"That's exactly my point," Elizabeth snapped, slapping her thigh. "A shipgirl has to obey her admiral's orders. When the authorities or the military throw riches and promotions in your face—millions in cash on top of it—all under the excuse of fighting the Abyssals, how many admirals can really say no? In the end, the admiral gets the rewards, the authorities get the B25, and the only one who suffers is the Hornet who had her aircraft ripped away."
That was a real concern. From a national strategy perspective, B25s like the Doolittle Raiders should be allocated to the most powerful and loyal admirals to maximize their value. And the admiral who gave them up would still come out ahead.
But Hikaru had no intention of selling his B25s. That wasn't even on the table.
"With that kind of money, even if you can't buy B25s, you could at least buy some Hiryuu bombers, right?"
"That's exactly the problem. You admirals never consider the shipgirls' feelings. To Hornet, those B25s are her children. Do you have any idea how it feels to have your kids ripped away like that?"
Just then, Lexington emerged from the kitchen carrying a steaming plate of perfectly cooked Mapo Tofu.
"Enough of that. We'll be careful. Fletcher, Cali, help bring the rest of the dishes. Glowworm, sit still. Don't you dare break another bowl."
"Anyway, be careful. The pressure on HQ is already insane." Elizabeth paused mid-sentence, sniffed the air, and her eyes sparkled. "Lexington-sis, this smells amazing! Can I stay and have a taste?"
Lexington gave her a graceful smile. "Of course. I haven't thanked you yet for looking after my husband."
Elizabeth chuckled shamelessly. For the sake of food, she didn't mind calling an Eagle Union ship "sis" a hundred times if needed.
Unable to resist the temptation, she scooped up a quivering piece of tofu. The moment it hit her tongue, the numbing spice and rich flavor exploded in her mouth, bringing tears to her eyes and a layer of sweat to her skin.
"This is… this is divine! I've never tasted anything so good in my life!"
Elizabeth's admiration for Lexington skyrocketed.
"If you like it, have some more. I learned this from Yat Sen. It's a hometown dish from the admiral's old world," Lexington said as she placed a small bowl of fish soup in front of Hikaru. "This one's for you. You've lost some weight—this won't do."
Of course I lost weight, Hikaru thought. Fletcher's "experimental" cooking nearly killed me. He felt deeply moved to finally escape that culinary nightmare.
He picked up a piece of tofu, which seemed even more delicious than he remembered.
"Delicious! You get a perfect score for your cooking, my dear wife."
Lexington giggled. "Breakfast was rushed. I'll make some of the old base's special dishes in a few days. Not only are they delicious, but they have some special effects that can slightly improve your body's condition—and maybe even your… training."
They had already tested sharing power again last night. While Lexington's power boost was several times stronger than Fletcher's, it still fell short of Hikaru's expectations. Lexington herself couldn't explain why.
But Hikaru had made peace with it. The power he gained from his shipgirls already made him superhuman by civilian standards. Not being overpowered from the start gave him a chance to refine his abilities properly.
Just then, Elizabeth asked a sharp question. "How did you guys end up with three B25s? Where did you get them?"
Lexington smiled knowingly.
"Back then, we fought countless battles. Sometimes, when we wiped out an Abyssal fleet, there happened to be a abyssal Hornet among them. If she found peace and was purified, she'd sometimes pass on her B25 before fading away. She entrusted them to us, hoping we'd continue the fight in her place."
Elizabeth gawked. "Seriously? That many 'coincidences'? Do you have any idea how low the odds of that are?"
Lexington glanced affectionately at Hikaru. "You just have to keep sortieing. Those little ones fought day and night without rest. By the time the admiral disappeared, every one of them had over twenty thousand sorties. They gave their all to fulfill his dream of building the strongest base. You married all of them, didn't you? Remember?"
Those "little ones" were the submarine fleet. Not only did they bring back B25s, but they also fished up tons of rainbow torpedoes. In the game, they were all tiny girls in swimsuits. So cute and so hardworking—who could blame him for handing out wedding rings?
Glowworm burst out laughing. "Admiral's going to get arrested for that. Time for the MPs to drag you away for waterboarding!"
