Disclaimer: I do not own Kantai Collection. It is the property of it's respected owner. This is just a one shot fanfiction.
SHIMAKAZE'S DESPERATE SHINING MOMENT
The Temperature is oddly mild in the seas of the Solomon islands. Several low hanging clouds blocking out the sun are keeping the temperature do- "ONEE-SAMA! Those two Ri-class cruisers are coming around to attempt another run on us!" calls out a short black hair girl with green rimmed glasses while interrupting the narration! "I got them Kirishima! BURNING LOVE!" calls out the long brown hired girl. The Kai-Ni outfit on her waste immediately turns its turrets and train their guns on the approaching Abyssal Ris and open fire. From a large cloud of smoke come eight shells hurling through the air. One of the Ris makes a desperate turn to avoid the incoming fire and manages to dodge them. The second however isn't so lucky. Four of the shells strike home and the Abyssal explodes in a ball of flame. "Shit! Missed one!" says the brown haired girl. "It was still a great shot Kongo-nee-sama!" says Kirishima. "That just leaves one Ri, two To-class cruisers, three Ro and three Ha-class destroyers left." says a short borwn haired girl. "Indeed Hiei." says Kongo. "How do you want to proceed?" asks a dark hired girl. "Divide and conquer Haruna!" answers Kongo.
"Buki, Mutsuki, Yuudachi, and Zekamashi. You four take care of the destroyers. We'll handle the cruisers." orders Kongo. "Yes ma'am!" calls out Fubuki with a salute. "Come on girls! We got a job to do!" orders Fubuki with a wave. "Right behind you Fubuki-chan!" says Mutsuki. "I'll show them I can be a real Nightmare-poi!" says Kai-Ni Yuudachi. "My name's not Zekamashi! It's Shimakaze!" says the scantily-clad long blonde haired girl as she points her finger in Kongo's face. "Oops sorry. I read it wrong again." says Kongo with a sweat drop. "Come on Shimakaze! Otherwise we're going to leave you behind." calls out Fubuki. That annoys Shimakaze a great deal. "No one leaves me behind! I do the leaving behind!" she calls out as she takes off after the other three. "Haruna I want you to stay here and give them covering fire. Kirishima, Hiei you're with me." orders Kongo. "Yes Onee-sama." the three respond in unison.
As the three Kongos turn to face the cruisers, Haruna trains her guns towards the Destroyers to lay down covering fire. Meanwhile Fubuki and the other girls race at combat speed towards the line of Has and Ros destroyers. "Diamond formation everyone. Yuudachi-chan you take the center front. Mutsuki-chan and I will flank you and Shimakaze-chan will cover you from behind. We'll break straight through their columns." orders Fubuki. "Right Fubuki-chan." "POI!" say Mutsuki and Yuudachi. "Like hell I'll be behind you girls!" shouts Shimakaze as she goes whizzing by. "Ah! Shimakaze-chan wait! Grrr. Damn that girl" says Fubuki in frustration. "What now Fubuki-chan?" asks Mutsuki. "We've got no choice. Vae formation. Yuudachi you still have center." orders Fubuki. "Rodger!" say the other two girls in unison.
Meanwhile Shimakaze is already several hundred feet ahead of the others by the time they get into formation. As she charges the Has and Ros she can see Haruna's covering fire landing around them. While Haruna's shots aren't landing they are keeping them pinned in their column formations. Never-the-less when they see Shimakaze charging they open fire. Shimakaze's superior speed and maneuverability allow her to easily dodge the attacks. "Rensouhou-chans! It's time to play!" calls out Shimakaze. Her three turret familiars pop out of nowhere and surround her. "We're going straight through them, so try and keep up!" she orders. Her three Rensouhou-chans "salute" and surround her in a triangle formation. Shimakaze goes full speed and blasts right between their columns. "Torpedoes one and two fire starboard!" she calls out. Instantly two of her torpedoes launch out of her backpack torpedo launcher and head for the Ha's line. She quickly spins 180 "Three through Five fire!" she calls out. And just as quickly the other three torpedoes launch out.
As she fires her torpedoes her Rensouhou-chans start firing madly as well. The Ros and Has see the incoming torpedoes and wildly try to maneuver out of the way of them. One Ha is not very lucky as it turns right into the path of one of Haruna's shells and is obliterated in the blink of an eye. One of Shimakaze's torpedoes lands home on one of the Ros and badly damages it. Meanwhile her Rensouhou-chans land many hits on the others as they still try to wildly maneuver. As Shimakaze blasts out of the disintegrating column lines she cheers herself for being too fast for them "I knew I was too fast for them!" she shouts. "That girl is so reckless. Doesn't she realize she could be killed without any support?" Fubuki says in disappointment. "Maybe so, but she has opened up a hole for us to attack-poi." says Yuudachi. "I know that. Okay you two follow me in and we'll try to finish them off." orders Fubuki.
The three girls enter the very confused "column" formations. "All weapons Free! Fire at will!" orders Fubuki. The three girls cut loose with everything they've got. They send several volleys of torpedoes in both directions while firing away with their guns. The sheer amount of torpedoes launched and very little room to maneuver means several torpedoes land hits. The combined assault of torpedoes and canon shells destroy all three Ha destroyers. Mutsuki lands several hits with her gun on the already crippled Ro destroyer Shimakaze had hit before and it goes down as well. "Nice shooting girls! We got them!" says Fubuki with praise in her voice. Yuudachi looks over at something that catches her eye. "Ah! Fubuki-chan! The last two Ros are trying to get away-poi!" she shouts as she points in the direction of the Ros. "Pursuit coarse at flank speed." orders Fubuki. The three girls take off after the two remaining Ros.
"You'll never catch them like that you slowpokes. I'll get them!" says Shimakaze as she once again goes whizzing by Fubuki and the others. "Ah Shimakaze-chan wait! We need to do this as a team!" shouts Fubuki. Shimakaze ignores her and continues on. "Why does she do that every time!?" Fubuki growls. "Torpedoes reloaded! Rensouhou-chans! It's time for attack maneuver Z!" Shimakaze orders. Her three Rensouhou-chans twirl with excitement and form a row in front of Shimakaze. Before they begin their maneuver, however, one of the Ros turns and fires a shot back at Shimakaze. "Woah!" she yelps. She easily dodges the attack with her speed and maneuverability. "You'll never hit me moving that slow!" she shouts back at the Ro. The shot the Ro had fired at Shimakaze continues on however towards the other girls. "Mutsuki-chan look out!" shouts Fubuki. Mutsuki barely has time to start a turn towards starboard when the shell hits her. "YAHHHH!" she shouts as she's engulfed in smoke.
Meanwhile Shimakaze's Rensouhou-chans begin their attack maneuver. Making a Z like pattern in the water, the Rensouhou-chans begin firing their guns making the shells land all around the two Ros. Shimakaze then spins to her side causing her torpedoes to be pointed straight between the two Ros in the distance. "Torpedoes fire!" she shouts. All five of her torpedoes shoot out and fly over her Rensouhou-chans before splashing into the water and run for their intended destination. The shelling from Shimakaze's Rensouhou-chans cause the Ros to desperately maneuver around to avoid being hit. In the confusion they lose track of each other and crash headfirst into each other causing them to come to a dead stop. Seconds later Shimakaze's torpedoes arrive and are dead on target. All five torpedoes hit and blow both Ros out of the water. "Yay! We got them both! They were never going to get away from me!" shouts Shimakaze with excitement. Her Rensouhou-chans jump and twirl with excitement too.
Off in the distance Shimakaze hears a loud explosion and sees three large plums of smoke rising into the sky. "Looks like the Kongos got those cruisers. Took them long enough." says Shimakaze. Sure enough in the distance she sees the three Kongos already heading back to rendezvous with them. Haruna has already joined the other three girls. Shimakaze then sees Mustuki on all fours holding the side of her left arm. "Mutsuki-chan! Mutstuki-chan! Are you okay!?" says Fubuki in near panic. "Y-Yes." Mutsuki says passively. "What happened here?" asks Shimakaze as she rejoins the group. Fubuki finally loses it. "YOUR CARELESSNESS GOT MUTSUKI HURT!" she shouts. "Me?" says Shimakaze pointing to herself. "That's right. That shot that was meant for you hit Mutsuki instead!" shouts Fubuki again. "And how is that my fault!? I'm sorry she got hit but I had no idea the shell would go on to hit her instead." says Shimakaze starting to get a bit annoyed at being yelled at. "She probably wouldn't have been hit had you'd stayed in formation with us like you were supposed to!" yells Fubuki.
"Fubuki-chan please. Calm down. The shell only grazed me. I'm alright." pleads Mutsuki. "Whether it was a grazing shot or a direct hit doesn't matter! Shimakaze-chan's reckless way of fighting put both us and herself in danger!" Fubuki shouts again directly toward Shimakaze. A scowl comes over Shimakaze's face. "I was in no danger! I knew exactly what I was doing! I can't help it if you can't keep up with me! Those two Ros would have gotten away if I hung here with you girls!" shouts Shimakaze back. "And what you don't realize is that your tactics are putting yourself and everyone else in danger!" shouts Fubuki back. "Please you two, calm down. You'll upset Kongo-nee-sama if she sees this." says Haruna trying to calm the situation down. "Yeah. Please don't argue-poi!" pleads Yuudachi.
