Elder brother's garrison

Behind Shiro, Yubari, with his fists clenched, looked at him with excitement as if he were watching a giant panda, his eyes instantly blazing with fiery passion.

"Really?! Admiral?! Is everything Missouri said true?!" Yubari excitedly stomped over, almost touching Shiro's body. She clenched her little fists, her face filled with impatience. "Missouri said that you, Admiral, can now skillfully use your ship equipment, and that it's powerful enough to one-shot ordinary Abyssal Fleet ships, becoming the ultimate weapon for rookie naval bases—a superhero who, when still, destroys the world!!!"

"Hey, Missouri isn't as bad as they say..." Yubari's enthusiasm made Shiro back down, and Shiro subconsciously took a step back.

There was a snap.

Yubari put his arm around Shiro's shoulder, panting heavily, his eyes filled with longing and pleading.

"Admiral... Admiral, please, just let me see... I... I promise I'll just rub against you... I won't do anything else, ha... ha... Admiral, I'll do anything you want, just let me see you one more time, please, just let me see you one more time... I'll agree to anything you say, ha..."

"Eek—Yubari, your statements are so strange these days!"

"Ha... because, because Admiral you are right in front of me!" Yubari's body temperature seemed to rise greatly after learning about Shiro's current situation. Yubari clung to Shiro, and the air she breathed on made Shiro's skin feel hot.

Always felt.

Seeing Yubari, the ship-equipment fanatic, in this state, even if Shiro openly rejects Yubari now, it won't work.

Xiao Bai turned around with a sad expression, looking pitifully at Missouri behind him.

"Missouri...you..."

Missouri tilted her head, covered her mouth, and slumped her shoulders, looking at Xiaobai with a rare expression of disappointment and reluctance.

"Admiral... I'm so sorry, Missouri understands what you mean, but... Missouri really can't bring herself to say anything that belittles you..." Missouri covered her mouth, lowering her head with deep apology. "Missouri was just... truthfully expressing her feelings about you, Admiral. I'm very sorry for causing you trouble..."

As Missouri spoke, her two beautiful eyes filled with glistening tears, as if she had been wronged.

—You've already gone this far, how could Xiaobai bear to say anything more about Missouri?

Shiro turned his head and looked at Yubari, whose eyes were pounding with excited pink hearts and who was moving closer to his face at a speed of millimeters per second. After hesitating for a few seconds, Shiro could only sigh helplessly.

"Okay, okay, I'll show it to you, Yubari, alright?"

"Ah! Thank you, Admiral! Thank you, Admiral!!" Upon hearing Shiro's promise, Yubari was so excited that she almost jumped up from Shiro's body.

Yubari pulled a notebook from his white lab coat, finally released Shiro's arm, and took a few steps back.

"Admiral, you can summon your ship equipment now!"

Yubari said to Shiro while breathing out warm air.

Missouri's Iowa, along with the other onlookers, all wisely stepped back several paces, making room for Xiaobai.

Xiao Bai glanced around at the ship girls who had been taken over from Duan Shuiliu's family.

The ship girls of Duan Shuiliu's family seem to have a strong sense of belonging to the newbie naval base, perhaps due to some actions by Brother Xiaobai and Duan Shuiliu himself. In the past few days, while spending time with Xiaobai, they have been told some secrets about the newbie naval base because they are going to become a family. They have seen the newbie naval base now being used as a marriage ship, Abyssal Yamato, and learned that their new admiral is a little monster with combat power that surpasses that of ship girls.

However, while they may know this, Xiaobai isn't the kind of girl who flaunts her ship rigging every day. She only uses her ship rigging occasionally when absolutely necessary. So, let alone them, even many veteran ship girls in the newbie naval base haven't actually seen Xiaobai's ship rigging in person yet.

At this moment, the ship girls were filled with curiosity as they got a glimpse of the ship's equipment of this "perverted admiral".

