Admiral Haru was sitting at her desk with Mutsu while on the 16th of May, the battleship bringing in a chair to sit beside Admiral Haru as they looked down at papers which hypothesized about what the Abyssals were up to, Admiral Haru spinning her Admiral cap on her right index finger as she had folded her left leg over her right while she looked down at the first paper, which was a report about what the Abyssals were up to on Aogashima Island.
Her ship girls were certain that there were signs of what she theorized to be a M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS, which easily fit the criteria of being able to fire consecutive rockets and had tank treads which would have left behind the tracks which they had found.
The land Beast was a real mystery which she had recently solved via an epiphany while speaking with Ashigara, and she had a thought about how one land signature could be both a vehicle and a land Beast at the same time.
A transforming Beast.
It was an insane and seemingly impossible idea, but for a land Princess to traverse across continents, she had to be in a modern-day vehicle and hitting speeds which World War 2 vehicles could never dream of achieving.
But even if their upgraded land vehicles were tricked out with tons of weapons, they wouldn't possess the raw physical might of a Beast which, if allowed to take the place of the vehicle, would travel slower across the land because they weren't optimized for speed or utility.
So why not focus on developing a Beast which would be capable of transforming into a vehicle form to traverse the land and do vehicular thingies, while transforming back into a Beast when the shit hit the fan and they required destructive might to wreck everything in their path?
And they could go underwater, submerging and surfacing wherever they desired and making them technically amphibious Beasts which were distinguished from their oceanic counterparts by the fact that they carried less firepower and armor which allowed them to go on land where the sea Beasts couldn't, but probably had to be towed around the bottom of the ocean since they couldn't sail around efficiently like Princesses could with their Beasts.
So simple, yet so ingenious.
Mutsu looked equally horrified by the prospects of a land Beast being capable of transforming into a vehicle form in order to move around quickly on land, asking her Admiral about how this might be related to Apocalypse.
"Admiral, the fact that these new Beasts can transform into vehicles and move on land, could it be that these are related to the land assault campaign known as Apocalypse? If so, we need to warn everyone about this…"
But Admiral Haru nodded as she looked at the Nagato-Class battleship, knowing that despite how the government of every country mostly looked out for themselves, they would genuinely try to put aside their differences in order to address an incoming world war as she remarked.
"Oh, don't worry about that. I dropped 'incoming Abyssal world war' in a voice mail, and every major world power will be speaking with me via teleconference in a few days about what we're going to do about this, and I have evidence to back up my case now. If we're to stand a chance at surviving what comes next, we need everyone to be on board, and although I understand the fact that we don't get along all the time even if we're allied around the same cause, but this time, if we don't stand together, we're as good as dead."
Mutsu nodded understandingly, looking down with a down expression as she asked about what else the Abyssals would be capable of.
"And if they are capable of creating land vehicles, could they possibly be creating airplanes in order to fight on par with every country's air force, since we know that a lack of air-power would drastically handicap them, yes?"
Admiral Haru nodded, having understood that air power was becoming even more relevant than ever, and in comparison to past wars, was entirely capable of single-handedly turning the tide of seemingly unwinnable wars thanks to drastic improvements in guidance technology and an increase in the delivered payload.
She leaned forward and revealed a written mind-map as well as notes on how the Abyssals might be able to pull off a land assault, and one idea of interest was inspired by the appearance of the Flying Dutchman and how they might choose to create carriers of their own to launch their airplanes before taking control of airfields and using them to extend their range.
"I might have an idea about that. If they're going to utilize an aviation battleship, known as the Flying Dutchman , to blindside us by mixing up the old with the new, I think they may have honest-to-god carriers, perhaps Kaga-Class or Nimitz-Class. I have no idea how far they're going to go with the World War 2 theme with their warships. But I'm somewhat certain that they're likely going to utilize anything from amphibious landing craft to carriers to compete with, well, not us, since the JMSDF isn't exactly the biggest oceanic threat, let's face facts here."
