Elder brother's garrison

Mutsu took the mineral water from Shiro and reluctantly sipped her lips at Shiro, but did not drink it. She simply held the bottle in her hand.

“Generally speaking, even a ship girl should die on the spot from such damage while in a heavily damaged state,” Mutsu said slowly, looking down at the mineral water bottle. “But perhaps it was a stroke of luck that Shropshire, even though her injuries were so severe that she was just one step away from death, still managed to breathe her last. During Shropshire’s last moments, we searched through all the surrounding naval bases that were open, trying to find a way to treat her. But after examining Shropshire’s injuries, all the naval bases said that they were incurable. For Shropshire now, even just living is a pointless suffering. It would be better to let her go and end it all.”

"So in the end, you went to Kyoto to find the goddess of the hearth, right?" Shiro asked Mutsu.

“Hmm…” The heavy look on Mutsu’s face eased slightly when she mentioned Vestal. She smiled at Shiro and said slowly, “Vestal truly deserves to be called our savior as civilian ship girls. Even a serious illness that was sentenced to death by the regular naval base still had a chance of being saved in Vestal’s hands. In the end, after learning about our situation, Vestal used her superb medical skills, which even the military could not understand, to save Shropshire’s life from the brink of death. Although she can no longer exist in the world as a ship girl because of this, at least… she can still live and breathe. That is enough for us.”

"As expected of the goddess of the hearth," Xiaobai sighed, gently patting Mutsu's shoulder.

“So Shropshire… no, we, we sincerely thank Lady Vessel.” Mutsu said earnestly to Shiro, “Whether from the perspective of medical skills or from the perspective of a healer’s benevolence, we sincerely regard Lady Vessel as a god-like being and revere her from the bottom of our hearts.”

Xiaobai nodded and put her hand down.

“I understand about the deer… Shropshire. Thank you, Mutsu,” Shiro said to Mutsu.

"This time, the boy from Shropshire will be alright... right?" Mutsu leaned towards Shiro, gently took Shiro's hand, and asked with a hint of worry.

"Yes, we will, we definitely will." Xiaobai gently held Lu'ao's hand and nodded to her. "After all, the female hearth goddess who saved Miss Luming is right here with us. If we can save her once, we can save her a second time, right?"

Hearing Shiro's words, Mutsu's expression relaxed.

"Thank you, Admiral..."

"It's nothing, it's what I should do." Xiaobai shook her head and smiled at Lu Ao. "Alright, alright, cheer up, be as cheerful as you were at the airport. Don't let Miss Luming see your gloomy expression."

"..." Mutsu wiped his eyes and smiled at Shiro.

"Rest in my room for a while, and come out when you feel better."

"And what about the admiral?"

"I'll go check on the next room."

"Ah."

After talking with Mutsu, Shiro breathed a sigh of relief and jumped off the bed.

Xiao Bai walked out of the room, went to the room next door, and gently pushed open the door and went in.

The room next to Xiaobai's was originally empty, but now several people are staying there.

In the very center of the room, Lu Ming sat obediently in a chair.

Lu Ming's body was covered with sensors of various sizes, and next to her chair were a series of testing devices. The red and blue screens of the machines were displaying data rapidly, and Yubari, wearing a white lab coat, was squatting inside the machines, constantly adjusting them.

The goddess of the hearth squatted in front of Lu Ming's legs and carefully examined his feet using the magnifying glass that came with the ship's equipment.

No one spoke in the room, only the quiet sound of breathing and the hum of the machines.

Xiao Bai closed the door as quietly as possible and carefully walked behind the Kitchen Goddess.

After observing Lu Ming's body, the female hearth goddess sighed deeply and put down Lu Ming's bare feet.

"Hmm? Admiral? When did you arrive?" The goddess of the hearth quickly noticed Little White behind her.

"I just got here, I just got here." Xiaobai scratched his cheek, then squatted down next to the female Stove Goddess and asked cautiously, "Female Stove Goddess, how is Miss Luming now?"

