Chapter 18: An Impromptu Date

"Finally, we are going back home. Sleeping on a bunk bed after all these years makes me miss my own bed."

Zuihou and I are on the train, en route to Shin-Yokohama station. Once there, we need to take the Shinkansen Nozomi towards Kyoto, then take the Maizuru Limited Express all the way to Maizuru, and a short bus ride before we are home free. We had to leave a day earlier and spent a night at Yokosuka Naval Academy to avoid being late. We should reach home before 11pm.

"How do you feel about coming back to your birth place?"

"It was short but fun. The place changed a lot but there is still a familiar and nostalgic feeling to it." (Zuihou)

"Then, let's go back again some other time. Just for fun. We can bring the other girls who were born there as well."

Zuihou looked happy for a sec, before looking slightly disappointed, and giving a forced smile,

"Sure. Let's do it next time." (Zuihou)

"Eh? Zuihou, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." (Zuihou)

Why is she pouting?

"The next station, Shin-Yokohama. Shin-Yokohama. The doors on the right will open." (Train Announcement)

A few seconds later, the train begins to slow down. The station came into view and the train made a complete stop.

"Shin-Yokohama. Shin-Yokohama. Please exit here for the JR Yokohama Line and JR Central Line." (Train Announcement)

We grabbed our bags and exited the train. We need to exit the station and make our way to the JR station. For some reason, there is a large crowd gathering outside the station.

"You got to be kidding! How am I supposed to go home?!" (Angry Random Person 1)

"This is bullshit! You expect me to spend money and book a hotel here?" (Angry Random Person 2)

"My sincere apologies. The station is now closed. We are rebooking the trip for all affected customers. We sincerely apologize for this." (Station Employee)

What is happening?

My phone vibrated and the notification sound rang out. I received an email saying that our trip back home has been rebooked for tomorrow, 7.30am. Oi! What is the meaning of this? An incident? Huh?

"What's wrong?" (Zuihou)

"Looks like we are spending the night here. Our train was cancelled and rebooked for tomorrow."

"Eh? Why?" (Zuihou)

"It just says there has been an incident. Didn't mention what though."

What kind of incident warrants a total shutdown of the station? There wasn't an earthquake earlier or anything. I can see station employees running around, apologizing to the angry crowd. As frustrating as this is, let's not make their job any harder.

"What should we do now?" (Zuihou)

"We can take a night bus but we need to go to another station. I would rather avoid it though, since JR isn't gonna refund me the money for the tickets. Either way, we will only reach the base tomorrow morning. Let's just spend the night in a hotel around here."

"A ho-hotel?!" (Zuihou)

"Don't worry. I will try to book two rooms or one with a double bed."

We had a late lunch so I'm not that hungry. So might as well go shopping for a bit. I looked at the directory for the mall upstairs,

"There is a Uniqlo here. Let's get some new clothes. You can pick up some new pajamas and casual clothes. In fact, you definitely need some casual clothes now."

She is standing out way too much. So many people are staring at her. I told her to bring along some casual clothes but she said there is no need for them.

"A cosplayer?" (Random person 1)

"I don't think there's an event here..." (Random Person)

"Let's go."

I grabbed her hand and headed to the mall. As with most JR terminals, there is a large mall located right on top of the station. We bought some new clothes and some books for our trip back home. I just chose a blue polo t-shirt, a pair of matching jeans, and a lounge wear set to act as pajamas for tonight. Zuihou picked a black blouse with white shorts and a belt. She even picked a dark green coat, a pink fluffy pajamas set and some underwear. Zuihou's mood seem to have improved. I got her to change into her new outfit, as her Miko one is making her stand out way too much. To compliment her new look, she let her hair down.

We had our dinner after 7pm, close to 8pm actually. Like most malls in Japan, there is an entire level dedicated to food. Raman, Rice, Tonkatsu sets, you can find almost every kind of local cuisine here. I informed Ooyodo that we will be spending the night in Yokohama and that we will be back the next morning. She wasn't too happy but understood nonetheless. As we ate, I searched for a hotel nearby. Unfortunately, most of the hotels nearby were fully booked. Even the ones that are further away and more expensive. The only one left was,

"Wow! What a huge room! And it's so clean as well!" (Zuihou)

A love hotel 20 minutes away from the station. The receptionist was emotionless, but he was definitely judging me and giving me a suspicious look. Remind me not to show my face in this hotel ever again!

"The bed is so big and soft as well!" (Zuihou)

Zuihou immediately jumped onto the bed and bounced into the air.

"Don't get too rowdy now."

