Garden

A man with a silver short hair and a ragged dark admiral attire is walking at the corridor of his base. He walks aimlessly around his base and sometimes he will stop to find a reason for his short walk. Even so, he still greets the Ship Girls that he met.

At one occasion, he passed through Aircraft Carrier Houshou and Training Ship Katori that asking permission for adding more training time for Destroyer Group. At another time, he meets with Destroyer Fubuki and Destroyer Mutsuki that giving their newest food sample that will show up on the menu soon. Even, he meets with Taigei and her Submarines group.

After several hours, he stops for a while and looks at the sea in front of him from the window. He lets the wind blows through his face and his face showing that he is indeed really enjoying it. The peaceful time in the warring state, even though he sometimes hates it.

Several minutes later, Battleship Bismarck and Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen disturb him a little bit. They inform him about some of their finding on the mission and then tell him that they will put the report on the desk later. He smiles a little at them and orders them to take some rest before going for another mission.

After the two of them already gone, he smiles at the distant and says,

"I can't believe it... You make this story... Again. But, I can't mad at you as it's the only way to see me... Alive."

He then chuckles a little bit, turn around, and bows at the distant. He then says,

"Welcome and welcome back... Let me introduce myself. My name is Hakai, the one that will be telling you the story of this world."

Hakai then smiles once more and then looks again at the sea in front of him. He then sighs and says,

"This world becomes a little bit peaceful. No war between us and them. No blood covering the sea around it."

He then continues to walk and takes a different turn at the T-Junction. He then continues,

"To be honest, I must indulge this moment as we never feel something called as peace. But, at the same time, some part of me really hate it. Maybe you could say, it is already inside the human nature."

He then looks at the ceiling and continues once more,

"There is nothing wrong with peace... But, there are some parties who don't like that status and will continue to pursue war for their own profits."

Hakai then smirks and continues to walk as he passing through the exit door. He continues to walk until he stops in front of a monument. A monument that he created for those brave man that falls in the land he is standing now. The plant around it covers the blood that spilt into the land and changing the scenery a little bit as if nature tried to hide the horror that happens in the past.

Hakai then continues to walk until he sees a garden. The garden that he creates with his beautiful wife together with Destroyer Shigure and Destroyer Akizuki. He remembers the garden is blooming with a lot of flowers and the scenery really soothes his heart back then.

But now the scenery already changed. The flower is withered and showing the sign that it will die soon. In the middle of the garden, he sees three girls tried their best to help the garden. They are Destroyer Shigure, Destroyer Yuudachi, and Destroyer Akizuki.

Hakai sighs a little bit and starts to walk to them. He looks around the garden and could see that the garden is almost the same with his current mind and heart. Dying and will meet their end soon.

When he already nears them, Hakai then says,

"At the end, all of them withers..."

"Huh? Admiral?! Why are you here?" says Shigure that quite surprised to Hakai there.

Hakai observes the surrounding until Shigure says,

"Yes... They are starting to wither."

"But, not all of them, right? There still one flower that the three of you tried to save," says Hakai as he looks behind Shigure

"Yes," answer Yuudachi

"A very beautiful white flower... Huh?"

Hakai walks pass through the three of them, kneel in front of the flower, and then says,

"Unfortunately, it also showing a sign of withering."

"Is that so..." says Akizuki quite dejected after hearing that.

"I could say that this is a beautiful flower... But, nature already stained it a little bit," continues Hakai as he touches the flower a little.

"Huh?"

The three of them looks at each other, while Hakai seems to fall deep inside his mind. He then closes his eyes a little bit and then hears Shigure says,

"Hakai..."

"You don't need to worry, Shigure. I will never blame you as you are the one who took care of this garden after her death," says Hakai as he started to stand up

"Then, what's inside your mind?" asks Akizuki

"I don't know... It's the first time I feel like this," answer Hakai

"For some reason, it's not like your usual self. What happen?" asks Shigure

"That's not your problem, Shigure. Believe me, sooner or later I will back like the usual Hakai that all of you knows," jokes Hakai as he looks around the garden.