Elizabeth only brought it up casually, but soon forgot all about it as she was once again drawn to the food, lamenting that she'd only get to eat like this for fifteen days.
How can I get myself invited here every day? she wondered.
The moment Glowworm laughed, a lightbulb went off in Elizabeth's head.
Lexington, Fletcher, Cali—they're all Eagle Union ships. But Glowworm and I… we're both Royal Navy.
You're my way in, Glowworm!
She sliced off a piece of pudding and placed it in front of Glowworm, patting her head with a big, fake smile.
"Oh my, Glowworm, you're just too adorable! I suddenly wish I had a little sister like you. Come sit on big sis's lap. Let me give you a big kiss!"
To Glowworm, Elizabeth's grin looked just like that creepy hipper's. Without hesitation, she smacked Elizabeth's hand away and headbutted her right in the stomach.
"Who wants your kiss?! And stop messing with my hair!"
After the mass construction event came course selection. Both admirals and shipgirls had to attend classes.
With only around 500 students per year, course selection was done face-to-face at the registrar's office, where students could consult directly with the professors. The process lasted three to five days to give everyone enough time to plan their schedules.
After the show-stopping appearance of Lexington yesterday, Hikaru found himself swarmed by classmates wanting to introduce themselves.
"Hey, it's Big Boss Chen!"
"The Sea Lion himself!"
"Sea lion" was slang among admirals, referring to those who flaunted their shipgirls—like basking seals soaking up attention.
After exchanging greetings, Hikaru finally made it to the registrar with his shipgirls.
For Hikaru, the curriculum was brutal—covering everything from naval operations, leadership, shipgirl systems, fleet tactics, base management, shipgirl training, ship salvage strategies, shipgirl classification, war games, and logistics. Plus, he had to take physical training, etiquette, and weapons courses.
In actual battles, a single base rarely had the strength to face the Abyssal main fleets alone. Joint fleet operations, and sometimes support from air, ground, or missile forces, were essential. Masaki himself had once been assigned a tactical nuke.
Admirals also played roles as diplomats and city defenders, requiring them to learn how to interact with various social classes.
While checking off his own courses, Hikaru glanced at his shipgirls' selections.
"Cali, why didn't you pick 'Artillery Command and Tactics'? And you, my dear wife, why 'Carrier Reconnaissance Operations' and 'Intro to Anti-Submarine Aviation'? Do carriers even need anti-sub courses?"
He doubted the academy could teach Lexington anything she didn't already know.
Lexington shot him a look. "Of course carriers need to learn anti-sub tactics. We may not specialize in it, but we still need to know how it works. And besides," she added with a mischievous smile, "we agreed to attend these classes together, didn't we?"
Hikaru glanced at her schedule and started sweating.
In the game, anti-sub duties usually fell to destroyers and light cruisers. He'd always assumed battleships and carriers were helpless against submarines.
But that wasn't true in reality.
Historically, any large warship could engage subs if equipped with sonar, depth charges, or seaplanes. But sending a battleship to hunt submarines was ludicrously inefficient—one battleship cost as much as dozens or even hundreds of subs. So typically, small, nimble destroyers handled anti-sub duties while big ships stayed protected in formation.
So in that light, Lexington taking an anti-sub course actually made sense. It never hurt to know more.
Fletcher had been called aside by Langley for course planning, leaving Glowworm unattended.
Glowworm's eyes sparkled as she planted her hands on her hips.
"Commander, I wanna go to school too! I wanna take classes with you!"
Hikaru winced. He already had more coursework than most students. Having a mischievous little troublemaker tagging along would be a nightmare.
"Ahem. Well, Little Glowworm, that's a great attitude," Hikaru said, giving her a thumbs-up. "But school means reading a hundred pages a day and writing five thousand words of homework. You can't quit halfway. What do you think?"
Glowworm started counting on her fingers, trying to figure out how long five thousand words would take. She couldn't, so she tilted her head.
"Can't you write it for me, Commander?"
Lexington tapped her on the head. "You just keep playing for now. When your sister Helena gets here, we'll set up a class at home—with Hipper supervising you."
Glowworm shivered, sensing imminent doom.