Narrator:Takeo and his ships finally arrived at the Sakura Empire! Let's see how his visit goes.

*Takeo and his ships wait for Ayanami to finish telling her stories to the shipgirls who came to the dock*

Takeo(mind):Do telling stories usual take this long? The sun is already setting.

Ayanami:"And that's all that happened."

Yuudachi:"So cool!"

Yukikaze:"I, Yukikaze the Great, think your stories are the best, Ayanami."

Shigure:"Come on, There's got to be more stories!

Ayanami:"T-Thanks, but that's all I have..."

Ayanami(mind):Aside from some personal things...

Ayanami:"Alright, I've got to go now."

*Yuudachi starts pulling on Ayanami's arm*

Yuudachi:"No, don't go! We were about to have dinner, we want to have dinner with you!"

Ayanami:"W-Well..."

Yukikaze:"Having dinner with Yukikaze the Great should be a great deal for sharing your stories."

Shigure:"It's fine if you don't have to..."

Ayanami:"I-I..."

*Ayanami feels a hand on her shoulder, and turns around to see Takeo*

Takeo:"Why don't you go have dinner with them, it's fine."

Ayanami:"Commander...alright."

Yuudachi, Yukikaze, and Shigure:"Alright!"

Takeo:"We'll leave you girls to your dinner, I'll have dinner with the others."

*Takeo turns around, but Ayanami pulls on Takeo's sleeve*

Takeo:"Huh? What's wrong?"

*Ayanami faces towards the three girls*

Ayanami:"Can...can I bring the commander with?"

Shigure:"The commander?! F-Fine."

Yukikaze:"Yukikaze the Great will allow it."

Yuudachi:"As long he doesn't treat me like a dog, I'll be fine with it."

Ayanami:"T-Thank you."

Takeo:"Huh?! W-Wait a minute-"

Ayanami:"I'll go tell everyone else."

*Ayanami tells the rest of Takeo's ships that he is going to have dinner with her*

Takeo(mind):I-I sure that Nimi or Laffey wouldn't agree to this.

*Ayanami comes back to Takeo and the three shipgirls*

Ayanami:"They agreed."

Takeo:"Y-You're kidding..."

Ayanami:"You're going to have dinner with us."

Takeo(mind):Why does it sound like she's forcing it?

Takeo:"Ugh...alright, fine. I'll go."

Ayanami:"Yay."

Ayanami(mind):I'm thankful that everyone agreed, and I'm lucky that Laffey was asleep when I went to ask. Laffey is a bit too attached to the commander.

Yuudachi:"Let's go, already! I'm hungry!"

Takeo:"Haha, alright."

Takeo(mind):Such a cute doggo.

Ayanami:"R-Right."

*They head to the plaza, and arrive at a restaurant. When they chose to sit down at one of the round tables, the three shipgirls pick the seats closest to Ayanami, leaving Takeo on the other side of the table*

Takeo(mind):These fan girls are really attached to Ayanami, huh...

Shigure:"Ayanami, tell us another story!"

Ayanami:"U-Um...w-what about the commander?"

Yukikaze:"He should be grateful that he even shares the same table as Yukikaze the Great!"

Takeo(mind):This girl...

*Takeo takes out his phone, and notices something*

Takeo(mind):100 messages from Dido...what the?!

*Takeo looks at all fo the messages, they were basically saying 'Hello, master?', 'Master, have you forgotten about me?', or 'Please respond, master!' in all caps*

Takeo(mind):I'm scared to text back, but I'll feel bad if I don't...

*Takeo texts 'Hi' to Dido, and she instantly replies back*

Takeo(mind):Has she been staring at the messages or something?!

Takeo:"Ugh..."

*Takeo texts back in forth with Dido, until they get their food and start eating*

Takeo:"..."

*Takeo looks over at Yuudachi, as she rips chunks of meat with her mouth*

Takeo(mind):Now that...that's a doggo. No doubt about it.

Yuudachi:"Mmm...Huh? Commander, are you going to eat that?"