Meanwhile Kongo and her sisters arrive back at the group only to find Fubuki and Shimakaze in a shouting match. "I don't care if they had gotten away! I'd rather them get away then hurt one of my friends due to reckless actions like yours!" shouts Fubuki. "This is war! Some of us will get hurt and damaged in battle. Whether it be by direct or indirect fire! Don't blame me for this!" shouts Shimakaze back. "Stop! What is going on here? Please explain." orders Kongo in plain English. "Shimakaze-chan's reckless actions got Mutsuki hurt!" states Fubuki. Kongo looks over at Mutsuki and sees the light damage to her left arm. "Shimakaze-chan is this true?"calmly asks Kongo. "I dodged an attack meant for me and it wound up hitting Mutsuki instead. I had no Idea she was in the line of fire too." explains Shimakaze. "She wouldn't have gotten hurt if you had just followed orders and stayed in formation instead of going off on your own without backup!" shouts Fubuki angrily. "And those Ros would have gotten away if I hadn't chased after them!" shouts Shimakaze back.
"ENOUGH!" shouts Kongo. Both Fubuki and Shimakaze back off from one another. "If you girls want to fight that's fine, but save it for AFTER we're back at base. Save the fighting for the Abyssals for now. "Fine." says Shimakaze with a puffed check. "Yes ma'am, but I want to say one last thing." says Fubuki. Kongo nods her head. "Shimakaze-chan your actions are going to eventually wind up getting yourself or someone else sunk. Just because you are fast and very maneuverable doesn't mean you're untouchable. If you keep this up then one day you're going to find yourself surrounded with nowhere to go. Your speed won't mean a thing in that situation. I just hope if that ever happens, that you have backup to help you get out." explains Fubuki sternly. "I'm pretty sure my speed will prevent me from getting surrounded in the first place." retorts Shimakaze. She and Fubuki turn away from one another with angered looks on their faces.
*Sigh* "Good grief. Well we'll settle this back at base. In the meantime I doubt that was the resupply task-force we were looking for." says Kongo. "I believe you are right Onee-sama. The report base got was that a large resupply force would be in this area to try and resupply a small base. That seemed more of a patrol squadron than a resupply task-force." agrees Kirishima. "So what should we do Kongo-san?" asks Yuudachi. "Hmm. How are we on fuel and armaments first?" asks Kongo. "We still have a good reserve of fuel left; plenty to spare for the destroyers if need be." answers Kirishima. "And we didn't use many shells to destroy those Ris and Tis." says Hiei. "Good. And what about you four?" asks Kongo to the four destroyer girls. "We still have plenty of torpedoes left in reserve and we didn't use many shells to sink those Ros and Has. At least WE three that is." says Fubuki gesturing to herself, Mustuki, and Yuudachi. "And what about you Shimakaze?" asks Kirishima. "These are my last five torpedoes…" she says as she thumb points to her backpack torpedo launcher. "… but my Rensouhou-chans still have plenty of shells left." she adds. Her Rensouhou-chans jump and twirl in agreement.
"Well it looks like we can still continue our search and destroy mission. Unless you're not up for it Mutsuki." says Kongo with some concern. "No. No. I'm fine, really! It was only a grazing shot anyway. I can still fight." says Mutsuki waving her hands in front of her. "Well that settles it then. Everyone we shall carry on with the mission that the lovely admiral gave me… er… us." says Kongo with some enthusiasm. "Yes, ma'am!" say the rest of the group in unison. "Hang on Onee-sama." says Kirishima. "Kongo looks back at her. "Yes?" she asks. "I have a proposal on what we can do to try and prevent another surprise encounter like that again." says Kirishima. "Go ahead." says Kongo. "Since we are in radio silence, we should send one of the destroyer girls ahead of the group as a scout. If they spot anymore patrol forces they can quickly come back to the group and relay their position." suggests Kirishima. "That's actually a good idea." says Haruna. "But doesn't that put one of the destroyer girls at risk?" asks Hiei. "We're ready to do what must be done Hiei-san!" says Fubuki with determination.
Kongo thinks it over for a second. "Okay. The plan sounds solid enough. One of the destroyer girls will scout ahead and be on the look out for enemy patrols. Shimakaze will you be the scout please?" asks Kongo. "Yeeees!" she says with excitement in her voice while raising her hand in the air. Kirishima looks over at Fubuki and can tell she's about to object to Shimakaze going on ahead. "Fubuki-san, remember that, despite what happened earlier, Shimakaze IS the fastest among all of us. She'd be able to relay a message back to us about enemy patrols the fastest, which gives us more time to change course and avoid a fight." explains Kirishima. Fubuki just puffs one of her checks and looks away a little upset. "That said, Shimakaze, if you do happen to come across another patrol you are strictly forbidden from engaging them. Your orders are to stay around just long enough to get their course, speed, and heading and make your way back to us to relay your report as fast as possible. You must not break radio silence unless you come under attack and are in desperate need of back up. Do I make myself clear?" orders Kongo. "Yeeees!" says Shimakaze with a salute. Fubuki has her doubts but decides not to say anything.
"Ok Shimakaze. You are to proceed southeast to a point ten kilometers ahead of our group. After you reach that position we will follow. Remember. If you happen to come across any more patrols or stumble upon the resupply task-force we're searching for, do not engage but come back and relay their position." orders Kongo. "Got it." says Shimakaze. She turns to start heading away when Mutsuki suddenly calls out to her. "Wait Shimakaze-chan!" Shimakaze turns back around and sees Mutsuki approach her. Mutsuki reaches back into her reserve torpedo container on her back and pulls out two torpedoes. "Here. Take these. You said you didn't have anymore in reserve right? You never know. They might come in handy." says Mutsuki with a smile. "Are you sure? I thought you'd be mad at me for getting you hurt." says Shimakaze. "Go ahead take them. I still have plenty in reserve. And don't worry I'm not mad at you. I know you had no intention of getting me hurt. You just be careful out there." says Mutsuki. Shimakaze smiles. "Thanks. Let's just hope I don't have to use them out there." says Shimakaze as she places them in her reserve torpedo container. With that Shimakaze turns around and takes off towards the southeast. As the spray from Shimakaze settles Yuudachi approaches Mutsuki. "Why did you suddenly hand her some torpedoes-poi?" she asks. "I'm not sure. It's just… something doesn't feel right about this area. I just have an inkling that something very wrong is about to happen." says Mutsuki with a little worry. "You're just over thinking it Mutsuki-san" says Haruna. "I hope you're right." answers Mutsuki. Mutsuki and Yuudachi both watch as Shimakaze's figure gets smaller and smaller in the distance. "….Poi…" says a now worried Yuudachi.
Five minutes into her scouting, and only halfway to her designated position, Shimakaze looks off to her left and sees a quickly developing squall line heading right for her path. "Oh great. Now I have to get wet." she mumbles to herself. Within a minute she enters the squall line. However, unbeknownst to her, just as she enters the squall line a small white round object with pointy ears, glowing red eyes, and very sharp teeth peers out over the edge of the squall line and watches her enter the rain. It flies off in the direction she came from and within a minute spots the other girls. It quickly turns around and flies back before anyone down below is the wiser. As Shimakaze passes under the squall line she realizes the squall line is rapidly turning into a good sized storm. The waves begin kicking up and the rain is coming down even harder. Both are soaking her to the bone. "God it's freezing." she says to herself as she rubs her arms to try and stay warn. "I need to get through this mess as fast as possible." she adds. Due to the storm's growing strength however it takes her nearly ten more minutes to get through it. She finally pops out the other side into refreshing warm sunlight when the first lightning bolts begin to flash and rumbles of thunder echo out of the storm. "God that was miserable." says Shimakaze and she tries to ring out her long blond hair.
She's in the middle of ringing out the side of her very short skirt when crackling over her radio gets her attention. "Who the hell is messing with their radio? Don't they know we're supposed to be under radio silence?" she complains. What she hears next sends a chill down her back, and not because she's wet from the rain. "This is the flagship Kongo of Attack Squadron two breaking radio silence! We are requesting assistance from any and all friendlies in the southeastern part of the Solomon Islands! We are under heavy aerial attack from enemy forces and need immediate assistance. I repeat we've come under heavy aerial attack and need immediate assistance." calls out a frantic Kongo. The canon fire and shouting in the background in Kongo's call more than convinces Shimakaze that this attack is real. Shimakaze immediately does a 180 and gets on her radio. "This is Shimakaze, I'm heading back to you as fast as I can!" she calls out. "Roger Shimakaze." comes Haruna's voice. Shimakaze can hear Fubuki calling out commands in the background. She may have disagreed with Fubuki a little while ago, but she's not going to let her be sunk. Shimakaze immediately turns her props at battle speed 1 and races back towards the storm not caring that she'll get wet again.
As she's a mere 100 meters away from the reentering the rain she spots something that causes her come to an emergency stop. Her eye's open in fear and she sees three abyssal cruisers and six destroyers suddenly appear out of the rain headed right for her. "What are they doing here? Is this just a sick coincidence? Or did they tail me?" her mind races. The entire fleet opens fire on her within seconds of emerging. Shimakaze immediately turns to port and races off to avoid their fire. "Well looks like the latter. They set up this ambush." she says to herself. As she dodge shells she gets back on her radio. "This is Shimakaze. I've been ambushed by another attack patrol. My route to you has been cut off. I'll try to make my way back to you guys after I've lost them. Shimakaze out!" she calls out. "Rodger Shimakaze. Be careful." comes Kongo's reply. "You too." says Shimakaze. She may be fast, maneuverable, and brave, but she knows she's not stupid enough to try and attack a heavy force like this. Especially one that has the surprise drop on her. She races away at top speed to try and outrun them.
