A Bulldog's Legacy (USS Oregon in Azur Lane)

Chapter 5: The Azur Lane

As the group made their way to the main Azur Lane base, Oregon took time to examine his ship. To his silent surprise he found that his ship's old rooms and facilities had been renovated to be up-to-date with the current times.

A small but comfy and complete galley,  a couple of well-furnished rooms, clean and organized engine and boiler rooms. In general his ship had just about all the facilities a more modern ship had, all hidden under the guise of a pre-dreadnought battleship.

The bridge had the latest equipment, including a medium-range radar, sonar, a fancy ship's compass, etc.

Of course Oregon hid his surprise from his companions, since it would be obviously suspicious if he didn't know what his ship had.

"Guess that woman didn't lie when she said she could upgrade me," he thought to himself. "I'm impressed."

He was successfully able to convince the shipgirls that his ship had previously been upgraded like this but without mentioning that a Godlike deity was behind it.

Most of the shipgirls were curious to know Oregon's backstory, or why he ran on steam and coal rather than liquid fuel. Hornet was privately wondering why he just so "happened" to show up when he did and why he chose to save her.

"Don't worry about all that now. I'll explain everything once we arrive at your base," he would reply when asked.

The trip to their base took around a day since Oregon wasn't the fastest ship. However, he made up for the slow trip by conducting tours of his ship and showing off his actually impressive cooking skills.

The quality of his foods made many of the girls concerned that he knew so much about cooking. It also made them reconsider investigating the culinary field.

But eventually the group drew near to Azur Lane. Enterprise had radioed that she and Cleveland had managed to find Hornet's fleet and that they were returning with a new ship, so they were expected.

Oregon paused at the entrance to the harbor to let his passengers off to summon and dock their ships, and also because privately he didn't feel completely welcome yet.

Prince of Wales and a few ships from both the Royal Navy and Eagle Union were waiting at the docks.

"Wales! We're back~! And we brought a new ship with us!" Cleveland gestured to the solitary ship out in the middle of the port's bay.

"I see. Is everyone safe?" Wales asked.

"Well...I took quite a beating, and the others were also hurt, but that ship over there saved my life," Hornet replied a little sheepishly. "I owe them my life."

"Well, what is she waiting for? Tell her to come over! Let's meet her!" Wales exclaimed.

Cleveland waved toward the waiting ship, gesturing for it to come over. Smoke billowed briefly from its funnels, and it slowly approached an open dock.

The gangplank lowered to the dock by itself, and a figure clad in a naval officer's uniform walked down.

Wales and the others walked up to the figure. She extended her hand in greeting. "Hello. I am Prince of Wales of the Royal Navy. Thank you for saving my friends out there."

To her shock the owner of the ship was a boy. "My name is USS Oregon. It is my honor to meet such a famous ship." With that he shook a surprised and  flustered Wales' hand.

"Now I'm certain that you all want to know everything about me, and I'm willing to oblige. But...can we go somewhere a little cooler first? This heat is getting to me." A little embarrassedly Oregon removed off his hat and wiped his forehead.