*Yuudachi points to the steak on Takeo's plate*

Takeo:"O-Oh...here, you can have half."

Yuudachi:"Really?!"

*Takeo cuts his steak in half, and puts it on Yuudachi's plate*

Yuudachi:"Yay!"

*Yuudachi gobbles the steak down, Takeo jaw drops from watching*

Takeo:"..."

Takeo(mind):I'm not sure if that's adorable or creepy.

Yukikaze:"Hey, no fair! Yukikaze the Great demand you share your food with me too."

Takeo:"Huh? O-Ok, here."

*Takeo cuts the steak into halves again, and he gives one half to Yukikaze*

Yukikaze:"Whoa! Y-You didn't have to give me that much..."

Takeo:"...So you don't want it?"

*Yukikaze starts eating the steak before Takeo can get an answer*

Takeo(mind):I guess she does.

Shigure:"Jeez...those two..."

Takeo:"..."

*Takeo puts his last bit of steak on Shigure's plate*

Takeo:"Want the rest?"

Shigure:"H-Huh?! Why would I just eat the rest of your steak?"

Takeo:"Maybe you want some too."

Shigure:"Of course not!"

Takeo:"Alright then."

*Takeo takes the steak back*

Shigure:"Hmm..."

Takeo(mind):She says she doesn't want it, but she's looking jealously at the other two.

Takeo:"Ugh..."

*Takeo cuts his steak in half again, and puts it on Shigure's plate*

Shigure:"W-Why did you give it to me?"

Takeo:"You really think I'm that stupid?"

Shigure:"Jeez, fine."

*Shigure eats the half Takeo gave her, and they all finish their food*

Ayanami:"..."

Takeo(mind):Well...that wasn't the type of dinner I was expecting.

Ayanami:"C-Commander? Did you enjoy the dinner?"

Takeo:"Huh? Oh, yeah. It was really good."

Takeo(mind):For the small amount of food I ended up eating.

Ayanami:"I-I'm glad."

Shigure:"Hmm...oh, yeah...we have to go back to our dorms."

Yukikaze:"Huh? What are you-"

*Shigure covers Yukikaze's mouth, and she starts waling away*

Shigure:"Come on, Yuudachi!"

Yuudachi:"O-Ok."

*Yuudachi follows Shigure as the three girls walk away, leaving Ayanami and Takeo*

Ayanami:"..."

Takeo:"Wow...those girls really are something."

Ayanami:"Y-Yeah..."

Takeo:"Uh...are you ok, Ayanami?"

Ayanami:"W-What do you mean?"

Takeo:"You've been silent the entire time. I just thought something was wrong."

Ayanami:"Nothing's wrong...it's just..."

Takeo:"Huh?"

Ayanami:"N-Nothing..."

Takeo:"Oh...well, shall we go find Javelin and the others?"

Ayanami:"Sure."

*They leave the plaza, and walk around the Sakura Empire*

Ayanami(mind):Why am I so embarrassed just by standing next to him? It doesn't make sense, I watched the commander talking with the others and sharing his food with them, but he hasn't done that to me, or Javelin, or any of us.

Takeo(mind):Dido is probably drowning me in texts again. We're gonna have to go back to Azur Lane soon, I'm worried she might burn my house down if she thinks I abandoned her or something.

Ayanami:"Um...commander?"

Takeo:"Huh? What's up?"

*Ayanami lays her head on Takeo's arm*

Takeo:"H-Huh?!"

Takeo(mind):When did this happen?!

Takeo:"W-What's with this?"

Ayanami:"It's been a while since we've been here, right?"

Takeo:"Huh?"

*Takeo notices a pink petal fall from the sky*

Takeo(mind):This place really is a Japanese stereotype.

*Takeo sees a cherry blossom tree right above them*

Takeo:"Heh."

Ayanami:"Commander?"

*Takeo notices Ayanami's face is blushing*

Takeo:"Y-Yeah?"

Ayanami:"Y-You won't be the pink petal that falls from my tree, right?"

Takeo:"Huh?"