"Ha... I'm not kidding, she's in a bad state right now, I mean really, extremely bad." The Vessine couldn't help but sigh again after hearing Xiaobai's words, and then said to Xiaobai as if she were complaining, "Just like I said on the phone before, the seal on the ship equipment energy in her body has cracked, and the overflowing energy is frantically destroying her fragile body."

"Is it that serious...?"

"Based on my experience, if left unattended, she will probably die in two more days."

“Two days…” Xiao Bai frowned upon hearing this and looked up at Lu Ming with concern.

Lu Ming, sitting on the chair, quickly lowered his head, like a child who had done something wrong, and dared not look Xiao Bai in the eye.

“Shropshire, look into my eyes,” the goddess of the hearth cried to the stag.

"..."

Lu Ming trembled. Her two hands, which were resting on her thighs, were tangled together in a nervous embrace. But after a short while, she obediently raised her head and cautiously looked at the female stove god.

"I think I've told you this several times before, right? What does it really mean to break the energy seal in your body..." The goddess of the hearth said to Lu Ming.

"I...I'm sorry." Lu Ming lowered his head again.

"Miss Luming had no choice but to use the ship's power to save her friends," Xiaobai explained to the goddess of the hearth.

"Ugh... my head hurts so much." The female kitchen god was speechless for a moment. She held her forehead and fell into Xiaobai's arms. "The patients completely disregard medical advice, and when something goes wrong, we doctors have to clean up their messes. This world is truly hopeless."

"Uh..." Xiaobai smiled awkwardly and gently put his arm around the goddess of the hearth.

Upon hearing the words of the female stove goddess, Lu Ming lowered his head even further.

"I really owe you all..." The goddess of the hearth glanced at Lu Ming's head, but in the end she couldn't get angry and just sighed helplessly.

"Goddess of the Stove, do you have a way to heal Miss Luming again?" Xiaobai asked the Goddess of the Stove.

“Admiral, you don’t know this,” the Vesta shook her head and said to Little White, “Do you know why I chose the method of not completely dismantling her, first sealing the energy in Shropshire’s body, and then dismantling her ship equipment?”

"...In order to prevent the overflowing ship equipment energy from destroying Miss Shikamei's body?"

“Yes.” The goddess of the hearth nodded, then said to Little White, “Do you know why, Admiral, I didn’t extract the energy from Shropshire’s body after the surgery was successful?”

"Uh...no, I don't know...why?"

"The answer is, it's not that I don't want to remove it, it's that I simply can't," the Vesta said regretfully to Little White. "After the successful surgery, Shropshire has become a real human. Her body is no longer resilient, nor does it have the energy-absorbing capacity of a ship girl. With her current physical condition, she simply cannot withstand the presence of that energy... To remove the energy from her body, the enormous energy will inevitably pass through her fragile body. Even if this process only lasts for 0.01 seconds, it will cause devastating damage to her body."

"But now the energy in her body is already dissipating."

“That spilled energy accounts for less than one percent of the total energy.” The goddess of the hearth leaned against Little White and stared straight at Deer Cry. “But even that one percent of energy is enough to send the human-state Shropshire to its death.”

"Oh..." Xiaobai bit her lip, "Then, what should we do?"

“Hmm…” The goddess of the hearth pressed on Little White’s chest and straightened up. She looked at Deer Cry seriously and said, “In the past, if I were in this situation, I could only watch helplessly as the incurable disease in Shropshire flared up…”

“You said it yourself, it was in the past…” Xiaobai looked at the Goddess of the Kitchen God with anticipation.

"Hmm... things are different now." The goddess of the hearth hummed.

"What's different?" Xiaobai asked quickly.

"Yes," the goddess of the hearth pointed to Little White, "because we have you, Admiral."

"Huh? Me?" Xiaobai was taken aback.

Chapter 2460 Xiaobai's Ship Equipment Abilities

Xiao Bai looked at the female stove god in surprise.

The goddess of the hearth replied to Xiaobai with a positive feedback emoji.

Seeing the expression on the female hearth goddess's face, Xiaobai realized something.

