Chapter 140 – Ella, Buried Alive

[Bonus Chapter]

The Commander's type… it had to be the gentle, intellectual kind, right?

With that in mind, Missouri crawled off Hikaru with a pitiful expression and helped him up, brushing dust off his back like a timid little wife, apologizing non-stop.

Tirpitz had never seen the usually bold and brash Missouri act so coy and simpering—it gave her goosebumps all over. She let out a long "Ewww," and glared at Missouri with visible disgust.

Even Hikaru was struggling to deal with how overly submissive Missouri was acting. He grabbed her smooth wrist and asked, "Were you the one who attacked us just now?"

Missouri lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry… I overreacted. Everyone around me suddenly vanished and I got scared~"

Tirpitz shivered again. Great, now she was acting cute too.

"I wasn't blaming you."

Hikaru held onto Missouri's slender wrist. Her face was stunning, and honestly, he was reluctant to let go.

Unlike Yat Sen's delicate, mournful beauty—like a moon goddess—Missouri's charm had a more Western flair. It was bold and forceful, almost aggressive.

If Yat Sen was a celestial maiden, then Missouri was a queen of desire.

"Are there any other shipgirls left in the base?" Hikaru nodded toward Yat Sen. "So far we've only found the two of you."

"I haven't seen anyone else," Missouri said, her heart pounding as Hikaru held her hand. His palm is so warm… "But I don't think anyone else is here."

Yat Sen added, "With all that commotion earlier, if anyone else were around, they'd have come out already."

Hikaru's eyes swept across the ruins of the base, frowning. He pointed at Vampire and said, "But what if it was a low-level shipgirl like Vampire—wouldn't she have been buried alive by Missouri's bombardment?"

Vampire was deeply offended. "Commander, don't underestimate me! Even if I'm only level 1, I'm not getting buried by bricks that easily, okay?!"

Missouri nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! No way! The Commander's always making fun of people!"

Hikaru thought about it and agreed. It was unlikely there were shipgirls that fragile.

He was just about to ask Missouri if she knew how she ended up here when Lexington suddenly let out a surprised "Huh?" and turned toward the other side of the square.

Her aircraft hadn't been recalled yet, and now several F9F Panther jets burst from their formation, trailing rainbow contrails as they circled a pile of ruins.

With her high recon ability, Lexington tilted her head to listen. Hikaru asked, "What is it, Lexington? Did you find something?"

"There's sound coming from the rubble," she said, her ears focused while her aircraft served as her eyes and ears. "A shipgirl's voice—she's calling for help. It's one of ours."

Missouri's eyes went wide. Her face paled. "Lexington! Don't slander me!"

Lexington ignored her. With a wave of her hand, the rubble over the ruins suddenly floated upward, as if gravity had been reversed.

Missouri backed up several steps in a panic. She could see now—there really was a girl buried beneath the debris.

Did she really kill someone with that shot just now?

But that was impossible—no one in the base should be that weak! Especially since her shell's power was tightly focused, with hardly any external damage!

Hikaru rushed over, but Tirpitz was even faster, practically teleporting to the buried girl's side and pulling her up.

It was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with glasses—red-framed—and a headset. Her white uniform was now dusty and disheveled.

Seeing Hikaru, she fumbled to find her triangular naval cap and put it on. In a weak voice, she said, "Commander, what happened? I nearly died…"

Hikaru turned to Missouri, who let out a nervous laugh and hurried over to help the delicate girl to her feet.

"Oh, it's Ella. I'm sorry, I messed up with that shot and caused you all this trouble… You're not mad at me, are you?"

Ella was quite good-natured and shook her head. "No, I'm not. But… why would you fire so casually like that? You blew up the whole academy."

Hikaru picked up a bent desk lamp from the ruins and looked around at the shattered furniture. So this was the academy… completely destroyed by Missouri's blast.

The academy was where shipgirls studied special tactics. Only level 90 and above could enter, and the instructors were the three officers: Ella, Victorious, and Aurora.

[End of Chapter]

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