It doesn't take too long before Shimakaze's superior speed lets her pull out of the range of the abyssal patrol fleet behind her. Still she doesn't let up on her speed. "Heh heh. I knew they wouldn't be able to keep up with me." She's gone so far ahead she's even out run the squall line. "I guess now's as good as any to turn back towards the others' position. I just hope I'm not too late." she says to herself. She turns back to starboard in the direction of the rest of her fleet running parallel with a small island next to her. She stays on this course for only 30 seconds when she suddenly hears a droning noise from above her. She looks up and is dismayed to see an attack squadron of abyssal cat fighters. "Damnit." mumbles Shimakaze. Thankfully they haven't spotted her yet. Shimakaze looks around frantically for some cover that she can hide in before she is spotted. Then she spots a small outcropping island head of her with rocks that could make for some good cover. She quickly makes her way to the small island and sure enough the outcropping of rocks has a tall overhang of rocks. She quickly ducks underneath them and comes to a full stop.
She take s peak out from them into the air and watches the squadron of cat fighters zoom off in another direction. They had not spotted her. Shimakaze then hears something behind her. Again she peaks around the corner of the rocks and sees it's the attack patrol she had just gotten away from still heading on her original course at top speed. They were still in pursuit of her. She backs herself against the side wall of rocks and stays as quiet as she can trying to stay out of sight. The attack patrol quickly races by her without noticing her either. As she watches them speed off into the distance she can't help but let out a sigh of relief. "Phew." she wipes her forehead. After a few more minutes of waiting she sticks her head out again and takes a good look around. From what she can see there are no enemy ships in the vicinity and no aircraft. She switched on her passive radar just to be sure and unfortunately she detects some abyssal ships in the area. "Oh great. They're still around. I can't make a break for it with them still around. They'd call back those cat fighters on me." says says to herself. She curses that planes are the only thing she can't outrun. She's been effectively pinned in.
For about ten minutes she stays right where she is without making so much as a peep. She sticks her head out to scan with radar again and those same ships are still there. And if that wasn't bad enough she hears another patrol of cat fighters fly overhead. Shimakaze's impatiences starts to get the better of her but it has good reason to do so. "It's only a matter of time before they find me. I need to find a way to get out of here before I get trapped in here. She sticks her head out again, and once again she detects those same ships. "Damn their still over there looking for me." she says again. Then she realizes something. She sticks her head out a little longer this time to get their bearing. "Their about two kilometers directly west of here….. hm… and their not moving. Could they just be waiting to ambush me again when I come out?" she asks herself. "No. I don't think that's it. Something's off. I need to see what they are." she states. Shimakaze then risks coming out of the alcove and peeks out to the west of the island. She scans the distance and then suddenly sees it. Here eyes open wide is surprise.
There, on the next large island over, is a large airfield princess and in the port next to her is a large task force just pulling in to anchor. "Is that the resupply task force we've been looking for?" she asks herself. But something is very wrong with what she's seeing. This task force doesn't contain any resupply Abyssals. As she focuses in on the task force itself her blood runs cold as she begins to identify the ships. "Two Wo-class Kai-Ni Flagship Carriers and a Wo-Class Kai-Ni Mark V Flagship Carrier, Two Ru-class Elite Battleships, a Ri-class Kai-Ni Flagship battleship and a Battleship Princess Kai Mark III, Two Light Cruiser Hei-class Elites and two Tsu-class light cruiser Elites, two Ne-class Heavy Cruiser Elites, one Ri-Class heavy cruiser elite and one Ri-Class Heavy Cruiser Kai-Ni Flagship, six I-class Late model Elite Destroyers, and six Na-Class late model Elite Destroyers." she counts. Shimakaze quickly ducks back into the alcove and begins the shiver in fear. "The report we got was so wrong on this! This is no resupply task force trying to resupply a small base trying to get started. This is a damn major Strike Fleet that plans on attacking us, and its the one getting resupplied by a major air field!" she talks to herself. The sheer number of high class Abyssals in that Strike Fleet means that they plan on striking a major blow against the Fleet girls. Shimakaze comes to this conclusion rather quickly.
'They must be going after Truk. It's the only major base we have anywhere near this area that would need all this firepower to take out. Not even Yamato-san could withstand this amount of firepower brought to bare." says Shimakaze to herself. Shimakaze can feel a cold realization come over her. The reports they were receiving must have been misleading because the main base was being fed false information. Somehow the Abyssals must have been feeding false information to base. But how? Shimakaze shakes her head. "Now's not the time to be thinking about that." she says. The more important threat is the large strike fleet sitting at port just a couple of kilometers away. Even she knows that trying to take them on by herself is suicide. Suddenly something pops into her head. "What is a large task force like that doing in this port in the first place? Surly they have enough supplies already to go all the way to Truk without needing to stop…. Unless." she says to herself. Once again she pokes her head over the outcropping of rocks and looks towards the port. She focuses on the Wo carriers.
As she carefully watches them one of the Wos approaches the Airfield Princess. It then begins "spitting out" several of its fighters onto the ground from its mouth head next to the Airfield Princess. The fighters appear to be badly damaged and look like they're "bleeding." "I knew it! Some of the Wo's fighters have been damaged recently. It needs a full compliment of fighters before taking on a major base." says Shimakaze to herself. But what she sees next makes her a little sick. The Airfield Princess looks down at the pile of damaged fighters and then back up at the Wo. She then bends down, picks one of the fighters up… and feeds it to the the large mouth appendage on her right. Shimakaze's face turns blue as she covers her mouth and her eyes narrow in shock. As the Appendage swallows the first fighter the Airfield Princess begins to glow red. Then from her left side where the runway looking appendage is exits a brand new fighter. It flies over to the Wo and reenters the mouth head. Shimakaze then ducks back down behind the outcropping of rocks. "I've heard of this. Abyssals will 'eat' their own kind to help repair others. But those were only supposed to be rumors." she says to herself.
While Shimakaze is trying to wrap her head around what she's just seen she hears the familiar rumble of Cat fighters over head again. "Why are there so many cat fighters in the air? Surely they don't need so many to attack the Kongos and the other destroyer girls. Something doesn't add up here." she says to herself again. Shimakaze chances another peak over the outcropping hoping that she won't be seen by the cat fighters. She watches them head to the Airfield Princess. The Airfield Princess's mouth appendage stops "eating" for a moment to allow her to extend her "runway" appendage to allow the cat fighters to reenter her body. She goes red once again and a new squadron of cat fighters takes off from her "runway" appendage. Shimakaze quickly ducks back under the out cropping and carefully watching them fly back over head towards she can only guess are the Kongos and the other destroyer girls. "But why is that Airfield Princess sending so many cat fighters towards the rest of her fleet.
As soon as she says that the obvious reason pops right into her head. "A DEVERSION! The Airfield Princess uses her forces to engage my fleet to which they have to call for support. They feed us false information about a resupply fleet in these seas to lure out search and destroy Fleets. Then the Airfield Princess attacks one of them in mass and forces them to call for help. This pulls all the other fleets in the area towards them and the Strike Fleet moves on to attack Truk nearly unopposed! " she says to herself. She again pokes her head out to look at the abyssal fleet in port. "That means that this fleet's stoppage here was unscheduled. Which means this is the ONLY time that they are venerable to attack." she says to herself some more. Shimakaze has another glance at the Airfield Princess who is still "eating" damaged fighters and "spitting out" repaired ones. She looks and sees only ten more damaged fighters still left. Shimakaze knows that once the Wo has all its fighters that fleet will launch for Truk.
"This is the only chance where they're vulnerable to attack, but the only one around to attack them… is me…" says Shimakaze as she comes to a realization. "And even if I could call for back-up, at the rate the Airfield Princess is going, They wouldn't arrive in time to stop the fleet from moving out. Not to mention it would give my position away. They'd either run after being discovered or come after me. And even I can't out run planes." she says to herself. She does have one advantage going her her. Surprise. But at two kilometers away they'd have enough time to detect her and turn their guns on her before she could get close enough to attack. "All I need is 500 meters. 500 meters gives me the best chance to launch an attack with full surprise." she mumbles. Suddenly Fubuki's words come back to ring in her head. "Shimakaze-chan your actions are going to eventually wind up getting yourself or someone else sunk." Shimakaze knows that she does take a lot of unnecessary risks in battle, but this would be the most reckless action she's ever taken. And most likely her last.
As Shimakaze looks on at the enemy fleet in port she notices something. Between her and the port are several outcroppings of small rocky islands. About six of them. "None of them have any overhanging rocks to provide me any cover from planes, but they have rocks large enough to hind me from the view of the Abyssals. The problem is how do I move between them without being spotted by those Abyssals?" she says to herself. Then she notices something about the fleet. "They're all pointed facing towards the Airfield Princess with their backs facing towards the last small outcropping island which is just under 500 meters away from the port. If I can just make my way over to that island, I can make my surprise attack run." she says to herself again. "But I know I still won't be able to finish off this massive fleet in one go. I'll get one attack run in before I have to flee as fast as I can. If I'm lucky I can get out of range of the battleship guns with my superior speed. It's those destroys I'm worried about. The Battleships and Cruisers may not be able to react fast enough when I enter the port due to their size, but the Destroyers are small and fast enough to react to me. They may be able to shoot at me before I can even get a shot off so how do I get past them?" she says to herself.
