Edge of Blackening

Port.

Heavy Sakura Dormitory Area, outside Taiho's room.

Two figures, with numerous fox tails behind them, stood outside the room, looking through the half-open window at Taiho inside.

"Lady Shinano, as you can see, Taiho isn't doing very well right now..."

Amagi's voice was gentle, tinged with worry, as she spoke to the large white fox beside her, Shinano.

Shinano listened to Amagi while observing Taiho's condition within the room.

Shinano had been asleep, trying to find the Commander's whereabouts in her dreams. It was Amagi who had woken her and brought her here directly. Therefore, Shinano was still in a daze.

After rubbing her sleepy eyes to clear her vision, Shinano looked at Taiho, who was clearly enveloped in a faint black aura, and sighed.

"You summoned me here because you want me to help Taiho enter a dream state to alleviate her current condition, correct?"

"That's right, Lady Shinano."

Amagi nodded, not disagreeing with Shinano's statement. That was indeed her intention.

"The method of entering dreams can indeed alleviate Taiho's condition, but it can only alleviate it."

"To completely resolve Taiho's current situation, we need to find the Commander as soon as possible!"

Shinano's voice was ethereal, but Amagi could clearly hear that Shinano was also very worried about the Commander. As married ship girls, their concern for the Commander was no less than anyone else's!

Amagi nodded again. She understood that without the Commander's return, Taiho's condition wouldn't be easily reversed.

"Princess Lala is currently trying to locate the signal from the Commander's game production machine, but there's no news yet. We suspect it's because Akashi doesn't know the specific circumstances of the world they're in, and for safety, the game production machine has been temporarily shut down. So, it might take some time to make contact!"

Shinano listened to Amagi's explanation and nodded.

"I couldn't find the Commander in my dreams either. What about the Eastern Faction's situation?"

Amagi sighed and shook her head at Shinano.

Over at the Eastern Faction, Huan Chang attempted to confirm the Commander's location through divination, but unfortunately, it seems that because it's across worlds, the hexagrams did not show where the Commander is. However, it wasn't without results. After realizing the hexagrams couldn't show the Commander's location, Huan Chang tried to infer the Commander's condition from indirect calculations.

"Was it successful?"

"Yes, there were results! Although they couldn't confirm the Commander's current location, Huan Chang confirmed through the hexagrams that the Commander will safely return to the port later!"

"Safely return to the port?"

Shinano repeated the conclusion, a hint of relief in her voice.

"That's good! As long as the Commander can safely return to the port, I'll be at ease!"

After getting a general understanding of the progress in finding the Commander, Shinano turned her attention back to Taiho.

"Did you not tell Taiho about Huan Chang's divination results?"

Amagi first nodded, then shook her head and sighed.

"After telling Taiho these things, she did have a moment of clarity, but... very quickly, she fell back into this state."

"It seems that because Princess Lala's invention mistakenly transferred the Commander to another world, Taiho currently doesn't quite trust Princess Lala's judgment. She also believes Huan Chang's conclusions are meant to deceive her... In short... she needs to see the Commander with her own eyes!"

"Sigh, Taiho's feelings for the Commander are quite unhealthy. When the Commander was here, Taiho was relatively normal, but after the Commander disappeared, this feeling..."

"I understand! I'll go in and talk to Taiho first!"

Amagi nodded, opened the door to Taiho's room, and stepped aside, making way for Shinano.

"Commander..."

As Shinano entered the room and approached Taiho, she heard Taiho softly murmuring the Commander's name repeatedly.

As if from calling out to the Commander without any response, the faint black aura around Taiho deepened with each utterance.

Shinano sighed and looked at Taiho, her ethereal, gentle voice speaking.

"Taiho, the Commander is fine and will return safely soon!"

"Commander... return safely?"

"The Commander is back?!"

As if hearing a keyword, Taiho's listless eyes gradually regained some color, and she turned to look at Shinano. However, after looking around Shinano and not seeing her Commander, Taiho's eyes dulled again.

"The Commander isn't back! You're all lying to me, you're all keeping me from seeing the Commander..."

As she muttered, a faint blood-red light flickered in Taiho's pupils.

Seeing this, Amagi outside hurried in and went to Shinano's side, just in case of any accidents.

Something in Taiho's words seemed to bother Shinano. She frowned and looked at Amagi, asking.

"What did Taiho mean when she said you were all keeping her from seeing the Commander?"

Amagi looked at Taiho and softly explained to Shinano.

"I guess Taiho might feel that way for two reasons."

"The Commander has been very tired lately... Lady Shinano, you should understand, right?"

Shinano's fair cheeks flushed slightly at the words, and she nodded at Amagi. She certainly understood; after all, she herself had contributed to the Commander's exhaustion. But she couldn't be blamed entirely, who told the Commander to like hugging her tails... fox tails were very sensitive!

"I know, so, is Taiho's condition related to this?"

"Somewhat!"

Amagi looked at Taiho, recalling the scene from yesterday.

"Taiho has a private collection room, does Lord Shinano know about it?"

Shinano nodded.

"I, have seen it in my dreams!"

"Then Lord Shinano should also know what is collected in Taiho's collection room!"

"I know, they are all things the Commander has used."

Amagi nodded, looking at Taiho, and continued.

"This collection room was found by Princess Momo! And then Akagi and Loon found it too! Princess Momo, after sensing their attitudes towards the Commander, decided to make them the first batch of members for her mysterious plan. These members also include Miss Mogador and Miss Scylla..."

"What plan?"

Shinano frowned, looking at Amagi.

"I'm not sure. Based on our deductions, it's highly likely to be about having more ship girls in the port who haven't yet become married ship girls make a vow with the Commander..."