Mutsu raised an eyebrow as Admiral Haru knew that she understood how after World War 2, the JSDF was only allowed to maintain a self-defense force (hence the SDF) and wasn't going to be able to handle an invasion save for their armada of ship girls, who in turn were also ill-equipped to stop this invasion due to the Abyssals' ability to keep it secret for so long.
But Admiral Haru knew that there was one particular country who still possessed the naval power to give the Dutchman and the Abyssals' warships a run for their money, and that was the good old United States of America.
"The United States would still be able to put up a fight because of their cruisers, submarines and aircraft carriers. They'd probably try to build up a sizable naval armada without wasting too much resources on them, because most of the fighting's going to be in the air and on the ground and the bulk of resources should be focused on ground and air troops. Modern warship doctrine ain't what it used to be since we now have ship girls, places like USA are huge and possess a lot of airfields to send out planes and has a lot of ground to cover, so I personally think the ground and skies are where I think the action in Apocalypse's gonna be, with the oceans staying mostly unchanged."
Mutsu nodded, writing something down as she looked to her Admiral and updated her about how they progressed in regards to their preparations for Apocalypse.
"And I understand that Admiral Felix's got the Americans mass-producing weapons on the down low before we convince everyone to ramp up the production speed, all for the sake of stopping Apocalypse. Here in Yokosuka, we're hosting the land assault training session in a week, so I think that although things will be harsh, we aren't completely unprepared for them."
Nodding, Admiral Haru looked down at her notes as she thought about how possible it was to get everyone to stand together on this issue, putting aside any agendas or grievances they may have had beforehand.
It was a tall order, especially since tensions between countries like China and Japan, America and Russia, they were still running quite high because everyone just wanted to ensure that they were better-off than everyone else while fully understanding that resources were limited and may run out one day, which put everyone at each other's throats.
And that wasn't even factoring in the undeniable fact that everyone had some history with each other, and hardliners of every country were often out for the blood of other countries, adding to the confusion of everyone beneath them who simply wanted to get by.
The main reason why countries like Japan, Germany and America weren't running the world with their ship girl armadas right now was because of the ship girl constitution which stated that despite being properties of their respective countries, every ship girl on Earth was technically protecting the world in its entirety and all its inhabitants from the global Abyssal threat.
They were not to be openly allied with any political movement or carry out politically-fueled orders in order to further their country's agenda, so the Japanese government can't say something like,
"We're bringing Japan's glory days back, let's go on another Asia tour and shower them with Japanese 'greatness' (and I don't mean anime and manga)." or "I don't like how that country snubbed me in a deal, let's make them pay for that." and order their ship girls to attack another country for political reasons.
Despite being their masters and housing them in their countries, the governments of the world had to order their ship girls to do things that in some way either helped to protect the people of Earth or helped them to win the Abyssal War, allowing for greater flexibility in their approach without being tied down by global politics.
This way, countries who didn't possess their own ship girl navy would be reassured that countries who did possess them would utilize a hands-off approach to the ship girls and wouldn't allow world politics to even influence, much less dictate, the actions of ship girls, lest another world war break out between ship girl navies because of failing international relations while in the midst of the Abyssal War.
Boy, that would be awkward, infighting when they were supposed to be united against a common enemy to the point of going extinct as a house divided.
And when all the countries of the world in action-heavy B-movies were capable of putting aside their differences in order to work together (despite their penchant to let America save the day), extinction as a result of infighting was a humiliation which no one wanted to suffer.
She was then distracted by the ringtone of the office phone on her desk filling the silence of the room, Mutsu answering it by pressing on a button before she asked who it was on the other end.
"Admiral Haru's room. Who is this?"
And she could hear a certain repair ship speaking up, the slight breath of static muddying her voice as Admiral Haru suddenly became really nervous about Tenryuu and Tatsuta's fate in Project Psyche, leaning back as she waited, held her breath and listened to Akashi.