She looks on trying to figure out a way to get past the destroyers when she takes another look at the pile of damaged fighters. One of them is smoking. "That's it! Smoke! I can lay down a smoke screen as I enter the port to mask my position from the destroyers. And as an added benefit that same smoke will hide my position from the battleships and cruisers on my way out." she figures out. But then she realizes something else. "Even if I can get into the port which Abyssals do I go after first?" she wonders. Harking back to her school studies the answer becomes obvious. She was taught that the biggest danger to any fleet or navel base were aircraft carriers. "So the Wos will be my targets. But even if I can disable them that still leaves a sizeable fleet that can head on Truk anyway. If they head out as soon as I leave they'll still beat any of the other fleet girls in the area to Truk." she says to herself. She quickly realizes what she must do. "That just leaves me with one option. I MUST radio their position in. If I don't they can still get away. But it'll give my position away. They'll know I'm coming." she says.
She looks at the small outcropping of islands again. "I'll have to radio in their position when I get to the last island. It'll give them the least amount of time to prepare for my assault. But that still leaves me with the problem of how to approach them. The Airfield Princess is still looking in the direction of the sea. She'll spot me for sure. Am I going to have to make a suicidal charge from here?" she asks herself. She looks back at the Airfield Princess as she's just about to "eat" another fighter. "I don't have much time left." says Shimakaze to herself. Then she spots it. After the mouth appendage "eats" the damaged fighter the Airfield Princess closes her eyes for nearly a full minute before opening them again and "spitting" out a new fighter. "That's it! Every time she closes her eyes I can charge full speed to the next island over. But even with my superior speed it'll be a trail for me to sprint this island hopping maneuver." she says to herself. But what choice does she have? She hears another squadron of cat fighters coming in so she ducks back into the outcropping. "Those cat fighters are still going to be a problem. If they spot me, I'm dead. But given how little time I have left, I'll have to start island hopping as soon as they leave and the Airfield Princess begins "eating" another fighter." she concludes.
Shimakaze waits patiently while gathering her thoughts. This very well may be her last sortie. Man what she wouldn't give to have Fubuki and the other girls by her side right now. After a minute or so she hears the distinctive sound of the cat fighters passing overhead. She peaks out and sees them fly off into the distance. She immediately pokes her head completely out to look at the Airfield Princess. She sees her just in time to pick up another fighter. "Okay Shimakaze. This is it. Get ready." she thinks to herself. The Airfield Princess feeds the damaged fighter into her mouth appendage and it chomps down and begins chewing. Shimakaze revs her engines to make sure they are in full operational order. She thinks she hears something off but there's nothing she can do about it now. Finally the mouth appendage swallows and the Airfield Princess closes her eyes. "Now!" says Shimakaze.
She immediately blasts out from behind her cover and races at top speed to the next island. She knows she's making some noise and kicking up spray, but thankfully the entire abyssal fleet still have they backs towards the sea. She reaches the next island just mere seconds before the Airfield Princess opens her eyes and spits out another fighter. "Well so much for the shortest distance I have to run. The next few are going to be a real challenge. They have to be a good 50 meters further away from each other." she says to herself. Again she waits patiently for the Airfield Princess to close her eyes. This time however Shimakaze gets down into a "set" position as if she's going to do a 100 meter dash. Though this one is a good 400 meters away. She can barely see the Airfield Princess's face over the top of the outcropping. The airfield Princes once again picks up a damaged fighter and feeds it to her mouth appendage. As soon as she closes her eyes Shimakaze takes off again pushing her propulsion shoes to their absolute max. She can't help notice a slight clicking noise as she does. She just barely makes it behind the next island just before the Airfield Princess opens her eyes.
Shimakaze is physically gasping for breath behind the small island. "I can't keep this up. I'll end up being seen at this rate. And that sprint to that last Island is the furthest I'll have to cross. I have no choice I'll have to cut the safeties on my output pressure. If all goes to plan I'll be matching my trial run speeds." she says to herself. She quickly bends over to adjust her propulsion shoes and cuts the safeties off. "Please don't blow out on me." she prays. She watches as the Airfield Princess "eats" another fighter and then closes her eyes. Shimakaze is off like a shot. The safety cutting has a very noticeable affect on her speed. She has to be going at least two to three extra knots. She makes it to the next island with just a couple of seconds to spare as a result. "Okay good. If I can keep this up then I can at least make it to the fifth island." she says. The process of island hopping is successful to after that until the fifth island.
This will be the hardest crossing yet. The distance between the fifth and Sixth islands is 50 meters further. "I'll have to go faster than my trial runs if I'm going to make it across this expanse. Please propulsion shoes, please give me everything you've got." she says. Again she gets into the "set" position and waits for the Airfield Princess to close her eyes. "I've got to time this one just right." Shimakaze thinks to herself. She lets her propulsion shoes idol at a high revs. Yet she still hears a clinking noise. She ignores it for the time being. She watches the Airfield Princes carefully and beings to countdown as she takes another fighter and tosses it into her mouth appendage. "3….2…..1…." counts down Shimakaze. The Airfield Princess closes her eyes at zero and Shimakaze takes off the fastest yet. She can feel her feet getting very hot; almost burning as her propulsion shoes are pushed past their cooling abilities. "Come on just ten more seconds. Please last that long." she pleads. The clicking turns into a thudding noise. The Airfield Princes begins to open her eyes with Shimakaze just meters away from the last island. She dives for it and lands with a hard splash just before the Airfield Princess raises her head to "spit" out another fighter.
"Oh man… I think I actually hit 41 knots that time. I made it just in time." mutters Shimakaze. Just in case she peeks her head around the small outcropping of rocks and sees that the Airfield Princess is about to pick up another fighter. The other Abyssal ships didn't see or hear her either. Shimakaze lets out a huge sigh of relief. Her relief is short lived as she notices that there are only three damaged fighters to go before the attack fleet sets out. She'll have to make her run in less than two minutes to make it. Shimakaze begins to gather her thoughts and courage together in order to make the desperate surprise attack run that she has to do. Before she makes her run she HAS to radio in their position. She knows she most likely won't sink any of the ships: disabling the Wos is the best she'll be able to manage if she's lucky. But if she can delay their departure long enough for reinforcements to arrive, if there are any in the area after helping the rest of her squadron, then they could finish them off.
Shimakaze's hands shake in fear. She gives herself a hard self hug to try and calm herself down. "You ARE the Island wind, Shimakaze, fast, sleek, and unstoppable. Charge fast, aim true, and hit hard. Save your friends back at Truk." she says to herself. Her shaking nearly stops. Anyone who isn't a little afraid at the prospect of charging into an attack fleet as heavily armed as this, isn't normal. She gives a small sigh of relief when she realizes that she is still normal. Coming to this realization finally calms her down. She closes her eyes to give herself some clarity and to help her focus on what she's about to do. She opens her eyes in cold determination. She clicks on her radio and takes a deep breath. "This is Shimakaze of Search & Destroy squadron two! To any and all allies in the south east region of the Solomon Islands I have discovered the fleet we've been ordered to find, however it is NOT a resupply fleet as we were told. It is a massive strike force containing several aircraft carriers, and battleships with numerous cruisers and destroyers. I'm sure their target is our base at Truk Island. However, they have currently stopped at an Airfield Princess's port to get new fighters but they will not be here for much longer." she says.
The Airfield Princess and other Abyssals begin to look around as they hear her radio broadcast. Shimakaze pauses for a very brief moment before continuing. "As such I will be making an attack run on them in the hopes of delaying their departure for as long as possible, and hopefully I can disable a couple of them. I do not expect to survive this encounter, that's why you must get here as fast as possible to stop them for good! Their coordinates are 09°25′40.8″ South by 160°03′17.24″ East. I say again get here as quickly as you can to 09°25′40.8″ South 160°03′17.24″ East. This strike force MUST be stopped at all costs!" she calls out into her radio. Another pause. "And if anyone is listening who can, please tell the Destroyer Fubuki that I'm sorry for arguing with her today. Tell her…. she was right. Shimakaze out." she finishes. She switches off her radio to hopefully confuse the Abyssals trying to track where her signal was coming from. Though she realizes that it may be useless.
She takes one last peek from behind the outcropping of rocks and can see the Abyssals desperately looking back a forth for where the radio signal came from. She ducks back and prepares for her attack run. "Well… here goes nothing!" she says. Again she gets down the "set" position and revs her propulsion shoes once again. She takes one last deep breath and charges out from behind the outcropping at full speed, kicking up a large spray at the same time. Instantly the Airfield Princess spots her and points. Then says something that even Shimakaze can hear at this long distance. "Attack!" comes the deep feminine-like voice. The lumbering Battleships and Cruisers are too slow to respond, but several of the destroyers aren't and quickly being to turn to face Shimakaze. "This is going to be close." says Shimakaze as she charges ahead, quickly closing the distance between her and the Abyssals.
"Rensouhou-chan three get ready." orders Shimakaze. The smallest of her Rensouhou-chans pops out and jumps onto her right shoulder. The distance ends and Shimakaze blows past the destroyer screen. "NOW!" she orders. Her Rensouhou-chan number three quickly begins to belch out very dark-gray smoke in a long trail. The smokescreen quickly hides her silhouette and blinds the destroyers. One of them fires blindly into the smoke but misses her by a wide margin. The Cruisers and Battleships ahead of her begin to turn and try to train their guns towards her. But they're even slower than the destroyers. Shimakaze quickly blows past them as well and the smokescreen has the same affect. Now nothing stands between her and the Wos.
