Jolt of pain across her body awaken her. She gritted her teeth before she can let out a whimper.

'It hurts, It hurts ...' Her mind replayed.

Her mind cannot focused at all. A jumbled mess. All of her processing power were directed on resisting the pain.

"Onee-chan ... Shoukaku nee-chan ..." She can't held her whimper and let it out to the silent night.

Tears began flowing as she remembered what happened.

Finding out who the sirens actually are, almost obliterated by first divisions, Shoukaku-nee's ...

She closed her eyes and weep

Before long she heard a person's steps on her ear. focusing several of her processing power to her mind she open her eyes and saw a boy

She lift her head a bit but the pain stopped her from doing it. She let out a groan.

The boy must have heard her because the steps became rapid and as she managed to regain focus, She found herself moved by him to lie on her back. She let out a gasp of pain.

"I'll save you, hang on." He stated. She felt a palm on top of her belly. If not for the pain, She might have outraged and bashed the fool.

She would have forced herself to do just that, actually. That is, before she heard the boy mutter "Dia" and the pain she felt slowly subsided.

Now that she could let herself lax, She opened her eyes and found herself looking at the boy's face.

The boy has icy silver eyes, with his blue haired bang covered his right eye. Said eye was squinted and so did the rest of his androgynous face as though he was in agony.

He let out a groan and the healing, as she assumed, has stopped.

He was panting. Sweats have formed and fell from his forehead. "Better than nothing, I suppose." He silently mutter, although she believed it wasn't as silent as he thought it was.

He moved his gaze and unintentionally align it to her gaze. He slowly let out a small smile. "It is good that You are fine now"

She herself let out a short chuckle ".. I-I know ri-" She coughed.

Alarmed, He pulled her shoulder to sitting position, and used his other hand to grab a compact water container and slowly opened it with his thumb and point finger.

As it opened, He positioned it on front of her mouth "Please, drink these water"

Decided that even if it was poisoned, it won't even work on her; She nodded her head and touched the tip of the container with her lower lip.

He gently pull the container up so that she could drink the water it held. after some moment, he pulled the container away.

"Thanks"

"No problem, Although ..." She tilted her head a bit as He put the container on top of the sand and pulled an handkerchief.

He used the handkerchief to wiped area around her eyes. She widened her eyes. When he finished, the small smile returned to his face "Much better".

Seeing this, She avert her eyes by lowering her gaze. And so she inspected the boy's attire.

Pants and shirt covered with military camouflage. He also wear military vest and belt filled with pouches.

"Can you stand ?" Her eyes snapped to his.

She checked her body, specifically her joints. After testing them a bit, She nodded.

"Alright" He nodded back. He put the handkerchief back to one of his pocket and screwed the water container back before He returned it to its original position.

He stood up. He gave his hand toward her and she grabbed it. He then pulled her up gently but firmly.

She almost fell but He managed to caught her body before she could return to the sand. It seems She wasn't strong enough as she thought.

He adjusted his position so that He could support the woman body. "I hope You don't mind" He murmured. She merely snorted "Think of it as a service for healing me"

He shook his head while chuckling before moving forward.

"Hey, boy.", She earned the attention of him. "What's your name ?" She asked.

"You may call me Minato" He replied. "Just hang on, You'll be resting on better surface once We reached where I stay"

"Yeah ?" She inquired. "Well ..." She began, as she let her body lean more toward Minato since she was too tired. "Zuikaku, Fifth carrier division. Please take care of me" And She let her consciousness left her.

Zuikaku regain access to her body and will herself to open her eyes. What She saw was wooden ceiling still polished. Her eyes scanned the said ceiling. A yellow bulb lamp hanged along with the switch. It seems I'm in a village, quite remote too.

She slowly raised her body to sit. The blanket that cover fell down to her lap. It seems Minato was quite gentleman indeed. She still wore her outfit it seems; One piece red velvet dress that merely reached her higher thighs. There was minor cut here and there. My robe must have took the blunt of their attack.

This observation proven correct when She looked on the small table beside her. Her robe was neatly folded, but several hole can be observed without the need of closer look.

She heard a knock on the door. "Have you awaken ?" The soft vocal of her rescuer came after. She chuckled. Gentleman, indeed.

