Tirpitz thought she'd escaped further scolding and was almost giddy with relief.
"Let's go together," Hikaru declared righteously. "Bismarck, I trust you'll keep me safe."
Bismarck gave Hikaru a long, searching look, said nothing, and turned to leave.
Tirpitz tried to sneak off, shrinking her posture.
But it was like Bismarck had eyes in the back of her head. With a flick of her right hand, her poor little sister let out a yelp, clutched her head, and stared up at her with teary eyes.
"Stay close."
—
"That's why I can't abuse my authority just to have the commander summon you."
Lexington was sitting at the desk in her shared dorm room with Saratoga, writing carefully on a piece of stationery.
She paused, and although her pen left her hand, it didn't fall. Instead, it hovered in the air, as if gripped by an invisible hand.
The pen then violently scribbled across the page. The hand holding it had so much strength that the paper tore under the pressure.
"So you're abandoning me again, big sis?!"
The words "big sis" were written huge—so forcefully that the tip shredded the paper, leaving the characters distorted.
"I haven't abandoned you. But you'll need to wait. It might take a long time. Still, I'll do everything I can. You're my dearest sister."
Lexington finished the line and waited for a reply.
None came.
Behind her, a navy plushie was being tossed around on the bed. The four-poster bed creaked wildly as if someone were jumping up and down on it.
Saratoga was throwing a tantrum.
Lexington sighed. She felt helpless—but that's life, isn't it?
Just then, a ripple ran through her mind. She closed her eyes.
Her physical eyes shut, but her inner eye opened.
Aircraft were like the extensions of a carrier shipgirl's senses. Lexington had sent more than thirty fighters to scout 1,200 nautical miles north of the base. The rest were stationed around the naval district for defense.
Lexington first noticed movement near the naval district.
A shipgirl was approaching the port. On the docks, she could see Hikaru, Bismarck, Tirpitz, and California waiting.
With Bismarck and Tirpitz there, Lexington wasn't too worried—it was a familiar face.
She shifted her attention farther out—toward the Abyssal fleet 1,200 nautical miles to the north.
Just moments ago, one of her aircraft had issued an alert from that area.
Focusing her mind's eye, she saw what had happened: a group of Abyssal shipgirls had spotted the F9F Panther she had hidden in the clouds. They'd launched over a thousand carriers to intercept it.
But Lexington's fighter was a six-star machine—personally controlled by her. It absolutely dominated the enemy.
With graceful maneuvering, she made the Panther execute a wide arc, shaking off the dense swarm of Abyssal aircraft and heading back south.
That plane had already been compromised. Even if it climbed to a higher cloud layer, the Abyssal carriers would continue their relentless search. Worse, it might even expose the positions of the other aircraft.
So it was best to pull out.
One particularly bold golden-skinned Abyssal light cruiser dared to fire at the Panther with anti-aircraft guns.
Lexington smirked coldly. She dipped the fighter's nose and gently tapped the firing trigger.
The aircraft shuddered slightly as two golden streaks of tracer fire sliced through the sky, drilling straight into the Abyssal cruiser's hull.
BOOM!
An orange fireball erupted from the black sea.
—
"Eh?"
Hikaru's heart suddenly stirred.
He had just received a notification that a mission had been completed.
He quickly focused his mind and pulled up the system interface.
It was the quest line for [Beginner Mission · Level-Up Rewards].
All three tasks in the chain were now complete. That meant the system had recognized him as having reached levels 10, 30, and 50.
Hikaru was bewildered.
This was the quest he'd suspected was bugged. He had planned to study it more carefully tonight—but it had completed itself out of nowhere.
What was going on?
Did he trigger some hidden condition? But from the moment he accepted the quest until now, he hadn't done anything serious—just spent time playing with his shipgirls.
And yet, the rewards for summoning three shipgirls had already been delivered.
There was no time to dwell on it, though.
Across the sea, a familiar figure—Yamato—glided across the waves and stepped onto the dock.
[End of Chapter]
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