Since I entered the room, although the Vestal Goddess kept saying how bad and serious Luming's condition was, her mood did not seem as negative as when she mentioned retired ship girls before. The Vestal Goddess's appearance just now was less like complaining about Luming's injuries and more like looking for an opportunity to introduce Luming's condition to me.

...Could it be that the goddess of the hearth had already planned to take the stage herself?

Xiaobai realized this too late.

"Is there...is there anything I can do to help?" With that thought in mind, Xiaobai asked the female Kitchen Goddess.

"It's so convenient to talk to a smart person like you, Admiral," the goddess of the hearth said with a sigh.

"Uh..." Xiaobai glanced at Luming, scratched his cheek sheepishly, "What can I help you with?"

“Oh, is that so?” The goddess of the hearth asked Little White, “Does the admiral remember what I just told you about the current health condition of Shropshire?”

"Mm." Xiaobai nodded.

Shropshire, also known as Miss Shikamei, is currently experiencing an uncontrollable energy rampage within her. While the energy coursing through her body temporarily restores her shipgirl abilities, the lack of protection from her ship equipment is also rapidly damaging her body.

To use a metaphor to describe Lu Ming's current state, she is like a pile of firewood ignited by a raging fire. Lu Ming's ship-mounted power is the blazing flame, while her body is the fuel being rapidly consumed by the flame. The reason Lu Ming appears so energetic and healthy now is because the ship-mounted energy she releases provides her with powerful vitality. However, this dazzling vitality comes at the cost of burning her body at a rate a thousand times faster. In a sense, it is a case of a final burst of energy before death. When her body, as fuel, can no longer sustain the consumption of ship-mounted energy, Lu Ming's life will come to an end, just like the firewood that has burned out.

"Simply put, Miss Luming traded the rest of her life for a short three or four days of superhuman status, right?" Xiaobai said to the Goddess of the Hearth. "After the superhuman status ends, Miss Luming will die."

“That’s right, very appropriate.” The goddess of the hearth nodded, and continued to Little White, “Then, Admiral, have you thought about any way to heal her?”

"Hmm... Repairing the seal... probably won't work, right?" Xiaobai thought seriously for a while and asked tentatively.

"..." The goddess of the hearth shook her head.

"Then... should we give Miss Luming a ship equipment set?" Xiaobai asked again.

"Shropshire's ship equipment has already been dismantled... I did it myself." Vesta said regretfully, "Shropshire is just a human with ship girl abilities now. Putting aside the possibility that a human can install ship equipment, even if it could, it would definitely not be a matter of a day or two. Shropshire's life is now in less than two days. Given her circumstances, she simply cannot afford to wait."

"I see..." Xiaobai sighed in despair, "But if repairing the seal, installing the ship equipment, and taking the energy from her body don't work, what other way is there to save Miss Luming?"

"Hmm? Who said that taking energy from the body wouldn't work?" The goddess of the hearth looked at Little White.

"Huh? Didn't you just say that?" Xiaobai was taken aback.

"Did I say that?" The goddess of the hearth gently stroked her chin, a sly smile on her face.

“You just said that Miss Luming’s body is too fragile. If we take her energy out of her body, the huge amount of energy will inevitably pass through her body and cause devastating damage to her body,” Xiaobai said.

“I did say that,” the goddess of the hearth said with a smile, lowering her hand. “But I added a condition.”

"Prerequisites?"

"I'm talking about if I were to extract the energy from her body," the female hearth goddess said, poking her chest and staring at Little White with her big eyes. "The condition is that it's me, me."

"Huh?" Xiaobai was dumbfounded.

“If the person who took the energy from Shropshire was you, Admiral, then this becomes possible.” The Vessian moved her finger away from her own chest and gently poked Little White’s chest instead.

"Does this... vary from person to person?"

“Yes, and if I’m not mistaken, only you, Admiral, can save Shropshire,” the goddess of the hearth said with certainty.

"Only me?!" Little White opened his mouth, "Am I... am I that powerful?"

"Ahem." The goddess of the hearth closed her eyes and cleared her throat. "Admiral, you seem to know nothing about your own power."

