Inside the Admiral's Office, the scene was clearly divided into two camps.
One group clustered around the melancholic beauty Yat Sen, a girl with a teardrop mole and a widow's frail air about her. To describe her best would be to borrow the words: "Brows like distant hills shrouded in mist, eyes like half-smiles hiding tender emotions."
Right now, Yat Sen was applying plum blossom makeup to a woman cuddling a fat orange tabby. The other shipgirls stood around, watching and learning.
On the other side, a crowd of "big sisters" was arguing noisily over who should take the position of Secretary Ship now that Lexington was gone.
The Secretary Ship assisted the Admiral in managing the base. In the Admiral's absence, the Secretary Ship was the boss.
The white-haired legal beauty Washington raised her axe and declared, "I've got the skills and the discipline. I should be the Secretary Ship! Anyone got a problem with that?"
A tea-haired woman, just a bit taller and more commanding than Washington, laughed teasingly, "The nickname you gave me was 'Little Secretary', wasn't it? I'm the most qualified for the job."
Washington glared, "Missouri, you picking a fight?"
Missouri sneered, "Lexington left even her little sister behind for the Admiral. So yeah, I am picking a fight. What are you gonna do about it?"
In terms of gear, experience, and talent, she was far superior to Washington, and she wasn't backing down.
Then the towering, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman in a dazzling dress, with a ruby-gold crown and matching scepter, and an overwhelming presence thanks to those curves, spoke up.
"Hmph, I've been Secretary Ship longer than any of you. It should obviously be me!"
The youthful fox-like Akagi smirked, "Even little girls like Surcouf, Ooyodo, and Changchun have served longer than you, Lion. You only catch the Admiral's eye by showing more skin. You never even got a wedding ring! I propose this—any unmarried ship who dares fight for Secretary Ship gets crushed by us married ones!"
Overhead, Hikaru and his group watched the scene unfold in shared consciousness.
Lexington complained, "See? This is all your fault! You let practically everyone take a turn as Secretary Ship, even the troublemakers. Now they're all fighting over the title the moment I'm gone!"
Hikaru scratched his cheek, guilty as charged. In the game, rotating the Secretary Ship built affection points. Naturally, once maxed out, you'd switch. But applied to real life… it looked more like daily, intimate companionship.
Fletcher, meanwhile, was anxiously searching the room. "Admiral, can we contact my sisters now?"
While thinking about how to bridge the gap between their consciousness and reality, Hikaru spotted a pen and paper on the desk.
Back in Reality
Saratoga lay limp over the desk, feeling like the world had turned to grayscale.
Since the Admiral's disappearance, her once-goofy friend Tirpitz had turned into a cold, dependable "big sister." Saratoga missed the days when Tirpitz used to draw inappropriate manga of Lexington or read comics under the covers. Now, she understood a little of that loneliness.
Alone, abandoned by both her sister and husband, Saratoga sighed deeply.
That's when something moved.
Her teary eyes focused on the sight before her: the Admiral's pen levitating in midair.
It scratched across the page in shaky letters:
"I am Hikaru.
I'm back."
Saratoga rubbed her eyes furiously, making sure she wasn't hallucinating. Then she screamed loud enough to shatter eardrums:
"A GHOST!! Brother-in-law's ghost is back!!"
Soon after, the Admiral's Office was packed. A line snaked through the hall, coiling around twice before spilling into other rooms.
All 169 active-duty shipgirls plus three stationed instructors—Euryalus, HMS Victorious, and Aurora—had shown up.
Even U-81 tried to get her three little wolves in line with her, but was denied. Pouting, she carried them herself—one under each arm, and one poking its head out from her chest.
The Admiral's long-lost presence had turned the entire base into emotional chaos—half overjoyed, half furious, all desperate for answers.
Back in the Shared Space
U-81 climbed onto the chair, writing in childish handwriting:
"Admiral, when will you come take me away?"
It wasn't the first time the question had been asked, but Hikaru still answered patiently:
"At least one per month, more in the future. But who gets chosen is random."
The little sub pressed her face close to the paper, trying to memorize every stroke.
After being gently nudged by those behind her, she tore off the page and hid under the desk where dozens of lolis had already gathered—U-47, U-1405, U-156, Albacore, Bluegill, Da Vinci, Surcouf, M1, Supply Ship Sukhebaator, Odin, and Vesta.
Among them, Quincy, dressed in a cow-print pajama onesie, looked hilariously out of place. She tried to barter with U-81 for the paper:
"Hey, U-81, give me your note. I'll get you a New Orleans-style grilled cod burger."
"No way!" U-81 slapped her hand away, puffing up angrily while her little wolves bared their tiny fangs.
Meanwhile, on the surface, the queue continued moving.
Helena, wearing a daring swimsuit, approached next, baring her curves.
Saratoga pouted—that swimsuit was stolen from an abyssal Yamato during a raid and gifted to Helena. She remembered how Hikaru had made Helena wear that thing for days, poking and prodding her chest non-stop.
Helena wrote:
"Admiral, you played with my chest so much. You have to take responsibility. Marry me."
The room erupted in chaos again.
So many shipgirls wanted the wedding ring. Why should a light cruiser get to cut the line?
Overhead, Lexington commented to Hikaru:
"Admiral, what are you going to do about that? It's not like you can just pretend you forgot."
Hikaru thought long and hard before writing:
"I've forgotten a lot, but if Helena comes to me again, let's try falling in love properly this time."
South Dakota gasped, "She's got him! She really got him!!"
Vittorio Veneto, the tiny Italian loli, stared jealously at Helena's chest.
Ning Hai nudged Yat Sen, "Go for it, Sis. You've got the legs. He used to say he'd lick them till they broke."
Le Fantasque, hugging Richelieu's leg, whispered dreamily, "He used to play with my feet… Can I make him take responsibility too?"
Washington scowled, already plotting how to get her hands on luck-enhancing gear. Whoever reached the Admiral first had the advantage.
Helena, clutching her note, bolted out of the room with a victorious grin.
Fletcher pouted, "Aren't you going to stop him, Lexington? He's flirting with other women right in front of you!"
Lexington smiled sweetly, "I don't mind if he marries 200 of them, as long as I'm the head wife."
Hikaru sweatdropped. Two hundred? No way… I'm not that kind of guy… right?
Next up was Missouri.
She wrote simply:
"Admiral, I want to be the Secretary Ship."
Hikaru thought about it, then replied:
"Fine. Missouri will be the Secretary Ship."
Another wave of protests erupted, but Missouri beamed smugly—knowing full well she now had the closest access to Hikaru moving forward.
Hornet was next. There was nothing else to say… except:
"Admiral, give me back my B-25. It's with Arromanches."
Hikaru wrote:
"Tell her to return it to you. She can pick something else from the warehouse."
Hornet jumped up, "Admiral, you're the best!!"
Holding her note tightly, she dashed off to finally reclaim her long-lost aircraft from Arromanches, the upgraded HMS Colossus, who had stubbornly refused to return it until now.
(End of Chapter)
[+50 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]