I place our bag of clothes and went to the bathroom. Woah. The bath is big as well. It's basically a mini pool. What kind of console is this? Ah. I see. It's for the tub. You can set the temperature of the water and there is an automatic stop function to prevent an overflow. I set it to 40℃ and pushed the 'OK' button. Water starts flowing in the tub.

"Now, we wait."

I exited the bathroom. What is she doing now? Zuihou is squatting down at the TV stand, looking at something. The fridge? No. Something else caught her attention. Her ears are red. I sneaked behind her to see what has gotten her so intrigued...

She is looking at a vending machine for adult toys...

"I didn't know they have these things in the room."

Zuihou instantly tunred around, her face has gotten bright red,

"Hya! Admiral?! When did you-?" (Zuihou)

Oops. Did I say it out loud?

"Are you interested in this kind of stuff? How naughty~"

Her already red face turned redder than a beetroot. She stood up all of a sudden, almost hitting my jaw in the process.

"I'm going to take a bath first!" (Zuihou)

Zuihou made a mad rush to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

She is extremely cute when she is flustered. I want to see more of her expressions.

No. Wait. Why am I having such thoughts??

But really, Zuihou is so cute...

I took out the book I bought at Books Sanseido. It's supposedly a famous classic by a famous author. It even had it's own movie adaptation a while back. According to the synopsis, it's a story of reminiscence, loss, how the main character struggles emotionally and sexually in life, and making the important decision of staying in the past or moving on into the future. This strangely hits home. It even mentions The Beatles. How old is this novel? 1987? Wow. This is old.

The story begins with our main character sitting in a taxi in Germany, when he hears a song by The Beatles. Overwhelmed by nostalgia and loss, we are transported back to the 1960s along with him. This looks like a promisingly good read.

"Erm... Admiral?" (Zuihou)

I looked up from my book to see Zuihou, peeking out from behind the door. Her hair is still dripping wet. Water droplets flowed down from her exposed shoulders.

"Yeah?"

"I forgot... to bring in my pajamas. Can you pass them to me please?" (Zuihou)

"Sure."

I went over to the bags of clothes and picked the one that has hers. It's easy to find as the fluffy pajama set she bought was on top. I grabbed the whole set and passed it to her,

"Here."

"Thank you." (Zuihou)

Zuihou took the threads from my hand and shut the door. Shame. I thought I could see more.

Oi! What is wrong with me today? Maybe being in a love hotel has gotten me in a strange mood.

Moments later, Zuihou exited, wearing her new pajamas. It is a orange, long sleeve top with shorts. It looks really comfy. More importantly, she looks extremely cute in it.

After Zuihou was done, it was my turn. I soaked in the hot water for a while to relieve some of the fatigue from the meeting this morning. Once done, I changed into my loungewear and exited the bathroom. Zuihou was already on the bed, beckoning me to come over.

"Admiral, hurry up. The bed is really comfy." (Zuihou)

Oh wow. The bed really is comfy. It's even softer than mine.

"See? I told you so." (Zuihou)

I ruffled her hair a bit,

"Yeah yeah. This really is comfortable."

Zuihou laid down and tucked herself in bed. She looked at me with a cute expression.

"You wanna sleep already?"

She shook her head,

"Can we talk for a bit? Please?" (Zuihou)

Pillow talk, eh. Just like back home.

I dimmed the lights before joining her under the blanket. She smells good.

"Ehehe~ This is just like back in base." (Zuihou)

"It sure is. I'm sorry we had to choose this hotel."

"It's nothing to apologize for. In fact, I'm curious how a love hotel looks like looks like." (Zuihou)

"You naughty girl."

"So mean!"

I laughed a bit.

"Umm... Can I hold your hand?" (Zuihou)

"Sure."

I brought out my left hand and she immediately gripped it. She pressed it against her cheeks,

"So big. I like this feeling." (Zuihou)

She snuggled closer, my hand still pressed against her cheek,

"You will always be our Admiral, right?" (Zuihou)

"Of course. I will always be with you."

"That's great to hear. So long as Admiral is here, I feel like I can do anything and everything." (Zuihou)

"That's an exaggeration. All I can do is give orders and help steer the battle."

"But it's your orders and instructions that helped us fight. If it weren't for Admiral, I might have sank a long time ago." (Zuihou)

I pulled Zuihou towards my chest and hugged her tightly.

"Admiral?" (Zuihou)

"I won't let that happen. I will make sure everyone come back safe and sound. I promise."

I will make sure not to lose any one of you ever again. Never again.

"Admiral... Thank you. I will do my best too." (Zuihou)