"Well, Admiral, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Tenryuu and Tatsuta survived, and there were surprisingly no complications in the procedure. We got some intelligence from the exchange, but there seems to be a problem, although it's not with us."
Admiral Haru was somewhat confused as to what could be wrong, asking offhandedly.
"And I believe that's the bad news?"
Mutsu looked worried about what it could be, and Admiral Haru softened her gaze as she met Mutsu's gaze and shared her concerns while Akashi revealed how screwed they might be.
"Their soul manifestations said that it was entirely possible for the Abyssals, who are the yin to our yang, to pull off their own Project Psyche in order to draw more power from their souls, provided they have the technology. And given that the Abyssals have been inactive for ten years regarding introductions of new weapon units into their line-up…"
Admiral Haru's heart sank along with her body, slouching and sliding down her seat as she sighed deeply and voiced her thoughts about how screwed they were.
"Oh, fuck…Can we not keep getting news on how screwed we are every other week? I sometimes hate thinking about this war and obsessing about what our enemies are up to, and I want to just lie back, chill with my girlfriends and say 'fuck this war!'.
Sigh…"
While Akashi spoke up and ended the conversation by remarking,
"Hmm, well, I'm sorry that I ruined your day, and… Well, not really."
And after an awkward pause over the line, Akashi piped up with a clarification,
"That was a joke, by the way, Mutsu."
While Mutsu's expression softened a touch as she uttered a simple, "Ah."
Before Akashi continued her sentence.
"I need to get back to work by performing check-ups on Tatsuta and Tenryuu and making sure that they aren't suffering from any unseen aftereffects. So please try not to hit on Mutsu while you two are alone in your office. You remember what happened the last time you made out with Ashigara in there."
Admiral Haru's face flushed as she looked away from Mutsu's knowing yet judging gaze while the line clicked in order to end the call, suddenly feeling as if the room became somewhat hotter as she tugged at her collar and hastily changed the subject.
"Well, I think that this complicates things a whole lot more."
Mutsu's gaze softened as she turned to look down at the mind-map, clicking her pen as she prepared to write something down if they were to discuss and touch upon an important point which needed to be written down, asking.
"Please elaborate."
Admiral Haru looked away at nothing in particular as she thought about how they, too, wouldn't want to risk their strongest units in this procedure.
"Well, much like us, they probably wouldn't want to risk their Princesses in this procedure, despite the fact that they possess reserves. I mean, they would… Would…"
Admiral Haru stopped mid-sentence as she remembered how Yuubari and Sakawa, ship girls who sank in her first years as an Admiral, were able to attain ranks of commander-in-chief and secretary respectively for some inexplicable reason, coming to another conclusion as she slapped her forehead and groaned, feeling shittier by the second.
"Aww… I think that's how 'Brainiac' and 'Superstar', and that's Yuubari and Sakawa, got their ranks as supreme commanders of the Abyssal coalition. Not just for their innovative abilities or skills which any humanoid Abyssal would possess, but they must've been used as guinea pigs for their own Project Psyche, and…"
Admiral Haru sighed as she covered her face, still feeling the guilt over having lost them while on her watch, and even though ship girls had told her over the years that their sinkings weren't really her fault since she did her best to maximize their odds of survival, she always felt as if she could have done more to make sure that they made it back alive.
Sure, she couldn't have been there to catch or block the shells which sank them, but she could have done something differently, the ability of hindsight and fantasizing what could have been hounding her nightmares and darker thoughts on shittier days
Mutsu noted down something, having realized the implications of Admiral Haru's realizations as she didn't bother with repeating what others had said, that it wasn't her fault.
She was grateful for that.
The Nagato-Class battleship asked how likely it was for the Abyssals to allow a Princess to be in Project Psyche, although Admiral Haru could see that she already had an inkling as to what the answer was.