The Three Wos ahead of Shimakaze are desperately trying to cut their anchorages in order to engage her, but Shimakaze closes the distance too fast for them to even try and launch any aircraft. "Rensouhou-chans Two and Three engage the Airfield Princess and do as much damage as possible. Might as well try and knock her out while were at it. Rensouhou-chan Three cut the smoke and prepare to fire on the middle Wo!" she quickly orders. Her Rensouhou-chans two and three pop out and quickly begin lobbying shells at the Airfield Princess. Her Rensouhou-chan three cuts the smoke and quickly turns around on her shoulder and takes aim at the Mark V Wo Flagship. "Hang on." she says.
Shimakaze quickly turns her torpedo launcher at the Wo Flagship to her starboard. She waits a couple more seconds to take careful aim. "Torpedoes one and two FIRE!" she calls out. Immediately the first two torpedoes in her launcher blast out and land in the water and start running straight and true. She immediately twirls 180 and points her torpedoes at the Wo Flagship that was on her port side. "Torpedoes four and five FIRE!" she calls out again. Just like her first two, her next two torpedoes launch and are running straight and true. "Rensouhou-chan three fire at the Mark V's face!" she orders. Immediately the smallest of the Rensouhou-chans opens fire. Shimakaze makes a quick hard turn to her port and aims her torpedo launcher at the Mark-V Wo Flagship carrier. "Torpedo three FIRE!" she calls out. The last torpedo in her launcher blasts out and hits the water straight and true. As she continues making her hard turn towards port she looks back to see the shells that her Rensouhou-chans two and three fired rain down on the Airfield Princess. Several make very goods hits to her torso and mouth appendage. But crucially several hit her runway looking appendage and damages it. "Good! Now she can't accept or launch anymore fighters into the air. That ought to give my squadron some relief." she says to herself.
The shells fired from her Rensouhou-chan three quickly strike home right after the Airfield Princess was hit. The Mark V Flagship Wo carrier grabs her face and appears to scream in pain. Shimakaze can tell that both her eyes were shot out. She's now completely blind to what's headed her way. Suddenly, BOOM! BOOM! The first two of Shimakaze's torpedoes strike home. The First Wo, though not suck, is badly damaged and out of action. Shimakaze's next two torpedoes also strike hard on the second Wo. Like the first, the second Wo is knocked out of commission. Moments later the Mark V Flagship Wo is hit by the last torpedo. Combined with the shelling to its face it is also knocked out of commission. "All right! We got all three! Now let's get the hell out of here!" she calls out. She ducks back into the smoke screen to which her Rensouhou-chan three begins belching smoke again further obscuring her position.
It only takes her twenty more seconds to pop out of the smoke screen again from where she started. Rensouhou-chan three runs out of smoke and after a couple of coughs, twirls back around on Shimakaze's shoulder to face forward. Good job Rensouhou-chan three." she comments. Rensouhou-chan three smiles and twirls in delight. Shimakaze looks back at the smoke screen getting more and more distant away from her. None of the Abyssals are following her it seems. "We've completely fooled them. That went so much better than I thought. We just might make it out of here alive after all." she dares to speak aloud. Her Rensouhou-chans twirl in agreement. "KABOOM!" comes and loud explosion from behind her. Shimakaze quickly turns her head around. "That was no secondary explosion!" she says to herself. Suddenly large slashes water erupt just ahead of her. Shimakaze manages to dodge them then she looks back again. Out from the smoke screen comes the Battleship Princess Kai III.
"What the hell? How did she find me so quickly!?" says Shimakaze with amazement. The Battleship Princess lets another salvo of shells go at Shimakaze. Again Shimakaze manages to dodge them. "She's mad." she says to herself. "Shimakaze looks back again and then notices the antenna like protrusions from the side of the Battleship Princess's head. She instantly recognizes them. "Range finding radar! She was able to track me through all the smoke from the start. She just couldn't fire back then until now." says Shimakaze. Yet again the Battleship Princess let's another salvo go. Shimakaze dodges them but only barely this time. "Shit. With every salvo she's correcting her aim. That last one was too close so she may get me next time. My only chance is to out run her and get out of her range." says Shimakaze. Shimakaze once again steps on the gas and takes off again.
After about 30 seconds of going full speed Shimakaze looks back but is shocked to see the Battleship Princess keeping up with her. "What the hell? How is she staying with me?" Shimakaze says in amazement. Shimakaze quickly checks her rpm and knot speed indicator. "What? I'm only making 34 knots!? That's not possible…. Oh no don't tell me I've pushed by propulsion shoes too hard? I've got no choice, I've got to cut the safeties again." she says in fear. She reaches down and cuts off the safety measure on her shoes again. She steps on it again. But after only a few seconds the clinking noise she had be hearing turns into a loud clanging noise. Then suddenly "BANG! BANG! BANG! BAM! Shimakaze feels something break on her right shoe and immediately her speed drops dramatically. "Oh no, what was that!?" she says as she lifts her right leg. To her horror she sees that the propeller has sheered off. She was putting so much stress on them with constant high RPMs that it broke. She again checks her knots speed…. 24 knots. She quickly pulls her right foot out of the water and places it on her left. With less drag from her dead shoe her speed picks up just a little bit to 27 knots. "Shit. The Battleship Princess can easily catch up to me at this slow speed." says Shimakaze to herself.
"Rensouhou-chan three do we have any smokescreen left?" she asks. Her Rensouhou-chan three shakes its head "no" sadly. Suddenly Rensouhou-chan three disappears off her shoulder as something big goes whizzing on by. Shimakaze swears she could feel whatever it was just barely scrape past her ear. Then several large geysers of water erupt all around her. They miss. Shimakaze looks slowly back in sheer terrified horror. There in the water is small scraps of metal slowly starting to sink into the sea; none bigger than a 1 yen coin. Rensouhou-chan three has been obliterated by one of the Battleship Princess's 16 inch shells which just missed Shimakaze herself. It's only now that Shimakaze feels a sting from her cheek. She feels it and then looks at her glove that comes back bloody. A small piece of shrapnel from Rensouhou-chan three has cut her cheek. Shimakaze looks back at the Battleship Princess Kai III who has a smile of pleasure on her face. She and Shimakaze know that the next salvo with be dead on target on Shimakaze herself as the distance between the two slowly close. If Shimakaze is going to survive this. She has to act. AND FAST!
"Damn. My Rensouhou-chans' guns won't have any affect on her. The only thing in my arsenal that could hurt a Battleship Princess are torpedoes but- AH!" says Shimakaze as she realizes something. She reaches into her torpedo reserve container and can feel the two torpedoes Mutsuki gave her. She takes a quick glance back at the Battleship Princess still creeping closer and closer as her guns start adjusting for the closer range. "Damn. If she sees me loads these she'll begin evasive maneuvers. I won't be able to hit her and she'll still be able to close the distance. If I only had more smoke for a smokescreen." she says. A sudden idea pops into her head. "Rensouhou-chans One and Two!" she calls out. Rensouhou-chans one and two appear behind her ready for her orders. "Start shooting at the Battleship Princess. Forget the AP rounds and only use HE rounds." she orders. Rensouhou-chans one and two look at her like she's crazy. AP rounds already have a slim chance of denting a Battleship Princess's armor. HE rounds would be completely useless. "You heard me! Fire HE rounds! Try to aim for her head and upper torso!" Shimakaze orders forcefully.
The two Rensouhou-chans look at each other in confusion but twirl around and start firing at the Battleship Princess never-the-less. Their first few rounds miss but after minor corrections their next salvos are dead on target. The HE rounds fly through the air and begin exploding in balls of flame against the Battleship Princess's armor shield. When the Battleship Princess realizes they're HE rounds she doesn't even flinch, she just continues on course. As Shimakaze's Rensouhou-chans continue hitting the Battleship Princess something unexpected happens. The Battleship Princess's face becomes enshrouded in smoke and obscures her vision. "Perfect. Continue firing." orders Shimakaze. She quickly reaches into her reserve torpedo container and pulls out the two torpedoes. "Well Mutsuki-chan, looks like I'll have to use these after all." she says to herself. She quickly loads the torpedoes into tubes two and four.
"With any luck both of these will hit on both sides on her bow. But even if they don't she won't spot their trails until it's too late. So even if she does try to avoid them one is guaranteed to hit. I just hope one hit will be enough to slow her down enough to allow me to get away. Probably not, but this is my best bet right now. But this all depends on if she doesn't see me launch them." says Shimakaze. Her Rensouhou-chans continue to fire HE rounds into the upper torso area of the Battleship Princess. The Battleship Princess is getting rather annoyed at all the smoke obscuring her view, but her range finding radar cuts through it easily and she still adjusts her aim in the closing distance. She's merely a minute away from locking on to Shimakaze with a guaranteed hit. Shimakaze meanwhile aims her torpedo rack directly astern. "Sheesh aiming directly backwards isn't easy." says Shimakaze while trying to look directly backwards. She can't make a regular sideways launch because she knows the Battleship Princess's radar would detect any such maneuver and she would avoid it.
Shimakaze bends as far forward as she dare to stay balanced but allow for a smooth transition into the water for the torpedoes. She looks between her legs and can see the Battleship Princess's lower half lined up directly with her camel toe. "Rensouhou-chans move it!" she orders loudly. Shimakaze's two Rensouhou-chans immediately part. "Torpedoes two and four simultaneous launch!" she calls out. Immediately both torpedoes launch out and make a smooth transition into the water and head straight towards the Battleship Princess. "Please hit." she prays. The torpedoes quickly close the distance between the two. The Battleship Princess by now is fed up with the smoke around her face from the HE shells. She fires two of her massive canons which easily clear the smoke away and she can once again see Shimakaze clearly. The other four canons are all she needs to easily sink a small ship like Shimakaze. With a smirk she takes careful aim by using both radar and sight. She's NOT going to miss again. Suddenly she spots two, very near, white streaks in the water. She instantly knows what they are. But it's far too late to try and avoid them.
