70: Chapter 70 At the Airport

A long, light gray road stretched out. Although there were guardrails on both sides, it was undoubtedly a runway for the aircraft known as 'mustangs' to take off and land.

Finn and Olena personally witnessed an aerial rotation of forces. Two large aircraft with twin propellers, similar to the ones they saw yesterday, had just taken off, while two 'mustangs' landed on the other runway.

Olena and Javelin couldn't stop Finn as he ran into the airport. Fortunately, the nearby machine gun post didn't turn toward him.

...It seemed like no one was there?

Security couldn't possibly be this lax, unless that was a dummy post.

Thinking this, Olena quickened her pace and jogged after her Commander.

From the two landed mustangs emerged two... unidentified yellow creatures?

What on earth were those?

Sensing that they didn't seem aggressive, Olena slowly came to a stop near the hangar at the end of the runway, looking back at the jogging Javelin.

"Miss Javelin, these are..."

"They're Manjuu!" Javelin casually picked one up. "They're a bit like your Construction Fairies, but ours have more functions. You can even use them for warmth or as a pillow normally."

Handed a Yellow Chicken by Javelin, Olena instinctively gave it a squeeze.

So soft and warm.

"Chuchu! QAQ"

In pain, the Yellow Chicken began to struggle, but with its short arms and legs, it couldn't escape Olena's clutches at all.

Olena immediately lightened her grip. This little fellow was indeed quite... harmless. Looking past its outfit, it was hard to imagine this was a non-human life form used for piloting aircraft.

"They... are quite different from Construction Fairies..." Olena said. "Construction Fairies can't go too far from a Ship Girl or Ship Girl-related facilities and equipment."

"I wouldn't know." Javelin had never seen these so-called Construction Fairies, so she could only scratch her head and laugh awkwardly.

Olena realized this as well. She set the Yellow Chicken down, and the Pilot Chuchu immediately scurried away to avoid this strange, large Ship Girl.

Finn had already climbed onto the wing of a P51 and was trying to figure out how to fly the plane. Before long, he climbed into the cockpit after opening the canopy.

Olena was worried and intended to stop him.

However, it was clear that despite Finn's tinkering for a long while, the plane remained completely unresponsive.

"Is it broken?" Finn scratched his head and pressed every button he could find until he pulled the trigger for the machine guns.

"Da da da da..."

Olena quickly kicked the tail of the plane, redirecting its fire toward an empty area to avoid accidental injuries, and then dragged Finn down from the aircraft.

"Warrant Officer Finn Hawke, do you have any idea what you're doing?"

Finn was reckless, but he wasn't an idiot. Knowing he had caused trouble, he performed a very thorough sliding kneel in apology.

"It's okay, it's okay..." Although she was startled at first, Javelin stepped in to plead for him. "This kind of thing is actually quite normal. As long as no one was hurt, it's fine."

This was also Li Ming's attitude: as long as no one was hurt, limited property damage was acceptable.

As it stood, the only damage was a dozen or so extra bullet holes in the hangar, which could be fixed with a bit of patching.

A Maintenance Chuchu squad had already gathered, and a Guard Chuchu came over to take a look, retreating once it saw Javelin was there.

Watching the half-person-tall Guard Chuchu carrying an automatic weapon come and go, Olena breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, let me take you to see other places!" Javelin continued her invitation. "This place was only recently built, and there are many areas even I haven't visited yet!"

"Then I'll trouble you to lead the way, Miss Javelin..." Olena replied politely, following Javelin while pinching Finn's ear with her other hand.

On the other side, at the dormitory building.

Li Ming stared at the suddenly appearing bullet holes, lost in thought.

Of course, they hadn't hit anything, but they had caused A6 to have an immediate stress reaction, and it had taken quite some effort to calm her down.

He called for the Manjuu to replace a pane of glass and clean up the bullet holes on the wall. According to the surveillance, the negotiations had also been interrupted, and a group of Ship Girls had come out to check the situation.

Li Ming also made some inquiries personally and found out that some idiot wanted to play with a plane and ended up pulling the trigger.

What could Li Ming say to that? It was a blessing that no one was hurt!

However, since they were also on their way here and considering it wasn't convenient to be discovered right now, Li Ming planned to take A6 and avoid them for a bit, wandering elsewhere.

She had to follow him to stay out of the others' sight. They first had to head to the outer harbor pier, then meet up with Z23, who was returning from a patrol circuit.

Setting the game console aside, A6 followed Li Ming out of the room. Carrying her Ship-Slaying Sword and a temporarily swapped Thompson, she left the dormitory building.

After comforting Laffey and Ayanami, Li Ming finally boarded a jeep and drove in a loop toward the outer harbor pier.

Meanwhile, the high-ranking Ship Girls at the office building, after Fujian confirmed it wasn't a major issue, lost interest in continuing the talk for now. Fujian then personally acted as a guide to show them other areas.

Li Ming drove A6 in the jeep, rattling all the way to the outer harbor pier.

"Commander! What was that gunfire just now?"

Z23 was waiting for them at the pier, with a cruiser that had just entered the port behind her.

"It was that unlucky kid Finn; he pulled the trigger on a fighter plane." Li Ming shrugged. "Don't worry about it, nothing happened."

"Ugh..." Z23's expression was complicated. Such a thing was really unprofessional... yet in a way, it seemed entirely unsurprising.

"Alright, don't think too much about it." Li Ming pulled the cute Z23 into his arms. "Let's go out and play today, and forget about everything else."

"Guh?" Flustered by the sudden sneak attack, she stammered, "Commander? This setting is a bit too..."

"There, there. What's the big deal about a Commander being a little intimate with his own Ship Girl?" Li Ming smiled.

Is this a special way of providing comfort? A6 thought to herself. Although Z23 said she didn't want it, she wasn't resisting.

Incomprehensible.

A6 gave up on thinking. She had just picked up her keyboard to play some games and repair her central processor, which had been 'baptized' by the Chinese language, only to have the idea dispelled by a sudden 12.7mm bullet.

Now she was holding the picnic basket left over from yesterday, wanting only to find a place to lie down for a while or do something that didn't require thinking.

Or perhaps...

A6 immediately held onto her hairpin.

"What are you thinking about?" Li Ming's head-pat arrived right on cue.

"Response: Not thinking." She closed her eyes, letting Li Ming muss up her hair.

"Alright then, let's go!" Li Ming walked toward the beach.

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