"And how likely do you see the Abyssals allowing their Princesses to go through this procedure, if it only has a 30% chance of surviving Project Psyche? I mean, if they haven't improved the odds of surviving, since Yuubari and Sakawa sank nearly a decade ago."
Admiral Haru nodded, now feeling rather old when thinking back about her younger self, bright and enthusiastic about saving the world as she hypothesized on how that might not be the case.
"Well, I'm not sure if oceanic Princesses would be their intended subjects…
I think that the land Princesses would be who they want to put through Project Psyche, because they'd be hit hard by the firepower and armor nerf in order to gain the ability to transform and go on land, and I think they need to make up for that somehow. This would explain Yuubari and Sakawa's positions, they must've gotten powerful abilities to allow them to be at the top of the food-slash-command chain, since the Abyssals respect strength no matter who it is. I'm not sure if they would want to risk the lives of their oceanic Princesses, since the Abyssal War right now is currently at an equilibrium with their Princesses being the powerhouses who're strong, but require months to repair. And I think that Princesses are too valuable in their area of expertise to be allowed into Project Psyche, so they'd focus on buffing the land Princesses with Project Psyche for Apocalypse to go smoothly."
Mutsu nodded, and asked about how they might have to introduce more ship girls into Project Psyche for the sake of countering these new land Princesses.
"I understand that you said how we need to keep ship girls in Project Psyche low in numbers and within our base in order to keep tabs on them and protect them, but do you think we need to introduce more ship girls into Project Psyche for us to stand a chance?"
Admiral Haru inhaled sharply as she leaned back into her seat and heavily considered the question, and how they might have to consider future candidates for Project Psyche.
And finally, she leaned in close to the mind-map and considered every factor on the paper right now, giving her answer which had the best interests of winning the war for her ship girls in mind.
"Yes, but not right now. I want Aoba, Akashi, the Fairies and the engineers to make sure that there aren't any unintended side effects, like turning them evil or making them sleepy or whatever, especially since the Abyssals certainly wouldn't be concerned with stuff like that. But although I can start considering future candidates, I don't think that the Abyssals would also be concerned with mass-producing these New Wave units."
She looked at Mutsu as she hypothesized how the Abyssals probably wouldn't want to disturb the chain of command that was a handful of powerful commanders giving orders to the rank-and-file Abyssals beneath them.
"The Abyssals respect strength as it flows down like a pyramid where the strongest are the rarest and stand at the top, and I suspect they would replicate that Abyssal hierarchy on land with the mass-produced Abyssal mooks at the bottom and the rare Princesses on top. They wouldn't want to disrupt that hierarchy pyramid by allowing their lower-ranked Abyssals to gain access to these powers, or create too many New Wave Princesses to muddy up the chain of command in their land invasion."
And Mutsu asked her, curious about how that was going to work when the Abyssals seemed to have no upper limit to the amount of Abyssals they could produce.
"And how would that work out when the Abyssals have seemingly no end to their numbers, since wouldn't that mean that they would need a lot of Abyssal Princesses to commander them, yes?"
Admiral Haru slid back down her chair, her butt almost leaving the seat as she complained about how her day was getting shittier and shittier, and her ship girls weren't helping at all by dropping bombshell after bombshell on her mood.
"Well gee, thanks. As if I wasn't feeling bad enough already, you gotta remind me that the Abyssals aren't like us and have reserves from another world, and we can't even begin to fathom just how many there are even on good ol' Earth. You're right in that the Abyssals are innumerable, and probably have entire fleets consisting of New Wave ship girls, but you could have at least allowed me to feel good about myself for a little longer, hmm?"
Sighing as the Nagato-Class battleship got up from her chair, Mutsu walked over to her chair as she easily hoisted Admiral Haru from her seat and held her up as though holding a cat by its armpits, Admiral Haru feeling her toes leave the ground due to the battleship's amazonian height and strength, both of which fueled her love for older girls like her.