BOOM!-BOOM! Both torpedoes hit their marks on both sides of the Battleship Princess's bow at the same time. The one that hits her starboard side has the added bonus of being a critical hit. All the canons on her starboard side are knocked out. She immediately begins to drift to the right. "GOT HER!" calls out Shimakaze in glee. Both her Rensouhou-chans also twirl in glee. "Now Rensouhou-chans, let's get out of here while the getting's good!" she orders. Her Rensouhou-chans agree. But just as she turns around a massive amount of geysers erupt around her and she feels a few things hit her hard. "YAHHHHH!" she screams. When the spray settles she's horrified to find her clothes are ripped and her feet are settling into the water a bit lower. She also feels some pain in her right shoulder. She scuffed and bruised all over. Even her Rensouhou-chans have been moderately hit. And worst of all, her speed has dropped to below 20 knots. "W-What the hell what that?" she stutters. She then looks forward and comes to a dead stop in complete shock.
There, in front of her, is a an Abyssal fleet completely blocking her path in a forward semi-circular formation. It's the fleet that had been perusing her from the squall line. With her concentration having been completely focused on the Strike Fleet, she had lost track of this fleet. And it's come back to bite her. There's nowhere for her to go going forward. She looks back to the Battleship Princess who hasn't recovered from being hit, but in the distance the smokescreen has long lifted and the main Strike Fleet is closing in on her fast from astern. And with her being damaged and her speed cut by more than half, she no longer has the speed to try and escape through the sides. She's effectively trapped now. Shimakaze slowly backs up while still facing the pursuit fleet. The fleet behind her is still a somewhat distance away so she can't be fired upon by them just yet, but it's only a matter of time. She can't help but feel that it's like she's stuck in a bear trap whose jaws are coming down slowly ready to crush her slowly and painfully.
Both of her Rensouhou-chans look up at her with frightful concern. "I know you guys. We're in serious trouble now." she says with several sweat drops on her face. As the noose slowly tightens around Shimakaze, her options for survival are quickly getting slimmer and slimmer. She finally realizes that any hope of escape is practically zero. She knows she only has two options now. Either allow death to close in on her, or fight to the bitter end and see if she can take any more with her. "Rensouhou-chans…. it looks like this is it. We're not going to survive this." says Shimakaze slowly. Her Rensouhou-chans come to this realization as well and seem to accept it. "We've fought well. We've done our duty. We've, at the very least, delayed this Strike Fleet from attacking Truk. And there's no way none of our friends heard our call, so they know this fleet is here and will hopefully come to finish it off or at least turn it away." she says bravely.
"With that said. I have no plans on doing nothing and just waiting to be finished off. I'm going to fight. Before they completely encircle us, I'm going to fight until I'm either sunk, or they're all sunk." says Shimakaze bravely. Her Rensouhou-chans look up at her again. "I ask you, Rensouhou-chans One and Two, will you join me in battle, one last time?" she asks kindly as she looks down at them with a smile. Their response is almost immediate. They twirl in agreement and load their AP rounds. 'Thank you, you guys. Now, lets see how many we can take out before the end." she says with a smirk and narrowed determined eyes. Shimakaze revs her last remaining engine and takes a quick look around at the Abyssals closing in on her. She looks for the easiest target she'd be able to attack. All of them are not good options. But at this moment nothing is a "good" option. But she finally settles on the three Ha destroyers to her left in the patrol fleet. It would be suicide to face them normally without backup but right now it would be suicide just to wait.
"Here we go Rensouhou-chans!" she calls out. Her Rensouhou-chans jump in agreement. She takes off in the direction of the Ha-class destroyers at her best possible speed of around 18 knots. Her Rensouhou-chans let lose with everything they've got. The Ha destroyers are shocked at her sudden attack they forget to fire back and it's only when Shimakaze gets a few hits in that they start opening fire back. The Tsu-class Light-cruisers also begin to open fire. As well as the other squadron of Ro-class destroyers to Shimakaze's right. She may be slowed down but she's at least still maneuverable. Shimakaze employs the tactic of chasing splashes to try to throw their aim off. Her Rensouhou-chans follow suit. The tactic works and she gets even closer to the destroyers and has her Rensouhou-chans lay into to them hard. One of the Ha's begins to slow after being hit several times.
"Rensouhou-chans! Finish it!" orders Shimakaze. Both Rensouhou-chans do a full broadside and the Ha goes up in the cloud of fire and smoke. Shimakaze immediately reverses direction just before a salvo of shells from the Tsu light-cruisers lands where she would have been. Unfortunately this forces her into a head on course with the said Tsu Cruisers. Two of the Tsus flank her sides and try to catch Shimakaze in a cross fire. Shimakaze sees it coming and pulls hard to port to pull out of the crossfire. She takes a glancing blow from a five inch shell but manages to get out of the cross fire while her Rensouhou-chans pepper them back. The Ro Destroyers have managed to get behind her though and being to fire on her with both canons and torpedoes. Her Rensouhou-chan Two however hops onto her head and opens up on the torpedoes in the water and Shimakaze begins evasive maneuvers to Starboard. Several of the torpedoes are intercepted and blow up in the water opening a way for Shiamkaze to evade the torpedo salvo.
This maneuver, however, leads her into being crossfired by the two remaining Ha destroyers. Shimakaze takes another hit before she can evade the salvos."AHH! For me to be hit… Damn you!" she cries in anger. Her Rensouhou-chans immediately open up on the Has and they get a good critical hit in on of of them. The badly hit Ha pulls out of formation to avoid any more shells. The other Ha continues firing at Shimakaze. Shimakaze suddenly pulls hard to starboard as she feels something coming from behind. She just barely manages to avoid another salvo of torpedoes but now all the Tsus are on her tail again. Her Rensouhou-chans spin around and begin firing back at the Tsus in response. The Tsus' armor holds at they get peppered by shells. The other Ha destroyer comes about and fires a salvo of torpedoes back at Shimakaze at close range. "Shit!" she yells as picks up her Rensouhou-chans and turns hard to port just narrowly avoiding the torpedoes.
She watches as the torpedoes head on back to the Tsus. They begin to part as they see them coming. "Rensouhou-chans follow me! We're following those torpedoes!" she orders. She drops her Rensouhou-chans and immediately changes course to follow the torpedoes between the Tsus. The Tsus can hardly believe their eyes as Shimakaze uses their own torpedoes as a shield. As Shimakaze "blows" through their formation her Rensouhou-chans aim at a Tsu each and fire. Rensouhou-chan One manages to get a direct hit on one of the Tsus's faces and effectively knocks out the Tsus's visor and temporarily blinds both of her eyes underneath. Shimakaze then looks ahead and sees the three Ros trying to cross the T on her. "Rensouhou-chans! HE rounds quick!" she orders. Her Rensouhou-chans respond quickly and immediately fire on the crossing Ros. Several hits are scored and all three Ros are set afire. As they scream in agony Shimakaze "speeds" on by.
Shimakaze looks back and sees the mess she's made of the pursuit fleet. The Tsus are still trying to reform their battle-line and the Ros are trying to put out the flames still on their backs. "Good that should buy me some time to-" she doesn't even get to finish her sentence. A hail of shell fire comes raining down. Shimakaze is hit yet again HARD. Her Rensouhou-chan two takes a five inch shell to the torso and goes flying backwards skipping across the water. "Rensouhou-chan two!" Shimakaze calls out. She looks back forward and can see the main strike fleet has finally come into their fire range. The hit she took hurts and her speed is cut yet again. "Shit!" she curses. She immediately starts taking wild evasive action as more shells start to rain down around her. "Rensouhou-chan One can you hit the battleships from this range?" asks a desperate Shimakaze. Her Rensouhou-chan one shake its head "no."
Suddenly the pursuit fleet fires on her again. They've reorganized faster than she thought they would. "Dammit! All I can do is evasive maneuvers, but I know it's only a matter of time before they start hitting me again. Grr… All I can do is charge the pursuit fleet again. Rensouhou-chan One follow me!" she orders. She quickly reverses course and charges the pursuit fleet again ignoring the salvos coming from the main strike fleet. "If I can get in among the pursuit fleet the main strike fleet will be forced to cease fire or hit their own comrades." says Shimakaze. The Two Tsus with good eyes see her coming and immediately order all the fleet to fire. Shimakaze does the same with her last remaining Rensouhou-chan. Shimakaze tries her best to avoid getting hit but still takes several glancing blows. Several of her Rensouhou-chan One's shells hit the Tsus causing a little damage. Shimakaze screams a warriors cry as she charges the Tsus on a nearly head on collision course.
Her Rensouhou-chan One stays directly in front of her firing directly ahead in hopes of splitting the Tsu line. But they hold steady. Shimakaze is forced to turn off to starboard but her Rensouhou-chan One gets a direct hit on the far left Tsu which throws the Tsu's aim off. Shimakaze manages to once again "speed" on past the Tsus. The Ro destroyers try to turn around to reacquire her but Rensouhou-chan One is faster and manages to land some hits again on their sterns. Another shell goes whizzing by Shimakaze's head. She looks ahead to see the Ha firing on her. Her Rensouhou-chan One, as quick as lightning, spins around and again fires on the Ha. The Ha doesn't budge and charges her and her Rensouhou-chan One. "Fine! You want to play Chicken! I'm game. I've got nothing to lose now!" shouts Shimakaze in furry.