Takeo(mind):That analogy...let me fix that.

Takeo:"Of course not, because I'm not a petal, I'm the branch."

Ayanami:"What?"

Takeo:"I'm more connected to the tree, because I'm part of your group with Laffey and the others now, right?"

Ayanami:"Y-Yeah."

Takeo:"So if you're the tree, your friends are the branches, and your acquaintances are the petals."

Ayanami:"R-Right. What does that mean though?"

Takeo:"Oh, what I'm trying to say is that I'm not going to fall from your tree that easily."

Ayanami:"R-Really?"

Takeo:"Yeah, and neither are the others."

Ayanami:"Of course."

Takeo:"So don't worry about me falling from your tree, or anything like that."

Ayanami:"Commander...thank you so much."

Takeo(mind):Wait, was that the promise rank thing? I didn't notice as easily as the other's.

Ayanami:"W-Well, let's continue finding the others."

Takeo:"O-Ok then."

*Takeo and Ayanami continue around the Sakura Empire, then Takeo accidentally bumps into a woman with long brown hair, and purple eyes*

Takeo:"Ah! I'm so sorry."

???:"Oh, I'm so sorry." *Cough* *Cough*

Takeo:"Are you ok?"

???:"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."

Ayanami:"G-Good day, miss Amagi."

Takeo:"W-Well, if you'll excuse us-"

*Takeo freezes when he replays Ayanami's greeting in her head*

Takeo(mind):Amagi?! Why does that sound similar to Akagi?!

Amagi:"Good day, Ayanami."

*The woman notices Takeo freezing*

Amagi:"I'm sorry, is there a problem?" *Cough*

Takeo:"N-No, not at all. We'll be on our way."

*Takeo and Ayanami leave Amagi*

Amagi:"Huh...what an interesting young man." *Cough* *Cough*

*Takeo and Ayanami continue down the sidewalk*

Takeo:"So who was that, exactly?"

Ayanami:"Well, that was Amagi. She's a battlecruiser from the Amagi-class."

Takeo:"She's a battlecruiser? I've never seen her in the books."

Ayanami:"That's probably because she died."

Takeo:"Wait, what?!"

Ayanami:"We're ships, remember? All of us who were scrapped, sold off, or even sunk...we were all rebuilt as what we are now."

Takeo:"So girls like Amagi were basically reborn?"

Ayanami:"Correct."

Takeo(mind):Now that I think about it, Hood and many other ships that I've met were sunk before I came here. I would've never thought about building your own shipgirl.

Ayanami:"But that doesn't mean we can live forever, not just anyone can build a ship."

Takeo:"I see."

Takeo(mind):Well, there goes the possibility of someone building multiple Enterprises or Bismarcks to take over the world or something. Actually, that could happen...it'll just take forever.

Ayanami:"That why she wasn't in most of the books."

Takeo:"Wow...given a second chance at life like that..."

Ayanami:"Oh, there are the others."

*Takeo spots the rest of his shipgirls*

Z23:"There you two are."

Ayanami:"Sorry we're late."

Takeo:"Thank you for waiting for us."

Laffey:"Commander..."

*Laffey jumps onto Takeo's arm*

Takeo:"Whoa! Alright, up you go."

*Takeo helps Laffey get onto his back*

Laffey:"Yay...Laffey is glad that commander is back..."

Javelin:"She really missed you."

Takeo:"I believe it."

Z23:"Well, we all missed you a bit."

Takeo:"Haha, I believe that too."

Javelin:"Alright, let's find a place to stay tonight."

Takeo:"W-Well, actually...how about we head back?"

All:"Huh?!"

Narrator:To be continued...This has gone on long enough. Stay tuned for next time, to see if they will stay or leave.

Hey bros, it's me, the author! Ayanami finally did it! I have finally come up with the new fox mines...the dog mines. I've got a feeling that I'm not gonna get Yuudachi for a while. Well, aside from that, here's the meme of the chapter:

Wow, Azur Lane's got everything for me...I-I mean, I'm just gonna delete that...and I'll see you guys next time!