Mutsu seated herself in Admiral Haru's seat as she slowly lowered Admiral Haru onto her and made sure that the back of Admiral Haru's head would rest squarely on her two breasts, something Admiral Haru enjoyed as her expression and body became slack upon feeling Mutsu's large, soft melons supporting her head and neck.
Ahh, big, soft titties.
This day just got a whole lot better.
Both she and her ship girls knew what she liked, and what she liked she sought to obtain and shower with love as evidenced by her nine ship girl lovers, letting out a hum of approval as Mutsu cheered her up by cuddling with her since she knew of her preferences, Admiral Haru looking up at Mutsu as she asked of her battleship about her polite rejection of her advances, since it was clear that they weren't talking business now.
"Say, Mutsu, why did you turn down my offer of being my lover? I love you as much as the others, so why?"
She saw that Mutsu was surprised at the question, but she eventually softened her expression as her smile grew warm, answering honestly.
"Well, Admiral.bI am human after all, and while I understand that you love everyone in your harem equally, as the saying goes,
'All may be equal, but some are more equal than others.' Your girlfriends all understand this as well, that even though you may love each and every one of them more than the rank-and-file ship girl in this base (but and that's not to say that you don't love and care about every ship girl anyway), but you love Nagato the most.
And although I'm happy for the two of you, I can't help but feel envious of you for being able to love my sister in the way that you do. It's not proper etiquette to offer second place to the sister ship of your number one ship girl as a consolation price, Admiral."
Admiral Haru's face scrunched as she thought about things from Mutsu's point of view, and she recalled something which Mutsu might be salty about.
"I don't remember my love ever resembling anything like pity love or a consolation prize of any sort. And when you say 'second place', could you also be salty about the fact that the Kantai Collection video game has Nagato as first place, which I'm totally for by the way, and you as second?"
Mutsu looked surprised at the random talk of the video game based off of them in order to boost public support for their cause, and Admiral Haru was glad to see that Mutsu's attitude cheered up as she burst out into a small, controlled bout of laughter while she gracefully lifted her gloved hand to her mouth, and Admiral Haru blushed at the sensation of Mutsu's bouncing bosom pressed intimately against her head.
And finally, Mutsu calmed herself down as she looked down and remarked,
"Well, that wasn't exactly on my list of pet peeves, but I suppose you can call it a minor annoyance of mine which you've reawakened. And I apologize for the insinuation about the 'consolation prize' part.bI love Nagato and I do actually love you a bit in 'that' way, but I understand your relationship with her well enough to know that the love between you and Nagato cannot be surpassed even by your other lovers. And her love for you might, just might, outweigh her love for me, although I know Nagato would never choose between us even if her life depended on it. I'm already envious enough of the happiness which you two share, and I wish for her to be happy; God knows how much she needs it with the stress that comes with being a capital ship and being the second-in-command of Yokosuka."
Admiral Haru felt genuinely conflicted about Mutsu's revelation, unsure of how to proceed from here on out since her relationship with Nagato was unshakable, but this seemingly cock-blocked her from being able to pursue her romantic feelings for Mutsu, this being reflected in her voice as she asked in an unusually meek voice.
"So…My love for Nagato is cock-blocking me from being your lover, because you feel that losing out to Nagato, your own sister, in romance before even accepting my offer to be my lover hurts, and that's why you turned me down? You envy the both of us for being each other's number one, and that leaves you to be number two at best in either of our hearts?"
Mutsu nodded, and although she spoke again with a happy tone, Admiral Haru knew her own battleship well enough to know that there was an impressive, almost successful attempt at misdirection in her next sentence.
"But I'm happy with the amount of happiness that you've brought Nagato, and by extension, me, and how you've treated us, your ship girls, so well. To treat us as more than human weapons and to care about us all as though we were your children, even taking the time to love some of us as proper women… Just for that, I'm grateful to you and happy beyond words, Admiral."