Shimakaze and the Ha destroyer exchange rounds at each other, neither one landing a blow until Shimakaze gets one hit in. The Ha pulls off to Starboard when suddenly Shimakaze feels a sharp pain in her back as an explosion goes off. She goes flying forward and slams into the water. The back of her already skimpy and torn shirt is blown off. One of the heavy cruisers in the main Strike Fleet landed a lucky 8 inch shell into her back. "Augh! That really hurts." she says almost calmly. She's slow to get up. She's badly damaged and she can feel it. Rensouhou-chan One looks up at her with a lot of concern after she gets back to her feet. "Heh. I bet I'll barely make 12 knots after that hit." she says. She looks down at her Rensouhou-chan One. "I guess this is it Rensouhou-chan One. So… One last charge?" she says with a smile. With a tear in its eye Rensouhou-chan One agrees with a nods of its head.
Shimakaze immediately turns around again and charges both fleets again barely making 13 knots, one knot faster than she expected. Both of the Abyssal fleets open up on her. Once again she chases splashes to reduce her chances of being hit while her Rensouhou-chan One opens up with everything its got. Her Rensouhou-chan One doesn't stick with one target but quickly just picks any ship it sees and fires then switches to another. She "blows" by the Ha and Ros, then the Tsus, all the while taking hard glancing blows. The main Strike Fleet is now dead ahead. All of them firing directly at her. Shimakaze can see the individual shells glowing yellow whizzing past her with the occasional one glancing off her hard. Every glancing blow hurts but she doesn't care. Her Rensouhou-chan One is firing the best it can and is managing to land hits, but against battleships and cruisers they do little to no damage. Still Shimakaze is determined that if she's going to sink here, she's going down in the blaze of glory.
She then gets hit again in the back by a five inch shell and hits the water just as hard. But just as quickly she gets back on her feet to try and continue to fight she gets hit again, this time on her head. "Ahugh!" she screams in pain. This one hurts most of all. Blood begins to pour down the right side of her face. Still she gets back up. Her Rensouhou-chan One manages to hit the destroyer who hit her in the head and cripples it. Then Rensouhou-chan One itself gets hit. Its number one canon gets taken out, but its number two still fires on. Shimakaze gets hit again, and again, still she rises to face the enemy. She's now getting bracketed from all sides. She finally takes a shell to the stomach and back once again and this slows her momentum to a crawl. She gets hit again and it slams her into the water.
The shelling from the Abyssals then slackens off and stops. Shimakaze slowly rises up to her knees. "Is that all you Abyssals got!?" she shouts at them. She lifts her head with a fierce look on her face. She sees that all the Abyssals have all their guns turned on her ready to fire and finish her off. Shimakaze doesn't flinch. Suddenly, "Waiiiit….' comes a deep monstrous yet somehow feminine voice. Shimakaze looks in the direction of the voice and sees the Ru and Ta class Battleships in the Strike Force part. Through them comes the Battleship Princess Shimakaze badly damaged. The Battleship Princess slowly approaches Shimakaze from the front. It stops only a few of feet away. Shimakaze looks up and sees her aim her still operational port guns directly at her. The Battleship Princess intends to sink Shimakaze from point blank range. Shimakaze looks back down at the water and watches as several drops of her own blood drip into the ocean. She can only see red from her right eye anyway since it's covered in blood.
Shimakaze's Rensouhou-chan One jump in front of her and splays out its "arms" in a meager attempt to protect her. Shimakaze's life flashes before her eyes as the realization that she's actually going to die now hits her. But for some reason she starts to giggle. "Heh heh heh heh heh." she giggles. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" her giggle quickly turn into laughter. This startles both the Battleship Princess and her Rensouhou-chan One who both look directly at her. *GASP*…. *Sigh*. She finally stops laughing. "So this is it huh? This very spot is where I will be sunk." she says with her head still lowered. "Well if that's the case, then…" she says. She lifts her head and looks at the Battleship Princess with narrowed scarily determined eyes. Shimakaze begins to stagger to her feet. The Battleship Princess takes a step backwards in amazement. Shimakaze's right leg slips out from under her and she drops back to her knee. But she quickly, with wobbly legs, gets back up. It takes most of her remaining strength just to stand back up.
Grasping her right shoulder she manages to stand. Her feet are submerged to above her ankles. She looks up at the Battleship Princess and gives a smirk. "I know you can understand me, so listen well. If I'm to be sunk here, then I want to die standing on my feet, looking directly at my enemy, as I face death head on!" she declares. At that moment a strong island wind blows past, blowing her hair off to the side. As it dies down the Battleship Princess can't help but give a small smirk of respect for her. Even she can respect an enemy doing their duty, albeit a small respect. After a moment of recognition the Battleship Princess reaims her canons back at Shimakaze and prepares to fire. Shimakaze closes her eyes for a brief moment. "Well Fubuki-chan you were right. My speed was all for nought when completely surrounded. I just wish I could have lived long enough to take it to heart." she says to herself. She opens her eyes and looks down at her Rensouhou-chan One looking at her. "It's okay Rensouhou-chan One. We've done our duty. Now we must trust in our friends to finish the job." says Shimakaze with a calm voice.
She looks back at the Battleship Princess one last time with a calm smirk on her face. She doesn't close her eyes. As she said she's going to face death head on. Time seems to slow down as she awaits the massive barrage that will sink her. Suddenly there is a buzzing noise from above. It gets louder and louder very quickly. Shimakaze suddenly recognizes the noise. She quickly looks up along with the Battleship Princess. There, diving from out of the sun, is a squadron a fairy Aichi (VAL) dive bombers heading straight towards the Battleship Princess. The Abyssal fleet and the Battleship Princes open up on them but they're already too low for the Battleship Princess to avoid. They drop their bombs and only seconds later hit their target. The Battleship Princes is engulfed in three balls of fire. Shimakaze covers her face to shield it from the explosion. More buzzing noises gets her attention. She looks over and sees several flights of Yokosuka (Judy) torpedo bombers skimming the water. Two squadrons of them release their torpedoes at the Ro destroyers from the pursuit fleet. All three of them are hit. Two are sunk outright while the third is disabled.
More dive bombers join the fray from the sky and several squadrons of Zeros come roaring out of the skies as well to start strafing the of the Strike Fleet and Pursuit fleets. Shimakaze can hardly believe her eyes. Where did all these friendly planes come from? Some of the planes have one stripe on their tail, others have two stripes. She instantly recognizes them. As she looks around she looks through the gap in the Pursuit Fleet and off in the distance can see two familiar silhouettes. One white and red, the other one white and blue. She sees the white and red one reach for her ear. Shimakaze turns her radio back one and can hear it come to life. "Shimakaze-san! Can you hear me? I can see you through my planes flying above you. If you can hear me, we've opened up a gap in their lines. Make your best possible speed through the gap. My Planes will cover you." says the familiar voice. The voice is final confirmation for her. "Agaki-san!" she says through her radio back. "Yes it's me. Now hurry, before their lines close back around you!" orders Akagi.
"Heh. Easier said than done. I can barely make eight knots if I'm lucky. But I'll head towards you now." says Shimakaze back. She slowly turns and around slowly starts moving out. Suddenly she feels something grab her left arm and jerk her back. Shimakaze looks back and sees the Battleship Princess has grabbed her. She's badly damaged but still wants to sink Shimakaze. With a demented almost psychotic look on her face, she starts turning her last good canon at Shimakaze. She's determined to sink Shimakaze one way or another, and one 16 inch shell this close is still enough to finish off Shimakaze in one shot. Shimakaze suddenly finds her fighting spirit again. Less than 30 seconds ago she was ready to accept her death, but now she wants to fight for her life. "Rensouhou-chan One!" she shouts. Immediately Rensouhou-chan One jumps onto her left shoulder and then leaps up onto the Battleship Princess's arm and quickly aims its one remaining canon into her face.
The Battleship Princess's eyes open wide in shock. Rensouhou-chan One unloads an HE round at point blank range into her face. She let's go of Shimakaze's arm and grabs her face in agony. It's nowhere near enough to sink her, even as badly damaged as she is, but it's enough to damage her range finding radar plus the flames and smoke blind her eyes. "Good work Rensouhou-chan One. Now let's get out of here." says Shimakaze calmly. She and her Rensouhou-chan One start to waddle out of the battle area at eight knots. Several of the Abyssals try to turn to attack her but Akagi's planes are immediately on them when they try. She finally makes it to the gap and as she passes the disabled Ro Destroyer she has her Rensouhou-chan One hit it with a couple of shells on the way by, which quickly sinks it. Suddenly several geysers of water start to erupt all around her. She looks back and sees one of the Tsu light cruisers has made it past Akagi's air cover and is firing on her, though it itself is on fire. "Damn I can't maneuver at this speed." says Shimakaze.
Then from the distance she hears a familiar voice. "BURNING LOVE!" A hail of 14 inch shells goes sailing over Shimakaze's head and land around the Tsu Cruiser. Shimakaze looks ahead and sees Kongo and her sisters, a little worse for wear, coming around Akagi and Kaga straight at her. Kongo waves at her. "Hey Zekam- I mean Shimakaze! We're here to rescue you!" she radios to her. Shimakaze is so relieved to see some of her Search and Destroy fleet are still alive from being ambushed that she doesn't care that Kongo nearly messed up her name again. A couple more rounds from the Tsu land around her again. It's still not dead and still coming after her. "Shimakaze-chan!" comes another shout. This one is nearly music to Shimakaze's ears. From around back of the Kongo sisters come Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi. They quickly race towards her. They start shooting at the Tsu Cruiser who begins evasive maneuvers. The three girls rush past Shimakaze and quickly cross the T on the Tsu Cruiser. They launch a simultaneous torpedo run. And several torpedoes quickly rip into the Tsu. Sending it to the bottom of the ocean.
