Teta Nakamura, Commander in the Kusari Naval Forces by now, was standing in front of the door to her father's flat. Waiting after having sounded the bell, she realized that it feels weird to visit home after such a long time without bringing a proper gift. Teta had decided against it earlier, as she expected her father, who worked for the Kusari State Police long enough, to interpret it as an attempt of bribery. And she only now realized, that this actually was the very purpose of it... But there was no turning back now, as she had promised Jiro to clean up this mess as well, if that was even possible, in her opinion.
To her surprise, it was not her father, but her uncle who opened the door: "Hello Teta-chan.", as he still called her to her surprise, "It has been a long time since we last met." He bowed short and invited her inside. "Ah... hello, Kiyomasa Oji-sama. I... did not expect you. Why are you here?", Teta asked, looking at her uncle in confusion. "Well, you know, Teta-chan, when your father got your message about visiting home, he did not hesitate to tell me about it. And so I decided to drop by... you know, he sounded..." Her uncle raised his hand before his mouth to speak to her in a hushed tone: "He sounded quite happy about it. Well, as happy as he sounds." Realizing her uncle's intentions, she started to smile at him: "Hai, it is very nice to meet you again, Oji-sama."
Stepping into the flat, she put her bag and shoes aside. "Hideyoshi is already waiting in the living room.", her uncle told her, "Do not let him wait." So she took a deep breath before stepping into the living room. Her father was sitting on the floor in front of the table, looking towards the door Teta just entered through. Taking a glimpse of his face before bowing deeply, she realized that he was looking older than last time, but had not lost any of his usual strict expression. After remaining bowed for a moment, her father finally started to speak in a calm manner: "I greet you, my daughter." She knew he prefered to avoid her name, and after hearing this, Teta raised again to answer respectfully: "Otou-sama." Her father reached his arm towards the other side of the table: "Please have a seat." She bowed at him thankfully before sitting down on the table as well. Her uncle also took a seat, acting far more distanced than before.
There was a brief moment of silence, while Teta's father was examining her more closely. During this time, a lot of things went through her head: will he scold her for not coming home for so long, or for the demotion thing? Will he at least slightly praise her for doing a good job at the Naval Forces otherwise, or will he only ask when she would find a husband. Or will he maybe have news on the possible whereabouts of her mother, among other things that concerned her a lot.
"How have you been, my daughter?" he finally continued. "I am fine, Otou-sama. And I have always been trying to do my best for Kusari in the Naval Forces." She had decided to mention this topic to maybe get the most troublesome part early on. But instead of seeing him visibly burn up with anger, as she knew him from earlier days, he only nodded calmly, much to her surprise. "Just recently, I have been promoted into the middle command ranks.", she continued, wondering if he would finally start to object to this. But he only nodded again. This made Teta feel uneasy, as she expecting him to only no longer show how angry he was now. So she decided to not mention her mother or a certain Jiro for now.
With this, another moment of silence occured. "Your room still is as you left it, my daughter." he told her. Taking this as an invitation to retreat for a moment, she thanked him and returned to her room, hoping to be able to speak maybe a little more casually with them later.
After Teta disappeared into her room, the two Nakamura brothers were looking at each other. Hideyoshi, uncertain what to think about his daughter's quick retreat yet, asked Kiyomasa: "Do you see? Her upbringing did serve a good purpose. She, at least, knows how to act properly." Teta's uncle knew from how his brother put emphasis on the words, that he was refering to his former wife, Teta's mother, who would not know how to act properly. In Hideyoshi's eyes, that woman was spoiled through and through, not only by being half Libertonian, but also by the generally bad influences of a place called Liberty, for him only a hoard of indecency. And so he was generally putting all the blame on Liberty, not only for his wife eventually leaving him over night and never being heard of again.
With this, uncle Kiyomasa added: "Yes, I would be happy if my daughters Saki and Shino would be a little more like your Teta. You know, it is especially bad with Shino. I have no control over her anymore, anyway...", he said with resignation. They both agreed that if anybody was to blame for a bad upbringing, it was usually the mother. So the uncle continued: "We are truely cursed to both only have daughters..." They nodded at each other in understanding, and Hideyoshi added: "I wonder what will become of our Nakamura name."
Later that day, Teta tried to ask her uncle if there, by chance, were any news about her mother, but since she left so long ago, there was not much to expect. So the answer of her uncle was the same as always.
In the evening, when the uncle had already left and they were sitting together for dinner without any word, her father Hideyoshi addressed a certain topic: "Well, how much longer do you intend to remain in the Naval Forces?", as he would prefer to see her as a proper wife rather than a military pilot. "Well.", she answered to this not unexpected question, "I was not yet planning on leaving, Otou-sama." She remembered the deal they made, and about her time running out, but she really did not plan on settling down any moment earlier. "So you want to wait until the very last, I see.", he answered, understanding her correctly. They both knew it would be this way.
Wanting to take this chance to inquire about a possible second candidate as well, she could not see a way to do it. Any mention of Jiro surely would make her father believe something indecent was going on, and that would invalidate everything. So she was fidgeting with her feet all the time, but remained silent in the end.