And as Mutsu tried her best not to crush in her from-behind hug with her super strength, Admiral Haru suddenly felt an uncomfortable lump in her throat as she saw through what Mutsu was trying to do, despising this feeling as she looked up at Mutsu's stretched-out smile, asking in a genuinely confused tone.
"Are you truly happy to see me and Nagato being happy together, Mutsu? Or are you just projecting Nagato's happiness onto you, and you're forcing yourself to say 'If she's happy, I'm happy' in the classic Japanese way of self-sacrifice? Does your own happiness not matter?"
She could see that the question hit her hard, Mutsu's expression freezing up as her smile trembled, and it took a while along with a pleading stare from her, but Admiral Haru's heart broke a little as she saw the exact moment Mutsu's heart imploded in on itself, her smile collapsing into a thin line as her expression flat-lined.
Admiral Haru reached up with her hands as she looked at Mutsu, caressing the sides of her battleship's face as she asked,
"Mutsu, talk to me. I know that you must have feelings for me, otherwise you'd never feel as strongly about this as you do right now.bPlease, help me understand your heart, since this problem involves Nagato and you clearly can't talk to her about this."
Haru heard Mutsu speak her next few words as her expression soured, looking nervous about voicing her true thoughts as she leaned in close to whisper into Admiral Haru's ear,
"Well… I'm telling you this in confidence, so you keep it a secret from even Nagato, alright, Admiral?"
Lowering her arms as she looked down, she leaned back on Mutsu's bosom in order to hear her better as she grunted in agreement, reassuring her as she elaborated.
"Don't worry. I may have promised to do my best not to lie to her, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her."
Nodding, she felt the gratefulness in Mutsu's tone as she hugged her tighter and spoke into her ear,
"Thank you."
Before slowly opening up to her Admiral with her inner thoughts which she couldn't share with Nagato, because they were about Nagato.
"I love Nagato and I'm starting to have romantic feelings for you too, but I can't help but feel envious of you two, because she's captured your heart while you've captured hers. I hate that part of myself and try to bury it within my heart, never allowing it to stop me from loving her as a sister ship. In addition to being the name-ship, Nagato's survived the war after going through so much, but I…"
Admiral Haru looked down, understanding of how Mutsu saw limited action before she blew up in 1943 and instilling a fear of fire and explosions in her modern incarnation, while Nagato survived the war and even tanked two nukes before sinking at Bikini Atoll.
Mutsu continued, looking guilty for feeling this way about her beloved sister as Admiral Haru listened silently, since it was her job as well as her wish to lend them a listening ear and help out whenever they required it.
"She's become the ship girl closest to your heart, and also part of the active fleet roster while I'm her backup. Knowing that I'd always play second fiddle to my own sister even if I were to accept your advances, I feel somewhat bitter about that, and… And nothing stings more than knowing that you'll already be second place to your own sister in a romantic relationship."
Admiral Haru nodded since she understood the fact that a woman's heart was tender, and although her other lovers were content to be a very close second behind Nagato, to Mutsu, her own sister being superior to her in every aspect might get to her in a way which other ship girls might not understand, since no one had Nagato as a sister and didn't share the same past as Mutsu.
The past when Nagato was the lucky name-ship who survived the war instead of her, the present where she was the secretary ship and was part of the active fleet roster instead of her, and would always be first in Admiral Haru's heart instead of her…
Although she was glad that Mutsu was opening up to her, as a ship girl who's been around for a while, she felt bad about not knowing this sooner, and even though the saying "better late than never"'helped to ease the guilt, she wished she had pried into Mutsu's psyche sooner in order to help her through her issues of inferiority.
She heard Mutsu continue about herself.
"Like you said, I do have some feelings for you, Admiral, but… To see my sister look relaxed in your presence, well, on occasion when she allows herself to express her feelings for you while she thinks others aren't looking… I love it, and I know she does since she hangs around you so much, and I would never dare to disrupt her happiness by taking more attention away from her than your other lovers already do."
