to hastily recheck events of chapter 17* I found out that Hipper is scared of storms. We must have fallen asleep. The commander leaned over and shook Admiral Hipper gently. 'Hey, wake up.' No response. 'Lunch is ready.' Hipper later told people that she had coincidentally awoken at this precise moment and not because lunch was mentioned.

'Wha-?'

Upon realising where she was, Hipper stopped caring about lunch and started panicking just as Sora had moments before. There was a beeping sound from Sora's desk. He went to pick up his phone while Admiral Hipper attempted to calm down.

'Hello, Sora speaking.'

'We need you at the Main Base when you can get there.'

'Why, Admiral?'

'A certain Akuma Kurosu wants to speak with you.'

'I thought we got all the information he had out of him.'

'That's what we thought as well. When can you be here?'

'Um, I don't know. Considering the fact that I woke up a few minutes ago, maybe in a couple of hours at best.'

Sora and Admiral Hipper followed the Admiral into Akuma's... containment room, to be polite. A dry, croaky voice spoke from the corner of the room. 'Ah, so you have decided to listen to me.'

'I have other things to do, so spit it out.'

'I have heard about your... injury and-'

'How have you heard about it? There are literally no openings in this room besides the door!'

'I'd rather not answer that. Anyway, I know a cure. But I won't tell you.'

'Why?'

'You have a brain, you'll figure out what the cure is. I will give you one hint though. At my old base, which has been abandoned for quite a while now, you will find what you need.'

'Which one was yours? I don't have the brain power to remember your pathetic excuse of a base.' Sora was in a fairly bad mood because he would rather be relaxing back at the Outpost with Hipper.

'My base was Uchinishikichi.'

After leaving Akuma to continue rotting- er, being contained, Sora spoke to the Admiral. 'Do you think we can trust him? He did attempt to get me kicked out and then left us because he was scared.'

'Well, it's worth a shot. There might actually be something important there.'

'I'll check it out now, then. I'm already out here.'

It had taken around half an hour to get to Uchinishikichi. Sora and Hipper stepped onto the island and approached the old buildings. After some searching, they entered a strange room. It had white walls, floor and ceiling. Several fluorescent bulbs filled the room with light. There was no way that the base was ever abandoned if they stood in that room.

They looked around for some time and found several drawings. One was of a pedestal with four square bowl things surrounding a smaller, shallower square bowl thing. The second drawing was of what appeared to be a portal. It had a large area that looked like the portal itself surrounded by four, presumably, portal frames. The third and final drawing showed an island. This island was a perfect circle and apparently covered in flowers.

Sora switched his radio on. 'Admiral, I think we found the hint that Akuma was talking about.'

A/N: I have had an idea for a new story arch. I think you can figure it out. Anyway, I'm in the middle of exams and assignments so I might not be able to publish again until the holidays. I'll see how it goes.