Not entirely as expected, her whole visit at home turned out rather quietly, and she was not really sure if her father was content or just hiding his true opinion for now. The possibility, that her father was hoping for her next visit not to be years from now again, and hence being less obnoxious, seemed rather unlikely to her. In the end, she left home only with an unusual image of her father, that made her wonder if he was just getting old there, and a list of items she found around the house, which appeared to be to the liking of her father, with the intention of forwarding these finds to someone...
In a different part of Kusari, surrounded by walls of steel, a woman in black robes, the hood covering her head, was busy talking into the intercom:
"... hai, and he said that his name would only be the 'Ningyoutsukai', and that he likes to meet with you as well."
Hearing this, the person on the other side took a short pause to ponder on what has been said, only to answer calmly: "I see. Please proceed with your report."
The woman continued eagerly: "Regarding that embargo of the newest puppet government, we are making sure the Gas Miners are able to continue shipping through the southern regions, unseen of Samurai eyes, even supporting or sheltering them if necessary. We also tried to convince our friends in Liberty to partake in the operations. They did seem to be interested."
"This is good to hear. Liberty is reknown for being rather forceful in opening trade, so we should not give them reasons. What about your current assignement?"
Clearing her throat audibly, she continued in an apologetic tone: "As it turns out, they were already aware of their spy having been uncovered, so it was not possible to use those codes anymore to extract the requested information."
"I see."
Becoming all excited again, the woman then continued: "But, logging into their joint network, I came about an unusual one, who was the only one oddly aware of my true nature. That one was also talking in an unusal dialect, knowing more than should be possible. So, I believed it was better to disappear from there early. And I wonder what it is about that one, and maybe we should..."
The woman continued on with giving her report to the person on the other end, who would most of the time be listening quietly.
Ordered to appear in front of her superior officer, Teta Nakamura entered his office, wondering what this would be about, since no topic was given beforehand.
She saluted to the captain in front of her, who had also stood up from the chair behind his desk to return the salute: "Commander Teta Nakamura at your service, Captain." The captain offered the seat in front of his desk to her with a gesture of his arm, before slowly taking place himself again. So she sat down, waiting what the Captain would have to say.
"Commander...", he started, pronouncing her rank like in disgust, "Nakamura, right." He took a pause to inspect her more closely for a while, seeing her rising confusion with satisfaction.
"Let us be frank, Nakamura-san: I... am sure you are a valuable asset for the Naval Forces, and we are honored to have you with us." Despite his words, he sounded, not without intention, completely indifferent while saying this. "But", as his voice took a very sharp tone, "your performance as of late seems to be severly lacking, and you are not showing the skill we would expect of someone with your rank, and your responsibility."
His words shocked Nakamura, as she would have not believed it to be like this. Surely, with the overwhelming amount of threats to Kusari as of late, there was no battle to be clearly won. And about the subordinates of her who preferred not following her orders, she always assumed that they would only be a result of the generally low morale, resulting in this unruly behavior. But as the Captain blamed her, she started to believe it must partially be her fault.
Since the Captain again took a dramatic pause, she decided to speak: "But we are currently understaffed and..." The Captain interrupted her sentence: "This is not the time for making excuses, Nakamura! Exactly because of this, the Naval Forces are in need of competent officers right now, capable of taking command." He took another moment to watch the desperation showing from her expression. "And, you see, Nakamura-san, this is why I say: a woman, like you, should not have become Commander right now, and I urge you to fill in a request to be transfer to a different position, and to resign from your current rank."
The Captain looked at her insistently with a serious expression on his face, waiting for an answer. Intimidated by him, Nakamura did not know what to say at first, but decided to not give in this quickly, taking heart from the fact that Jiro was there to support her. "Ca-Captain, I just recently started in this new assignment. And, I am certain that soon..."
Seeing that Nakamura was still talking back, he interrupted her again: "Nakamura-san... Nakamura-san.", he repeated in a presumptuous tone while shaking his head, before folding his hands in front of his face, "You see... there is more: a very aspiring officer from your wing reported me, in detail, about you... and Taiyouji san. I am sure you understand that a person with the rank of yours is far more likely to have... private matters made public. Do I need to continue?"
His approach left her entirely downhearted, as she began to understand his motivations more clearly. While forming a 'But...' with her mouth, she could not give any voice to it. Realizing that the Captain had her cornered, she looked down in defeat.
Seeing her like this, the Captain asked her in a satisfied tone: "I hope to have your request on my desk soon. And please keep in mind that this conversation was confidential."
With that, the Captain stood up again, raising his arm towards the door: "So, have a good day, Nakamura-san.", while smiling at her confidently. Teta was still sitting in her chair vacantly, as she realized the Captain was already about to throw her out again. She slowly raised while stuttering "Ha-Hai...", before weakly saluting at the Captain to keep up appearances, what he returned, still smiling.
Teta then turned to leave the room. Once outside, she had to lean against the wall, because her body felt all numb, as much as she herself felt helpless at this moment. Turning her face towards the wall to hide her miserable expression, and her tears, she had to rest for a while. Thrown between anger and sadness, she did not know what to do anymore. She could not even talk to Jiro about it, not because of the confidentiality, but because he might feel guilty for it, given the circumstances.
Returning to her room, she quietly started to write her note of resignation and the request to be transferred, at least hoping to not meet the Captain again.