Admiral Haru looked up at Mutsu since she wanted to get to know the Nagato-Class battleship better, but she always drew attention away from herself either by teasing Nagato or being cryptic about her feelings which she now chose to get off her chest and share with her own Admiral.
Now that she thought about it, loving her sister to the point of having no problems with sacrificing oneself for the happiness of her sister and having no problem with her sister ship taking the spotlight in her stead, being cryptic about herself and her feelings and opening up to few people outside of a small circle, and choosing to smile her problems away…
Was Mutsu taking lessons from Tatsuta about how to conduct herself in a psychologically masochistic manner not unlike self-flagellation in order to allow their respective name-ships to be happy, to allow herself to suffer in silence rather than compromise the happiness of her beloved sister?
Her brows furrowed in concern after she let that thought sink in, asking.
"I always have enough time for every single one of my lovers. But, I mean, if you're talking about cup size, yours are as large as hers, so I've given you both equal amounts of attention."
Mutsu likely now shared Nagato's slight frustration at having to deal with Admiral Haru's lewd side, since her eyebrows creased and she rolled her eyes at how easily her Admiral's thoughts shifted to the jiggly parts of a woman's anatomy at the slightest insinuation as she replied.
"Well, if you want to play it that way, you'd give Yamato, Musashi, Atago and Takao-san the most amount of attention since they're the largest, with Nagato barely losing out at a close third place.
And even though you have Ashigara, Myoukou, Kongou and Hiryuu-san, all who easily fill out a D or even a DD-cup, I know you've been making advances on Bismarck, Akagi, Chitose, Unryuu, Iku and Kaga-san, and you only stopped with Kaga-san because you didn't to make things difficult between you and Zuikaku-san. Everyone understands your blatant enthusiasm to find a Fusou-Class battleship, and you've been eyeing Saratoga-san with those eyes for a while now, so please ease off on the Casanova act, Admiral."
And Mutsu pinched her cheeks lightly and stretched them out, her ship girls never exerting enough force to hurt her (most of the time) as Admiral Haru teared up and whined.
"W-Well, it's not an act if I have nine lovers as of now, right? I want to be suffocated by big tracts of land, the forces of Heaven and Hell combined will not stop me from winning the war in order to stuff my face into the voluminous bosoms of Seaport, Midway and Battleship Princess, as well as Wo, Ru and Ta-Class.
Perhaps even Harbor Summer Princesses, Aircraft Carrier Princess and Carrier Water Demon, they're all stacked as hell."
Mutsu pulled a little harder on her cheeks as she teased relentlessly, remembering the Admiral's past appearances on live television and how she was now heavily discouraged from going in front of a live audience and recording camera.
"Yes, Admiral. And your shameless public confessions of these goals are amongst the reasons why we don't set you up for more T.V. appearances. Because what people need to hear in times like this is that an Admiral wants to save the world because she wants to protect everyone, not because she wants to hook up and get it on with our enemies when the war's over."
Admiral Haru gently swatted her hands away, rubbing her stinging cheeks and blinking the tear beads away as she remarked about something which everyone asked her to do.
"Well, everyone asks for me to be natural and give honest responses, that's what they got. Not my problem if they don't like the truth, and at least I don't pretend to be someone who I'm not by sprouting such false and overly-idealistic goals for the sake of appearing politically correct in the public eye. I mean, seriously, 'protect everyone'? I understand that I was idealistic and naive back then, but even I wasn't so bold as to sprout such lofty goals in front of a live camera and audience."
Mutsu nodded, since she knew that Admiral Haru was honest in her goals and ambitions in contrast to some Admirals who choose to shore up public support by painting themselves in a better light, but her own Admiral was the commanding officer of Yokosuka, one of the largest naval bases in Japan alongside Ominato, Kure, Maizuru and Sasebo; she had an armada at her fingertips, and public support for her was an afterthought that was handled by her PR manager.