"Speaking of which...shouldn't we still be testing the Iowa ship with the equipment right now...?" Shiro looked at Yubari.

"It's okay, we can do that later!" Yubari gave a thumbs up and looked at Iowa not far away. "Is that alright?"

"I'm fine." Iowa smiled sweetly.

Since the person involved has said so, Xiaobai has no way to deny it anymore.

Xiao Bai hugged his arm, and with a thought, a burst of snow-white cold air instantly emanated from around him. With a loud bang, a fortress-like crystal ship crashed to the ground and took root steadily on the concrete ground outside the harbor.

The last time Yubari saw Shiro's ship equipment was when Shiro couldn't operate it at all, and in some ways even thought it was cumbersome and like a ticking time bomb. Back then, Shiro's ship equipment was simply a land-based ship equipment at the level of an Abyssal Dean, and its scale and strength were far less exaggerated than Shiro's ship equipment now, which is empowered by the will of the Abyss and has been acquired by all the heroes of the Abyss.

The icy, solidified fortress landed behind Xiaobai. Azure flames raged and burned on the crystal-colored hull of the ship's rigging. The land-based rigging remained its previous pale blue, but beneath its transparent shell, a refreshing and elegant rainbow-like light reflected sunlight like electronic patterns, shimmering brilliantly within the rigging.

Yu Zhang stared wide-eyed at the ship's rigging behind Xiao Bai, completely dumbfounded.

As a ship girl, especially one who specializes in researching ship equipment, she can naturally sense many things that humans cannot.

The changes to Xiaobai's ship equipment in appearance are actually not significant.

However, in Yubari's eyes, when Shiro summoned the ship's equipment this time and displayed its state without any concealment, Yubari felt a sense of shock, like seeing a top bodybuilder apply lubricant, step onto the stage, and tense up a terrifyingly powerful physique.

Yubari hurriedly ran to Shiro's side, nervously wiping her hands on her clothes several times before carefully extending her finger and gently tracing it across Shiro's ship rigging.

"Admiral...you...you didn't secretly modify the ship's equipment behind our backs, did you?" Yubari murmured as she asked.

"Huh? No, no..."

"Then Admiral, your ship's equipment... how come it has changed so much?" Yubari stared intently at the rainbow patterns under Shiro's ship's equipment, and as she spoke, drool dripped uncontrollably from the corners of her mouth.

"Uh...that's a long story..." Xiaobai chuckled awkwardly, "I occasionally, sometimes, try eating a little bit of deep-sea metal..."

"Pica??"

"No, I eat normal food just fine," Xiaobai quickly explained.

"Oh..." Yubari nodded, stroking Shiro's ship rigging as she pondered, "The Admiral's body is connected to the ship rigging. In a sense, this ship rigging can be understood as the Admiral's body. The energy contained in the deep-sea metal that the Admiral consumed... was all transferred into the ship rigging, and it strengthened the ship rigging to a certain extent... Hmm, that's interesting. It feels like it could be considered a breakthrough in the ship girl's abilities, but the conversion rate is a bit... Admiral, what kind of deep-sea metal did you consume?"

"Uh...not much, not much..."

Which ones?

"So... there are four or five or six fully-formed Deep-Sea Dean Metals, and over a hundred relatively inferior mass-produced Deep-Sea Dean Metals..."

"..." Yubari.

Yubari stared at Shiro with an incredulous expression.

Even for a top-tier researcher like her, a fully formed deep-sea dean metal is an extremely rare resource that is hard to come by normally. Whenever such a high-level resource is needed, it is necessary to report to higher-ups, submit reports layer by layer, be challenged by staff one by one, and then wait for a full forty-nine days before a small slice can be obtained.

—Our naval base is rich, but Yubari had no idea that during his absence, the naval base was so rich that it was giving the admiral top-quality material, Deep Sea Deity Metal, as food.

Such a waste!

