"See! I can do it if I just try my best! I'm so happy!"
Right north of Casgadama Island, powerful gunfire from two Ta-class battleships and the Armored Carrier Princess severely damaged Akagi and Hiryū, leaving most of the battle, then, to Yamato, Jintsū, Fubuki, and Isonami. Yamato's gunfire was accurate and sank one of the battleships and then the Wa-class Transport Ship of the group, but the other four ships proved harder to land accurate hits on. When torpedoes launched a great explosion shattered a Ha-class destroyer into thousands of pieces, providing a last modicum of bright yellow light before the sun finally set. Soon the moon rose in its place, and it and the stars lit the sky in the sun's stead, though never as powerfully as that great star.
"Right… I have to do this, then!" Yamato led her group back into range of the enemy and aimed her guns at the Abyssal aviation battleship. "Fire!" Shells of a radius 46 centimeters soared through the sky, sights set on sinking the enemy. Five of them pounded the Princess — one seemed to pierce straight through one of her gun mounts —, dealing enough damage that she began to slow down. The remaining Ta-class battleship quickly turned its guns towards the Japanese, but Jintsū was quicker to do so. "You've let your guard down! Fire!" She launched all of her torpedoes towards the battleship, ostensibly a fast one but evidently not quick enough to turn away from the trail. All eight hit home, and the Abyssal battleship burst into flames before it sank. Now the last Abyssal destroyer poised itself to put in a salvo before all was lost, but Fubuki steamed in, planning to hit first and accurately. "Please hit!" Two high-explosive shells crashed into the destroyer and set it on fire; this one took a while longer to sink.
Therefore only the Armored Carrier Princess, already damaged beyond what seemed worthwhile repair, remained in the water opposing the Japanese. She attempted to bring up her guns to fire — either of the two fleet carriers stood out as worthwhile targets — but they failed her. She turned away, ready to flee, but Isonami left the formation and gave chase. "I'm sorry!" Hit! Hit! Torpedoes sailed through the water at the Princess, and Isonami's guns went off, sending shells right at her. Soon enough there was a mushroom cloud in the air, smothering the fires from the initial explosions that occurred. The Special Type Destroyer shielded her eyes from the explosion, the heat from which she felt from multiple meters away. When she looked finally at the mess she made her heart pounded.
"Nice work, Isonami!" Yamato complimented.
"That was textbook, back there," Jintsū added.
"Yeah! That was amazing!" Fubuki sailed up to her and pat her on the back.
"Ah… th-thank you… See!" Her expression lit up. "I can do it if I just try my best! I'm so happy!" Isonami looked back at the damaged fleet carriers among them, and her smile disappeared. "You two look hurt…"
"We'll be okay. We should be sorry that we let ourselves be damaged so much…"
"Next time we'll show them how frightening coordinated air strikes from two fleet carriers can be!"
It was a lengthy trip through the Curry Ocean back home, but it was made. Admiral Watershed sprayed Akagi and Hiryū with a hose as they stepped back onto land and before they made their way to the docks to soak in a hot bath for a long while as they tended to. Once flagship Yamato informed him about the operation's success — and in particular about Isonami's sinking the enemy flagship, a heavily armored aviation battleship — a smile appeared on his face, and he nodded many a time in response. "Not bad, huh?" he commented. "Good work, everyone! I'm proud of you!" Quite conveniently Isonami stepped ashore last, leaving her rigging and gun mount behind to be picked up and undergo maintenance later, were it necessary. "Especially you," he quipped, causing Isonami to look up at him. "Admiral?" "If you don't mind, Isonami, I'd like to see you in my office later. Just need your opinion on something."
"Huh? A-ah, all right." Again her heart raced. That could mean anything! "Later", she took to mean as giving her time to eat some curry at Mamiya's before she went to see the Admiral. Be strong, Isonami, she mused as she ate, like Fubuki! She thought a moment about what Fubuki's strong face looked like and attempted to emulate it as she stepped down the halls towards the Admiral's office. She knocked and entered once being invited inside.
"Ah, Isonami. Glad you could stop by." The Admiral put down his pen and stood up, but straightened his papers out before walking towards Isonami, who had been walking towards him already but stopped now that he approached. "I heard from Yamato about how you did out there. Torpedoing and sinking an aviation battleship… good stuff out there, she said!"
"R-right…" Already her cheeks were coated in red, but she smiled softly, somewhat, up at him.
"You've always worked really hard… and delivered what's expected of you."
Isonami was silent.
"You're one of my favorite destroyers, you know?"
When she lowered her head she found that her face was level with only his chest. (Admiral Watershed was generally shorter than the battleships… but at least as tall as some heavy cruisers here and there.) "Really, Admiral?"
"Yeah." He put a hand on her head.
"Huh?" Her blush grew.
He began to run his hand over her head.
She put her hands up and winced softly. "Admiral‽ Ah… ah, that's… this is embarrassing, Admiral…"
He kept on a smile as he felt the texture of her hair. She's so cute…
"Admiral…" Still Isonami squirmed under his touch, unsure of what to do with her hands. She folded them together, held them like fists over her chest, and even cupped her cheeks in a vain attempt to allay the warmth in them.
Finally he let his hand off her hair and placed the palm of it under her left cheek. Her left eye closed and opened as a response, and she finally moved up her hands and grabbed his by the wrist. "Admiral, why are you doing this?"
"'It just seemed like the right thing to do.'" He let go of her cheek and wrapped his arms around her, finding himself no stranger to the fact that this display caused her to tense up. Isonami tried to free her arms, so he loosened up somewhat, that she might be able to, and once she did, again she did not know what to do with them. Admiral Watershed soon knelt down on one knee, bringing his face closer to hers while she remained in his embrace. Her arms soon wrapped around his back. His eyes were closed and there stood a smile plastered on his expression underneath those. "I love you, Isonami."
"L-love me?"
"Mm." He nodded. "Well, what I mean is… that you mean a lot to me. That's… what I mean when I say that. Nothing romantic… now that would be a little weird. On that note, I hope you don't mind that I'm being so affectionate… it's not like me at all, to be honest."
"It's not?"
"Nope." His eyes were closed as tightly as could be and his cheeks, a maroon color. "It feels nice, though. I hope you're not uncomfortable."
She wanted him to hurry up and let her go, at first, but now she judged that hugging him — never a thought until this moment — was not so bad. "I'm not."
"That's good." Finally Admiral Watershed moved his arms away, folding his hands together behind his back as he stood up straight once more, looking down still at Isonami. "That's all, Isonami. You may go, now."
"Admiral, you said you wanted my opinion on something."
"I received it."
