14,300+ Tons Worth of Awkwardness – Chapter 9, Act 2, Strip 31

The eagle has landed! I.e., the Youichi/Hiroki date has actually commenced. And relatively close to schedule. A milestone for Operation Climax!

Unfortunately, all progress has ceased after that point. Neither Hiroki nor Youichi have it in them to move the whole affair forward. Hiroki’s natural shyness isn’t helped by the fact that he wears female clothing…or the fact that Youichi isn’t wearing a shirt. Youichi’s natural non-shyness isn’t applicable, since this is clearly a non-combat situation. He can’t punch or snarl his way out of this situation, and that leaves him with 0/2 tactics he normally has at his disposal.

But there is still some hope! The mysterious Scotsmen that were hanging out in front of the station are, for some reason, observing the progress of the date from a covered location. They notice the lack of progress, and, apparently for the same some reason, decide to take action. The situation clearly calls for an ice-breaker…and given the giant size to which the awkwardness in the room has grown, it obviously needs to be a giant ice-breaker.

So, yeah, they call up the Chinese dockyard that constructed the Xue Long 2. Since the displacement of the awkwardness might soon reach more than 14,300 tons, however, they’d like something a bit bigger.

Will the three Scotsmen be able to pay for the construction of this giant ship? Will the Jiangnan Shipyard be able to deliver it in time? And is this even the right kind of ‘ice-breaker’ for this situation?

Find out that the answer to all three of these question is ‘no’ in the next, thrilling episode on Thursday.