What's wrong with the women in the naval base? Don't they care about the admiral?

Then again.

Even if you could afford a fully-equipped Deepsea Dean Metal, it would be priceless and unavailable. Where did you, Admiral, get so many Deepsea Deans?

"Admiral, you..." Yubari, her face flushed red, looked at Shiro with a pained expression, "How, how could you..."

"Oh, right, speaking of which, Yubari, you're a researcher, right? Speaking of which, I have a lot of Deep-Sea Deity Metal here. Although it's not as good as those fully formed Deep-Sea Metals, if you don't mind, I can give it to you as research material. I have plenty, so feel free to take it." Shiro finally remembered Yubari's profession and turned to Yubari to say this.

"...How could you be so brilliant?!" Yubari was moved to tears.

Chapter 1244 Rome is poised to become a new source of damage.

Having received Shiro's promise, Yubari, who inexplicably obtained tons of research materials that she wouldn't normally have access to, finally felt relaxed and could continue observing Shiro's ship equipment.

Winter is approaching and the temperature is quite low, but Xiaobai's ship equipment still exudes a thick, snow-white chill, proving that the temperature of Xiaobai's ship equipment is much lower than the temperature of approaching winter.

Yubari didn't mind the cold air emanating from Shiro's ship rigging at all. Just like when she first met Shiro, she happily ran around Shiro's ship rigging. Whenever she saw a corner that caught her attention, she would open her notebook and quickly take notes, occasionally muttering things like "Good, good, wonderful, wonderful!" or "Oh, this streamlined shape, this color, so... so cool!"

Xiaobai didn't quite understand why her very proper ship equipment had become a synonym for Seijin in Yubari's eyes.

Perhaps in the eyes of a researcher whose mind is full of machines and gears, these mechanical things really do have a special charm.

Yubari circled around Shiro, looking at it for almost half an hour.

Xiaobai stood there with her arms crossed, not only watching Yubari excitedly running around her like she was admiring a work of art, but also enjoying the unabashed observations of the ship girls from the Duan Shuiliu family. As time went on, Xiaobai felt her face burning and gradually began to feel overwhelmed.

"Yu...Yubari...Aren't you done yet...?"

"Give me a little more time!"

"How long will it take..."

"It will be quick, probably in about twenty hours!"

"..." Xiaobai was stunned for a moment, then quickly waved her hand and shook her head, "No, no, that's too long. I have a lot of things to do. I can't stay with you, Yubari, for that long!"

Yubari, who was holding the notebook, trembled and looked at Shiro with heartache.

"Well... alright then." Surprisingly, Yubari was quite understanding of Shiro's predicament. When Shiro expressed that she had other things to do, Yubari didn't press the matter further, but reluctantly put away her notebook. "But Admiral... is a little... no, half an hour okay?"

"Well, that's no problem..." Xiaobai nodded.

Yubari breathed a sigh of relief, put away her notebook, and looked at Shiro: "In short, Admiral, I've only scratched the surface of your ship's equipment and its current state."

"Hmm...and then what?"

“Well, since Missouri said your ship equipment is unbeatable, Admiral… well, since I have all the testing equipment now…” Yubari pointed to the testing instruments scattered on the ground, “let me have my way with this, and collect some data while I’m at it—don’t worry, Admiral, I will keep your data safe and I will never let anyone else see it. I guarantee it with my career!”

"..." Xiaobai looked at the confident Yubari and sighed helplessly, "Hmm... alright, then half an hour, how do we test it?"

Yubari showed a touched expression upon seeing Shiro nod so readily.

"Since we're short on time, we'll skip the regular tests and go straight to the final test, which is very simple!"

"Hmm, how do I measure it?"

"fight!"

"Oh... um?? Wait, what does that mean..."

"Fight!!" Yubari pointed an excited finger at the group of ship girls from the Duan Shuiliu family behind Shiro, "Take on ten of them!!"