"Ou ! I'm awake !" She replied. "You can enter right away, you know ? This is your home, after all"

She heard the handle turned and enter Minato, holding food tray filled with bowl of porridge and glass of water. "Well, Not mine exactly" He mentioned as He present the tray to her. "Good morning, by the way. I'll assume you're hungry ?"

Minato was wearing white shirt and blue track pants. She observed his soft panting and sweat formed around his upper body, those that She could see, anyway. "Good morning ~! Have you been jogging ?" She asked.

"Well ... " He wonder out loud. "The electricity won't come by themselves"

She looked at him blankly. Then a thought crossed her mind which widen her eyes. "No" Hearing this paused what she was about to utter. "I was joking" She gave him betrayed look.

Minato grinned at her.

"How dare You make a fool of Fifth Division" she hump and let out a pout, throwing her gaze away from him.

"Kaku-san, The porridge will be cold" He mentioned. "Ah right, Thanks" She grabbed the tray and put it on her lap. Then She hump away.

She heard his chuckle. "Once you're done, You can take a bath there" He pointed at the door on the right side of her bed. "It won't exactly par with how her majesty's usual bathroom ...". She snorted "... But I believe it is serviceable enough."

"Also..." He added "... The wardrobe there has several clothes. There should be one for your size-" He paused. "Well, I assumed anyway."

"You assumed ?"

"This wasn't exactly my room. And last I checked, I haven't done any 'raid' yet, or so my benefactor shamelessly coin the term"

"Hummm" She intoned. "Alrigh'. Now, shoo, shoo !" She said as dismissively as possible.

"Yes, Madam" The boy bowed while smirking. He then let himself out.

All the happy vibe was sapped away once She was sure He was away. She looked at the porridge on front of her. She grabbed a spoonful of it and put it to her mouth, Tasting it. She then keep doing it methodically as she sniff and hold back the tears.

Zuikaku got out from the room she was resting on and head for the living room. She found Minato were humming on the sofa. He had blue headphone closing his ears. Now that She really looked at it, The design of the headphone was slimmer than the usual headphone She saw being used by military.

It seems He didn't notice Her. His eyes were closed too. His head also bopping up and down. Was he listening to music ?

She walked around the sofa and position herself behind the boy. She calculated the timing and within a snap She managed to push off the headphone on his left-It wasn't a set ?- and put it on her left ear.

A very powerful vocal blare from the headphone. The singer gave her all on singing the lyrics. While she have no idea what their meaning is, She would guessed the song was about struggle.

She also have no idea what were the instrumental that played. she could recognize the string instrument. she could also recognize the piano, even if they were somewhat different from how piano was sounded. There were also distorted guitar somehow. How fascinating.

She couldn't help but also tapped her finger along the beat. It was unfamiliar music, but She couldn't help but enjoyed it.

The song abruptly stopped and changed. She was confused and looked at Minato. Thin smile was plastered on his face. When the vocal came, She realized the song was sung using her homeland language.

She listened to it for a while. The lyric was quite bittersweet, although the instrumental made it hopeful.

"I prefer the previous one." She utter.

"Truly ? Well, I suppose I can see why You think so."

She pull off the headphone on her ear and gave it to Minato. He grabbed it while his other hand pull off his side of the headphone. He put the headphone to his vest pockets.

"I'm sure both of us have questions for each others." He hover his hand over his mouth and yawned. He tilted his head to stared at her "Do you want to sit like that while we do so?"

A/N:

Hello those that have read this. This is my first story that I actually manage to work on in term of fanfiction.

I'm actually inspired by Ambience : A fleet symphony, bizarrely enough. If nothing else, I get a feeling that the author's characterization is good, if not great. Been reading the whole thing for several weeks, that was quite a ride. Although, I can admit it was quite intimidating to read. Like, seriously, Dem wall of text.

English is my 3rd language, by the way. (If you count native language) so expect some potatoness in the writing. I still needed to work on my description skill, to be honest. But, a start is a start. Once I finish the opening arc, I'll fix the whole thing, hopefully with the help of you guys' input.

That's all, Hope you guys enjoyed it