Besides, her love for the "aesthetic" designs of ship girls and Abyssals alike helped to secure her infamous reputation as an unorthodox Admiral who was enough of a perv for the horny masses on the internet to rally behind and support, and this carefree attitude strangely helped her to amass support in America, who appreciated her openness compared to other Japanese Admirals who tensed up when sent overseas in order to project an air of strength, looking rather difficult to approach and relate to in the process.
Admiral Haru then turned around on the chair so that she was straddling Mutsu, holding her ship girl as her folded knees straddled Mutsu's seated figure while she looked into Mutsu's eyes and spoke genuinely.
"Well, I won't tell Nagato about this, cross my heart. At least I know that you have some feelings about me, and after learning about your repressed feelings for me and Nagato, I suppose I can indulge in both our feelings for each other by doing this. If you wish…"
And after seeing the consenting look in Mutsu's eyes as she nodded, Admiral Haru leaned in closer while Mutsu's expression softened in anticipation for a kiss.
As she brought her lips together and slowly shut her eyes along with Mutsu to make the kiss even hotter, their chests pressed against each other and she felt Mutsu's voluminous chest squeeze harder and pile the pressure on her own sizable chest, and…
And…
She opened her eyes to find that both their necks were stretched out forwards in an attempt to kiss each other, but their sizable breasts were in the way as the Nagato-Class battleship's large chest couldn't be compressed any further, Mutsu's chest dangerously squeezing upwards as they almost reached her chin and tried to smother her.
Every goddamned time…
Mutsu opened her eyes and asked.
"Admiral? I think you need to get off the chair so that I can lean forward and kiss you."
Admiral Haru tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow as she got off of the chair, patting herself down before the both of them leaned forwards so that their breasts wouldn't get in the way, an action which couldn't be accomplished while she was straddling Mutsu unless she risked falling off the chair.
Even seated, Mutsu almost reached up to her height as Admiral Haru leaned down, closed her eyes and held Mutsu's face as her lips met those of the Nagato-Class battleship, savoring the taste of strawberry-flavored chap-stick even after she pulled away and saw Mutsu bring up her gloved fingers to her lips in order to feel where her Admiral's lips met hers.
And she broke out into a genuinely happy smile, her expression becoming even more radiant than before as she expressed her gratitude.
"Thank you, Admiral. Even if I've become comfortable with the way things are, I thank you. I thank you for paying attention to me instead of Nagato, to see me not as a Nagato-Class battleship, but as Mutsu, even if it's just for an instant. I feel somewhat guilty for stealing a kiss from you when you're supposed to be Nagato's lover, but it felt better than anything I've experienced in a long while, and I suppose in this moment, that's all that matters.
This'll be our little secret, alright, Admiral?"
Nodding, Admiral Haru returned Mutsu's brilliant smile as she felt as if things had turned out a little better today.
Sure, she knew that Apocalypse was an incoming storm which seemed to get deadlier as it inched closer, and that the Abyssals likely had access to their own pool of New Wave Abyssals who had special abilities which the world wouldn't be prepared for, but this happened all the time.
If she were to be depressed every time she learnt of how the Abyssals were going to screw them over, she'd probably fall into a slump in her first three years when all her faith in their chances of winning this war got painfully eroded away with time.
No, Admirals either had to learn the easy way or the hard way to learn to bond with their ship girls and be happy with them, because if they felt bad, their ship girls certainly felt even worse since they had to get shot, set on fire, literally die etc.
Rather than allow everyone to wallow in their misery, they were encouraged to raise everyone's spirits by personally communicating with their ship girls and allowing them to express their grievances, allowing them to fight with a clear mind.
And if Mutsu was at least able to express her true feelings concerning their relationship and was happy that despite her desire to bite the bullet in order not to interrupt her sister's happiness, she was still able to attain satisfaction with one kiss from her Admiral.
She had long admitted to herself that she couldn't solve everyone's problems, but to see her ship girls be happy, that genuinely made her happy as well.