"Launch!"

A sharp pull gave the fighter initial speed, needed to take off from Kasuga Maru's glove. Its engine sputtered and came to life with a vigorous buzz, accelerating above stall speed. With a sharp pull, its fairy pilot rose the nose up - and a lone Zero darted above the trees, circling around the clearing. The young shipgirl watched it for a while, before reaching for her satchel to prepare another plane for take off.

"Not very efficient"

There was no disappointment or sadness in the voice, just a plain statement of fact - but it still made Kasuga sad. Nervous, she tried pulling the plane too hard - and it took off a deviating to the side, only barely managing to gain enough speed not to crash to the ground.

"No helpin'that, Kaga" Ryuujou shrugged. "Her complement's pretty small either way, so she'd be done deployin' before we get our planes airborne"

"True"

Third plane took off with no issues, although still more roughly than the first one. The trio formed a flight and waited for instructions, steadily cruising above their heads.

"I'm ready!" signaled Kasuga Maru.

Without saying a word, Kaga armed her bow and shot a single arrow. With a short flash, it split into a pair of planes, quickly closing in to Kasuga Maru's group.

The engagement was short, but dynamic. Tracers filled the air above them; special signal bullets shattered against metal plates with bright flashes and loud bangs, signaling hits. 'Shot down' planes circled to the ground, landing at the carriers' feet.

Ultimately only a lone plane of Kaga's remained airborne. Its pilot zoomed between the trio, canopy opened and hand waving victoriously.

"Very good" Kaga nodded, making Kasuga Maru's heart jump with joy. A public praise from her 'parent' was not something happening too often.

"Your pilots have excellent reflexes" she continued, rising her flight deck to recover the sole survivor. "They lack in tactics, but this is something that can't be taught overnight. Great work" she repeated, patting the girl's head.

"My my..." Ryuujou giggled "...are ya gettin' old or what, Kaga? Nobody'd believe me if I said I saw ya bein' all soft an' fluffy"

"True"

The young carrier could not help bursting into a happy giggle and hugging Kaga's chest, inhaling the leathery scent of her muneate. In return, she felt a strong hand stroke her dark hair.

"Let's try one more time. Ryuujou-san, will you?"

They met up with the rest back in the base, in front of Mamiya's place. The weather was delightfully warm, with a brief spur of sun breaking rainy monsoon streak. Mamiya and Irako put out some tables outside their inn, letting the shipgirls enjoy the fleeting sunlight until it lasted.

Akagi was already waiting for them, a huge cup of cream-pistachio ice cream sparkling in front of her. Souryuu joined them soon, her usual green kimono replaced with a light dress.

"Sorry for Hiryuu" she said after greeting the rest "she got busy with some emergency errands for the admiral and Hibiki-chan. Some new bauxite source to check, guarded by Abyssals. I'd have come too, but those limits he put on resource use mean only one of us could go "

"A shame" Akagi sighed "I hoped to hear some of those stories of hers. They always cheer me up"

"I'm pretty sure she'll have lots of new ones after she returns. Unless of course the egg hatches when she's away - then she'll be the one smad and disappointed"

"I wanna see 'er face if this happens!" exclaimed Ryuujou.

The whole table burst up in laugh, except for Kasuga Maru. Confused, she tilted her head like a curious bird, trying to catch what seemed to elude her in Souryuu's joke.

"An egg? What does smad mean? Souryuu-san?"

"Sad-and-mad" giggled the Dragon, wiping a single tear off her eye. "And the 'egg' is that admiral's pet project. You know, the top secret one everybody knows about"

"Taihou..." interluded Ryuujou, her stare suddenly dreamy and pensive.

"Who...?" for every question answered, a new one seemed to pop up.

"Another carrier from the Old War" Akagi finally started explaining properly, to Kasuga Maru's relief. "She was quite a marvel of engineering, they say. Armoured flight deck, modern air groups... One of a kind. She was built and launched a few years after... after we all here were struck down. The admiral is very impressed by her and hopes they can summon her soon"

"So far with no luck, despite of all the resources consumed. That's actually the reason we're mostly grounded" Souryuu added. "Ironic, as she wasn't a lucky ship either, from what I heard from the old man"

"Technically he's younger than either of us" commented Kaga matter-of-factly. "And besides, don't call him 'an old man'. It is a matter of respect"

Souryuu grumbled something in response and dug her spoon into her chocolate-blueberry ice cream. Meanwhile, as the other carriers moved on to more mundane topics, Kasuga Maru silently processed what she just heard.

Whoever that Taihou-san was supposed to be, she seemed pretty important for the admiral. And if getting her had anything to do with luck…

A small plan hatched in her mind.

Luckily, she managed to catch Shouhou in her bungalow when both Akagi and Kaga were on a briefing in the HQ.

"Really?" the carrier looked at her incredulously upon hearing her request. "You're sure you don't need my help?"