"...?" Xiaobai asked, puzzled.

"Looks like I need to give the admiral a crash course... Let me think where to start... Hmm... First of all, admiral, you should know about the miracle of ship girls, right?" Vesta asked Shiro.

"Ship equipment skills?"

“That’s right. The miracle of ship girls is also known as a ship equipment skill.” The Vess said to Xiaobai, “It is a special ability unique to each ship girl. It is a fruit that is born when the ship equipment is developed to the limit. For example, my ship equipment skill is to heal ship girls.”

"Yes, it was a great help in Chapter 8." Xiao Bai smiled at the female hearth goddess.

"Ahem..." The goddess of the hearth quickly waved her hand, her face slightly flushed, "In short... in theory, every ship girl has unique ship equipment capabilities, and these ship equipment capabilities are not only a phenomenon that appears on ship girls, but also on deep-sea amphibious ships."

"Do Yamato and the others have them too?"

“Yes, there are.” The Vess nodded. “The Deep Sea Yamato’s ship equipment ability is to manipulate plasma, the Pachina’s ship equipment ability is to manipulate frost, the Deep Sea Musashi’s ship equipment ability is a deterrent aura, the Deep Sea Bismarck’s ship equipment ability is defensive counterattack… In short, the reason why the Deep Sea Deans became the Deep Sea Deans is because they are the final products of deep-sea life forms. As the top beings in the Deep Sea pyramid, it is only natural that they would have ship equipment abilities.”

"Oh, oh..." Xiaobai nodded.

"So, Admiral, have you thought about yourself?" Vestal asked Shiro. "Admiral, your ship equipment is also the Abyssal Dean's ship equipment, right?"

"Uh... okay, it seems so..."

"So, Admiral, what are your ship's equipment capabilities?" Vesta asked a question that the newbie had never thought about before.

"Uh... do I still have ship equipment capabilities?" Xiaobai suddenly became conflicted.

"It seems the Admiral really hasn't thought about this at all... The answer is right in front of you." Seeing Xiaobai's reaction, the Vesta sighed helplessly. "Now that things have come to this, Admiral, please don't say that you don't have ship equipment capabilities... You've used this capability hundreds and thousands of times."

At this point, the female Kitchen Goddess slowly approached Little White, leaned close to Little White's ear, and continued to speak softly.

"Admiral... your ship's equipment ability is Devouring."

The voice of the female hearth goddess emanated from Xiaobai's ear.

"My ability... is to devour?" Little White was stunned. She looked at the goddess of the hearth.

“Yes.” The Vess nodded to Little White. “Admiral, you have used your abilities countless times, haven’t you? Whether it’s the Deep Sea Yamato or the other Deep Sea Deans in the naval base, they have all had their power absorbed by you to varying degrees, including Sukhbaatar and Odin. The reason why your ship equipment is so powerful now is because the power of Sukhbaatar and dozens of Deep Sea Deans has gathered in your body.”

"So this is my ability? I... I thought everyone was the same..."

"How could that be? A normal Deep Sea Dean can at most recover energy by absorbing fragments of his own body or deep-sea metals, but that's just a means of replenishing energy. But Admiral, you devour everything indiscriminately, then refine it into the purest energy within your body before absorbing it. That's a completely different thing in principle."

"But, in my memory, I've never used this ability before..."

"Ship equipment capabilities are like breathing, an instinct. Often you don't even realize it's there," Vesta sighed to Shiro. "Honestly, I heard from the naval base that you, Admiral, love eating the Deepsea Master's Deepsea Metal. I thought you'd been aware of your abilities for a while. Are you just a glutton...?"

"Uh... this, this..." Xiaobai blushed immediately and quickly changed the subject, "So, so... I already know that my ship equipment ability is to absorb... so, so with this ability, I can heal Miss Luming?"

“That’s right!” the goddess of the hearth nodded.

"How do I do it?"

“Of course.” The goddess of the hearth gave a thumbs up and pointed to the deer sitting behind her. “Just do what you did to the other deep-sea deans, Admiral, and do it to Shropshire again.”