"……"noob.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The afternoon sun shone brightly at the newbie naval base.

Two figures, one white and one green, walked one after the other on the road leading to the training ground.

"Big Sister, no! I just got home! I haven't even had a chance to say a few words to the Empire! Can't we just rest today...?" Rome sat on the ground, being dragged along the ground by the back of her collar by a white figure. "Waaah, Big Sister, no! The Empire's shops haven't been tidied up yet... At least let us tidy up the shops, have some dinner, and then go to training..."

Rome is trying to communicate with the white-haired woman who is dragging it forward.

But no matter how desperately Rome shouted, how emotionally charged, or how desperately he cried, the white-haired figure dragging Rome with one hand kept his head down, looking at the note in his other hand without any reaction, and didn't say a word the whole way.

"Big Sister! Big Sister! No! Please pay attention to me!" Roma cried and fussed on the ground for a while. After realizing that Veneto behind her was not swayed at all, she suddenly felt a little unmotivated. She stopped crying and turned her head to look at Veneto.

"Hmm?" Veneto looked up, glancing back at Rome behind her. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something. What did you say?"

"..." Roma looked embarrassed. She glanced at the note in Veneto's hand. "Ah, boss, are you looking at the note the admiral left in the shop?"

When Roma suddenly pointed out what she was doing, Veneto was taken aback. She instinctively pulled her hand back, but after seeing the ring on her hand, she coughed lightly and straightened her back.

"Yes."

"Ah~ speaking of which, this is the first time the Admiral has invited us to her house." Roma saw the smug expression on her sister's face, chuckled, and covered her mouth, saying, "Could it be that, Big Sister, you're looking forward to it?"

“It’s just a wedding ship visiting the admiral’s house. It’s a normal thing. What’s there to expect?” Veneto closed her eyes.

"But you were just looking down at the note, you seemed really engrossed."

“I need to carefully check the note the admiral left me so as not to miss any information,” Veneto said matter-of-factly. “And Rome, I don’t recall raising you to be such a gossip-loving kid. Double the training tonight.”

"Huh??? This has become a reason to double down?! Big sister, no way! At least pick a plausible reason!"

"The weather is very sunny today, so we've doubled our training."

"Boss, no way! Why is the weather a reason to double the training volume?!"

"You look so energetic, you must have a lot of energy. Let's double the training."

"Help! I'm going to die, I'm really going to die—"

"boom"

Just as Rome and Veneto were having a heartwarming interaction as sister ships, a thunderous roar, like a tsunami, suddenly came from the training ground.

Veneto and Roma, who were chatting, were both taken aback.

The two turned their heads, and at the training ground, which was still quite a distance apart from each other, a thick, rainbow-colored beam of light was rising from the ground with a huge wave, carrying the momentum of a tsunami, and instantly soaring into the sky.

Veneto and Roma were stunned for less than a second.

"Something's happening at the training ground! Roma, follow me!" Veneto quickly released Roma's collar and sprinted towards the training ground.

"Understood!!" Roma slammed his hand on the floor, springing up like a spring and quickly catching up with Veneto.

Veneto and Roma rushed to the training ground with lightning speed.

Having just experienced the tsunami, a light drizzle has begun to fall on the training ground.

Upon arriving at the training ground, Veneto and Roma saw Yubari squatting amidst a large array of brightly lit testing instruments near the shore, excitedly operating the instruments while munching on sugar cookies from the Imperial Bookstore.

Near Yubari, Missouri and Iowa each held an umbrella, gazing at the sea. They would occasionally turn their heads to smile and chat, nodding occasionally, seemingly having a very good relationship.

Looking out to sea from the direction of Missouri and Iowa.

Not far away on the sea, Xiaobai was all alone on the water. Around her, the ship girls who had just joined the newbie naval base were lying on the water one by one, their clothes tattered and large areas of skin exposed. They were either unconscious or lying on the water, with bewildered expressions of deep shock.