Hakai then takes a deep breath and asks them,

"When all of you inside a garden, what are you trying to find?"

"Of course the most beautiful flower in the field, poi~" answer Yuudachi energetically.

"After you find the most beautiful flower, what will you do?" asks Hakai again.

"Huh?... Ummmm... I will pick it up," answer Yuudachi

"Then, you are killing the most beautiful flower in the field and let it fall to another flower," answer Hakai

The three girls look away after Hakai says that. After that, Shigure takes a deep breath and answer,

"For me, I will admire it could continue to bloom until their end."

"Then, how could you tell the world if that is the most beautiful flower in the field? What if it surrounded by an ugly flower and hiding behind it?" asks Hakai to Shigure

Shigure looks at Yuudachi and Akizuki for a while and tried to find out what inside Hakai's mind. A beautiful flower that stained behind many ugly flowers. As if the ugly flower tried to keep it in silent and kill it slowly. She immediately realizes what Hakai's intention.

Meanwhile, Akizuki that still clueless about that, asks Hakai, "Then, what would you do for it?"

Hakai looks at Akizuki and then smile at her. A smile of a devil. He then creates a scythe from the stone that he held inside his pocket. After that, he immediately swings the scythe around the withering flower. Akizuki and Yuudachi really surprised to see that and start to hide behind Shigure that starts to smile. Hakai then says,

"If that me... I will cut those ugly flowers first. After that, the world could see the beautiful flower that they tried to hide."

Shigure smiles at him, while Hakai continues to cut the flower around him. Until the stained flower is the sole flower in the garden. He then opens his arm and says,

"Look... Now everyone could see the flower."

"Admiral..." says Akizuki that still scared with Hakai sudden action

"Unfortunately, the flower will be really lonely in the garden as it sees his friend slaughtered in front of its own eye. Sooner or later, it will wither alone," continues Hakai

Hakai then walks towards the sole flower, kneels in front of it, picks it up, and smell the flower. He then says,

"At the end, we will feel pity for it and picks it up. And end its miserable life."

He then crushes the flower and says,

"That's how most of the people will react when they feel jealous. Killing their target slowly and later kills it. And I am a generous person, as I let it meet his friend."

"Hakai..." says Shigure

Hakai then looks at Shigure and shows his miserable face at Shigure. A smile of a devil and an eye full of hatred. Yuudachi looks at the flower on Hakai's hand and says,

"Ye... yeah... You are right..."

Hakai snaps back into reality and sees Yuudachi and Akizuki's dejected face. He then sighs and then pats both of their head. He then says,

"I'm really sorry about the flower. But, I think because of the recent war on this island, it makes them stressed a little bit."

"We understand that, Admiral... But..." says Akizuki

Hakai can't stand their dejected face and says,

"Alright! I will find another place for the three of you to plant those flowers!"

"Is that so?!" says Yuudachi quite happy

"Yes. I will find it!"

"Thank you very much, Admiral!" shouts the two of them

Yuudachi then starts to run from the garden to tell Houshou about it, while Akizuki is running behind her to look after her. Shigure smiles at them and then says,

"You don't need to do that, Hakai..."

"No. I must do it. This garden is the only connection between me and Asami. I must find a new garden, so she will stay happy even in the afterlife. If possible, the garden must be far from our base... So if they start to attack us again, they couldn't destroy the garden," says Hakai

"But..."

"You don't need to worry about that. Just accept it like those two, Shigure," continues Hakai

"Yes..."

Hakai then sighs a little bit and looks at the sea behind him. He then says,

"Alright, I will go now. I want to take some air to clear my mind a little bit."

"Sir, yes Sir!" answer Shigure

"And tell Anemone that I am away from the base for a while."

"Sir, yes Sir!"

"Alright! Hopefully, I could get back to my usual self."

After saying that, he walks toward the dock and leaves the base for a while.