He can't. Both options are mutually exclusive: If he catches the food, then he would've willingly prevented the food from being dirtied by the floor, which his maso-instinct is telling him would be better than forcing his body to save the food. But if the food falls on the ground, then Zuihou WILL get upset over feeling that her efforts were wasted, which is something that will NOT please the Admiral (and not in a way that will tickle his M-bone; as can be seen from the Murakumo spin-off, he doesn't get any kind of pleasure from the "pain" of truly upsetting his shipgirls).
He can't. Both options are mutually exclusive: If he catches the food, then he would've willingly prevented the food from being dirtied by the floor, which his maso-instinct is telling him would be better than forcing his body to save the food. But if the food falls on the ground, then Zuihou WILL get upset over feeling that her efforts were wasted, which is something that will NOT please the Admiral (and not in a way that will tickle his M-bone; as can be seen from the Murakumo spin-off, he doesn't get any kind of pleasure from the "pain" of truly upsetting his shipgirls).
Obviously the correct response is to catch them all in his mouth to give him the pain of denying pain but for her sake.
Sometimes I think an M's mind is not unlike a tsundere's.
For a moment, a conflicted feeling stiffened the admiral's body. Of course I'll eat some.You wanna eat some of Zuihou's tamagoyaki?Going on all fours and catching all the tamagoyaki using his mouth was nothing to him, but at the same time,He felt shame for his own self being driven by the urge to eat the tamagoyaki Zuihou went through the trouble of making coated in the filth on the floor.