Kasuga Maru shook her head with determination.

"I'd just like you to show me how you do these things. And if you could help me with storaging them in the meantime…"

"No problem with that, at all. Just to be sure - I'm not supposed to say anything to Akagi or Kaga?"

"Please don't… Kaga-san will surely say my idea is foolish…"

"I am pretty sure she wouldn't" Shouhou chuckled, kneeling to open one of the boxes laying under the shelves. "But if you want it to be a secret, I swear I won't let anyone know"

"You promise?" the young carrier extended her pinky finger.

"Of course I do" laughing cheerfully, Shouhou completed the oath.

She managed to catch Sendai just after dusk, when the cruiser was preparing for night sortie.

"Well, if that's not our favourite falconer" she ruffled Kasuga Maru's hair. "How can I help you? Kaga stopped being so protective and finally let you go for a night sortie?"

"No… But yes, I could use your help… You know…"

She beckoned Sendai to come closer and whispered her plan to the cruiser, making sure nobody else heard a word.

Sendai listened carefully, her expression changing from polite interest in the beginning, through surprise and amused disbelief, ultimately ending with a gregarious, jovial laugh.

"Well, I'll be damned if I refused! Of course, that'd be a blast to do! Count me in!"

Something was off.

Okada closed the door to his office and examined the room without taking any step further inside. All drawers were closed. The mug he used for evening cocoa was in its rightful place on the liquor cabinet. Windows were shut, papers laying on the sill undisturbed. But still, some tiny detail was out of its place. The problem was, he could not identify the culprit.

He was pretty sure there were no potential agents or spies on Raiushima - first reason being he could not have imagined any sane human being actually spying for the Abyssals and second being he was the only 'drylander' (as wise men back in mainland called non-shipgirls) on the island. So hostile infiltration was unlikely. However, this left open a far more dreadful possibility.

Practical jokes.

No bucket fell on his head when he crossed the threshold. Potential traps could have been everywhere else, though. Drawers. Cupboard. Wardrobe. His scale models actually weaponized by Yuubari with an aid from a couple of especially mischevious arsenal fairies. Tokitsukaze hiding behind curtains, ready to scream her 'SHIREEEEEEEEE-' when he sits down.

No, Abyssal infiltration actually seemed marginally better. At least he knew how to deal with potential spies.

"Let's spring the trap" he sighed, quoting his second favourite Jedi master.

Nothing happened when he sat down behind the desk. Moreover, he finally managed to identify the odd element.

A paper crane was standing on laptop's keyboard. Made of orange and red paper, it had a sentence written along its wing;

"Please open"

Surprised and intrigued, he complied (chances were the origami hid an especially cleverly hidden firecracker - luckily, that was not the case). The crane's insides were filled with rows of small, carefully caligraphed letters:

Mr Admiral,

I heard about the Phoenix Project from Kaga-san and Akagi-san. They said you are very sad and unlucky, because it is eating your bauxite. As a carrier, I can't help much with that. But you are our commander and you should not be sad. So I decided to give you something to grant you good luck.

Please don't be mad at Sendai-senpai. I wanted to make it a surprise. I hope she didn't make a mess in your papers when she opened the window

Kasuga Maru

Eyes wide, he put the piece of paper down - and only then noticed one of the desk's drawers was slightly ajar. He pulled it open - and started laughing out loud.

Its interior was filled to the brim with tiny paper cranes, each numbered and signed with the little carrier's name.

This reminded him of something...

He glanced to the side, at the 'hoarder's paradise' shelf of the closest display case. Between a dried ikebana from Haruna and Samidare's teru-teru-bouzo (high time he hung it back), laid a paper crane from Shouhou.

Very, very clever...

One and a half hour later all cranes were out of the drawer. Lining the rim of the desk, cabinets' top and ever hung underneath the ceiling, paper birds swarmed in every place available. The fiery phoenix ended up on an exposed spot, on the topmost document tray.

The only thing bothering him was there wasn't enough birds; instead of traditional one thousand, he only counted half of that amount. Could it be Kasuga Maru got something wrong? Or maybe she just didn't have the time to make a full thousand?

Well, either way fitting a full thousand into his office would be much, much more troublesome. He just hoped the girl would be happy to see her present on display next time she visits the HQ.

And if it helped with getting Taihou... then he'd be even more grateful.

"WHAT IN THE BLOOD-"

A flood of paper cranes showered Akashi as soon as she opened the locker. Literally hundred of birds flew out, the thin metal barrier no longer holding them in place. Startled, the chief engineer stumbled on some free laying trinket and fell to the ground, concrete floor brutally hard against her bottom.

Groaning in pain, she shoved a layer of cranes off her uniform. One of them caught her attention; while the rest were plain white, that one was made of coloured paper, its red and orange pattern similar to burning fire.

Following the instruction scribbled on its wing, she unfolded the figure. To her surprise, inside was some kind of a letter:

Ms Akashi...