Shinano's brow relaxed upon learning that the plan was harmless to the Commander.

Actually, it wasn't entirely harmless, considering the Commander's physical condition...

"This plan... was stopped by Belfast, who had long sensed it, due to the Commander's physical condition!"

"The Head Maid of the Royal is indeed perceptive!"

Shinano nodded.

"The problem lies here."

"Akagi later told me that they had already agreed on how to allocate their time, saying they would go find the Commander after the meeting..."

Amagi coughed lightly, not mentioning the unspeakable things Akagi had told her at the time.

"...Well, to make it a done deal."

Using a more euphemistic phrase to help Shinano understand, Amagi continued her explanation.

"But... they were stopped by us before their meeting even concluded!"

"This might be the first reason for Taiho's current mindset..."

Shinano nodded, looking at Taiho, then turned to Amagi and asked, "Then... what's the second reason?"

"The second reason is probably... the key to the Commander's office..."

Shinano frowned upon hearing Amagi's words.

"What about the key to the Commander's office?"

"Taiho has always wanted to get her hands on the key to the Commander's office... but, she hasn't obtained it yet. However, yesterday, Princess Lala casually took it out of her pocket... Perhaps this was the trigger..."

Shinano blinked, looking somewhat confused. It wasn't that she didn't understand why Taiho would "blacken" over this, but rather...

"Isn't that key... easily obtainable?"

As Shinano spoke, she prepared to take out the key she always carried from the pocket of her robe. Not just the office key, she also had the Commander's bedroom key...

However, considering Taiho's situation, Shinano decided against taking out the key.

"That key is indeed very easy to obtain! After all... the unpainted prototype of the Commander's office key has been secretly circulating within the port! But..."

Amagi hesitated for a moment, looking at Shinano, who, due to spending most of her time in dreams, was unaware of certain special circumstances in the port. Amagi pursed her lips and finally leaned closer to Shinano's ear, whispering.

"The Golden Deer, under sail, did something that forced us to make some decisions."

"What happened?"

Shinano was a bit puzzled.

"The Golden Deer is also one of the Commander's married ship girls, but the Commander has many married ship girls, so we assigned shifts. But... that day, the Golden Deer... it seemed to have seen that other married ship girls had succeeded, while her own future seemed distant. So, she couldn't help herself and took the key, directly entering the Commander's office... in front of the secretary ship Queen Elizabeth and the Head Maid, she... the Commander..."

Amagi's face flushed slightly.

"And then?"

"Then, the Head Maid, under the pretext that such a scene would tarnish the Queen's glory, sent Queen Elizabeth, who was watching with envy and wanted to join but was embarrassed because the Commander hadn't given her a ring, out of the office. It is said that Queen Elizabeth left with a very sour expression that day, and the Head Maid and the Golden Deer likely didn't leave the office until over three hours later. As for the Commander... the Commander was carried back by the Head Maid."

"After that day, Queen Elizabeth decisively had the office door changed to a new lock. As a result... the Golden Deer seemed to have developed a strange habit after doing it for the first time. When the key couldn't open the door, she directly chopped it down with an axe."

"Then she repeated the previous operation. This time, Queen Elizabeth was still sent out by the Head Maid."

Shinano seemed to understand something.

"So, the reason the Commander's office door was replaced with that special alloy is because of this?"

Amagi nodded.

"That's right. Starting from that day, Warspite was also transferred over by an enraged Queen Elizabeth and has been guarding the office door ever since, absolutely refusing to let anyone else in."

"After those two incidents, the Commander was recuperating for two days. The married ship girls who were supposed to be on duty during those two days complained about the Golden Deer in the married ship girls' group chat."

"Because of this incident, the whereabouts of the Commander's office key have been strictly controlled. The flagships of each faction, as well as the eldest sisters of each faction's married ship girls, are all taking this matter very seriously."

"Besides the office, the Commander's bedroom is also heavily guarded. The door to the Commander's bedroom has been replaced, and the windows have also been replaced. They're all specially made. I won't even mention the door; brute force won't work on it. As for the window in the bedroom, it can be opened for ventilation, but the gap once it's open... absolutely no one can get in from the outside through that window!"

"Among those who are being particularly watched are Taiho and Akagi. Both are considered potential 'dangerous elements'."

"After all, if they were to get their hands on the key... and if they were to do what the Golden Deer did again... the port might end up with two Queen Elizabeth META's!"

Amagi sighed again, lamenting.

"That gray mold circulating was a hidden item from Akashi. After all, the new main door for the Commander's office was sold to Queen Elizabeth by Akashi. To prevent Akashi from selling the gray mold of the key to Taiho and the others, Lord Yamato had Lord Cloud Immortal and Lord Musashi talk to Akashi several times! It was only after Akashi repeatedly guaranteed them that they didn't dispose of those gray molds."

(In Tiger贲's voice lines, she tells the Commander that the gray mold for the office key has been circulating in secret.

In the Golden Deer's skin, she holds an axe and says in her voice lines that the axe is for breaking down the door when the office key cannot be found.

In the cruise ship story, the door to the Commander's bedroom on the ship is specially made. It's said to be for safety.

In Bremerton's secret message: Bremerton, disguised as Santa Claus, gets stuck in the window. The Commander explains that the bedroom window is specially made for safety.

Regarding the two instances of safety mentioned above, it is not commented on which aspect of safety or whose safety is being referred to.

Additionally, Yamato is not currently implemented, not even having a character illustration. However, she is present in the current story. It's probably similar to Enterprise META; she's always in the story, but they just keep you hanging and don't implement her.)