Missouri sobbed and sniffled for a long time, unable to get a word out.
The shipgirls began gathering around. Hikaru, still preoccupied with the missing food supplies, casually pointed at one of them.
"Ping Hai, go check the restaurant. See if the wine jars, ham, and everything else are still there."
Ping Hai and Ning Hai were sister light cruisers, both excellent cooks. The common way to tell them apart was: "Ping Hai is not level-headed, Ning Hai is."
Ping Hai looked a bit dazed. "Commander, are you hungry? But since Sister Yat Sen went to your side, we aren't supposed to touch the ingredients she prepared. We'll get scolded. She saved all that stuff just for you."
"I'm just asking you to check," Hikaru waved. "Go and come back quickly. I'm waiting for your report."
Ping Hai responded immediately, and seeing that her sister Ning Hai was also present, she grabbed her hand and dashed off.
Historically speaking, Ning Hai was a light cruiser ordered from Japan by China, while Ping Hai was built domestically based on Japanese blueprints with some modifications—strictly speaking, they weren't truly biological sisters.
But the two shipgirls Hikaru saw looked almost like twins, with only minor differences: Ping Hai wore a red cotton jacket, Ning Hai wore white, and there was a slight difference in their figures.
With scouts dispatched to investigate, Hikaru turned back to Missouri.
"Stop crying. Tell me what happened."
"What do you think happened? They were picking on me!"
Missouri silently fumed, clenching her teeth, her hand about to point to the culprits behind her.
But then a chill ran down her spine.
The real villains were already surrounding her, each of them wearing faint, quiet smiles, staring her down without a word.
So cold.
It was like falling into an icy pit—her whole body soaked in killing intent as if drenched in freezing water.
If she told the truth—if she dared to reveal their true nature in front of the Commander—they would kill her.
And the Commander wouldn't be able to save her.
Missouri shivered inwardly, then quickly forced a casual expression onto her face and said, "It's nothing, Commander. I just fell on my own."
"You fell?" Hikaru repeated, his tone sharp.
Never mind how a grown girl like her could trip inside the command room—how does a fall leave her nearly stripped bare, clothes torn to shreds?
She was obviously lying.
"I fell. They can all testify to it."
Missouri swallowed her bitterness, trying to force a smile onto her face.
A smile so pitiful that Hikaru honestly wondered if she'd been hit in the head too hard.
And the "witnesses" Missouri dragged into her lie all eagerly nodded in agreement.
Washington chimed in seriously, "She tripped over there on the carved chair. It was awful."
Vittorio Veneto took a sip of coffee. "Her clothes got snagged on the chair corner. She struggled so much, ended up looking like a mess."
Prince of Wales snorted. "Missouri is just useless. Can't even walk straight."
With Bismarck gone, these three were now the de facto leaders of the harbor's three major delinquent factions.
Their comments set the tone—other shipgirls either stayed silent or echoed them repeatedly like sycophants.
Hikaru's expression darkened. He ignored the big girls and instead looked toward the little ones.
The younger the girl, the less likely she is to lie.
From the Italian faction, a tiny angelic girl with a glowing halo—Camicia Nera—skipped forward, clearly trying to catch Hikaru's attention.
A thought struck him. Could this be the doing of Veneto, the Italian faction's big boss? He softened his tone and asked, "Camicia, is there something you want to say?"
"Commander, it wasn't Big Sis! Big Sis didn't do it, nope! Avie, right?" Camicia even dragged her sister over to back her up.
Camicia was a lively, blonde angel. Her sister, Aviere, was a shy red-haired little devil.
Her rigging looked like bat wings, with two little devil-like floating turrets orbiting her.
Under Hikaru's gaze, Aviere shyly nodded. "It's true. It wasn't Big Sis."
Snap!
A teacup shattered.
Hikaru looked over to see Vittorio Veneto tossing aside the shattered porcelain.
"This cup's quality is terrible," she said, deadpan.
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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