They quickly swing back around towards Shimakaze. "Shimakaze-chan are you alright?" asks Fubuki with a lot of concern in her voice. "No… not really…" she says with a smirk. As Fubuki grabs her around the waist and puts her arm over her shoulder to prop her up, Shimakaze looks away. "Fubuki-chan…. I'm sorry. You were right." she says sadly. "Huh?" says Fubuki. "You were right all along. I shouldn't go off by myself and do reckless things. When surrounded my speed would be for nought. You were right about both things and I'm sorry for yelling at you." says Shimakaze apologetically. "Um mm. No Shimakaze-chan I should be the one to say sorry for yelling at you. It was my fault for losing my temper. I'm just glad we got here in time to save you. Everyone was so worried that you would be sunk by the time we got here." says Fubuki as she shakes her head. "Stop being to modest Fubuki-chan." says Mutsuki. "Yeah, Shimakaze-chan, you should have seen it. As soon as your radio call came in that you were attacking a massive Strike Fleet solo, she was the most frantic to get to you-poi!" describes Yuudachi.
"Oh Yuudachi-chan!" blushes Fubuki. "Heh heh. Is that so?" says Shimakaze. "Still, thank you guys for coming. I'm just glad my radio call reached you guys." says Shimakaze with a smile. The girls share a small giggle. "Oh I've really got to thank you too Mutsuki-chan." says Shimakaze. "Me?" asks Mutsuki as she points to herself. "Yeah. The two torpedoes you lent me came in real handy. I managed to hit the Battleship Princess with both of them at the same time when I had run out of all my torpedoes. It helped delay her long enough for me to survive to this moment. Really… Thank you." says Shimakaze with gratitude. "No really! It was nothing! I'm just glad I could help." says Mutsuki while blushing a bit. "Oh so YOU hit the Battleship Princess. I was wondering why she looked as damaged as she did when I first bombed her." says Akagi as she and Kaga approach them. "You did well to hold them by yourself until now. I'm impressed." says Kaga in her typical monotone voice.
"Thank you. But I'm just glad you all got here in time." says Shimakaze. "We would never have made it in time without you!" says Kongo. "Huh? Me?" asks Shimakaze confusingly. "Yeah. There were so many cat fighters flying around and attacking us we couldn't head your way at all. But just moments after your radio call came in the cat fighters' reinforcements stopped and then Akagi and Kaga, who had also been on patrol, sent in their fighters and mopped up the rest. As soon as they were all gone Fubuki started rushing this way. Without you damaging the Airfield Princess as well preventing her from launching any more cat fighters our way we never would have been able to regroup and head your way." says Kirishima. "She may have done a really good job alone, but as I recall we are still in the middle of a battle." comes a deep woman's voice from behind them all. They look over and see a familiar black haired young woman with pointy headgear. "Secretary Ship Nagato!" calls out Fubuki in surprise. Up beside Nagato, is also Mutsu. "What on earth are you two doing here? We thought you were still in Truk." says Akagi in surprise.
"We were, but the admiral suspected that something was about to happen down here. He had no idea what, but he had all of us on standby just in case something went badly. So when Shimakaze's radio call came in he had us sortie immediately and rush down here at flank speed." describes Nagato. "Who is 'we?'" asks Yuudachi. "Myself and Mutsu are here to give you guys back up. Shokaku and Zuikaku along with Yamato and Destroyer group 6 are over attacking the Wos and Airfield Princess that Shimakaze damaged. "Yamato-san is here? Alright! Good for her!." cheers Fubuki. "Indeed. The Admiral was so impressed with her after Operation MI that he's let her come out again." says Nagato. She then turns to Shimakaze. "Shimakaze-san you are ordered to stay here under Akagi and Kaga's guard. We'll handle things from here." orders Nagato. "But I can still fight!" Shimakaze protests.
"I admire your determination, Shimakaze-san, but you are very badly damaged right now. You already didn't have much health and armor to begin with. You're lucky you survived taking so much punishment. Any more damage and you'll sink. Just please stay here." orders Nagato. "Okay…" she finally relents. "But I can still provide long range cover. My Rensouhou-chan One still has one working canon. I started this fight. At least let me see it to the end. Please allow me that much at least." asks Shimakaze. Nagato lets out a huff as she lowers her head slightly with a small smirk. She looks back at Shimakaze. "Okay, but support fire only. You are forbidden from entering the main battle itself from here on." order Nagato. "Thank you Secretary Ship Nagato." says Shimakaze as she tries to do her best salute. "Okay girls were heading back into the fray! We going in in wedge formation. Mutsu and I will take point. Kongo, Hiei, and Fubuki you will take our right flank. Kirishima, Haruna and Mutsuki you will take the left. Yuudachi you will cover our rear. Shimakaze you are ordered to lay down as much covering fire as you can from here. Akagi and Kaga, you will continue attacking with your planes from the air and covering us." orders Nagato. "Ya Ma'am!" come the simultaneous responses.
The nine ship attack force heads straight back into the battle. Akagi takes Shimakaze by the waste and holds her arm. "Just hold onto me for now on Shimakaze-chan. I can give you plenty of support." says Akagi with a smile. "Thank you Akagi-san. Okay Rensouhou-chan One you heard Nagato-san. Open fire and give them as much covering fire as you can." orders Shimakaze. Her Rensouhou-chan One gives a "salute' and then turns and starts lobbing shells over the other girls into the Abyssal fleets with its one good canon. It even manages to hit another Ro destroyer from long distance. "Okay girls we're going to force our way through their fleet. We'll take some fire but stay the course, don't get out of formation, and keep laying down fire. Shimakaze damaged many of their ships so we have the advantage here. Charge!" shouts Nagato. With the 16 inch shells from Nagato and Mutsu, along with the 14 inch shells from the Kongo sisters, the attack fleet wreaks havoc with the Abyssal fleets. And as they pass by, torpedoes and shells from Fubuki, Mutsuki, and Yuudachi finish off any stragglers.
With the Battleship Princess seriously damaged, the Wos, disabled and under fire, and the Airfield Princess under heavy fire, the rest of the Abyssal Fleets fall into complete disarray. They quickly become easy targets for the Fleet Girls, including Shimakaze who manages to hit a few more Abyssals from long range. At one point the Battleship Princess tries desperately to fight back with her one remaining canon. She manages to get one shot off at Nagato but misses due to her damaged radar. She's quickly flanked by both Nagato and Mutsu who fire on her from close range. She's sent back to her watery grave in a massive ball of flame. The Ru and Ri class battleships, seeing the Battleship Princess fall, quickly try to make a retreat but are cut off by the Kongo sisters and the three destroyer girls. With them attacking from the front in a crossed T and Akagi and Kaga's planes attacking from astern of them, they are quickly overwhelmed.
The Ta battleships are first to go down due to their lower armor and health. The Rus try to fight back but only manage to land a hit on Haruna before getting pommeled with battleship shells and torpedoes. Haruna only takes light damage and continues to fight. With all the Abyssal Battleships having been suck the Abyssal Cruisers and Destroyers try to beat a hasty retreat. But they too are quickly cut off by Akagi and Kaga's planes. Several of the Abyssals are quickly disabled by aerial torpedoes and dive bombers. They are soon finished off by the rest of the fleet girls. Only the last remaining Ha Destroyer and one damaged Tsu Light Cruiser manage to slip past the planes and get away. The few remaining stragglers of the Abyssal fleets are quickly dispatched. The entire Abyssal Strike Fleet is disseminated.
As she watches the Fleet girls regroup, Shimakaze from a distance can't help but breath a sigh of relief. A large explosion in the distance to her right grabs her attention. Large clouds of smoke rise from the vicinity of the Airfield Princess. The radio crackles to life again. "This is Shokaku. We have finished off the Wos and the Airfield Princess. We are now heading to you to regroup." says Shokaku. "Roger that. Good work girls." comes Nagato's response. "Okay let's regroup with Carrier Group One and Shimakaze everyone." order Nagato. "Yes ma'am!" comes the response again. As they approach, Shimakaze is once again relieved to see everyone made it through this battle alive. As they reach her Nagato approaches closer to Shimakaze. "Shimakaze, what you did was reckless, but extremely brave. You may well have single-handedly saved everyone at our forward base on Truk from a devastating attack. The admiral will want to talk to you about this, but first, lets get you back to Truk and to the docks." says Nagato. Shimakaze lets go of Akagi and gives a wobbly salute. "Yes Ma'am. Having a nice long soak in the docks … sounds… nice…" Shimakaze trails off and collapses forward.
Nagato quickly catches her in her arms. "Shimakaze-chan!" shouts Fubuki in great concern. Nagato quickly checks Shimakaze's pulse and breaths a sigh of relief. "It's okay. She's just fainted." says Nagato. Everyone else breaths a sigh of relief too. "Poor girl. When all the stress of battle was lifted all the battle damage and fatigue must have hit her all at once." says Mutsu. "Indeed. Lets get back to base and into the dock as soon as possible. Okay everyone. We're going to join with with Carrier Group Five and head on back to Truk." orders Nagato. "Yes ma'am." comes the responses again. With that they set course for Carrier Group Five. It only takes a few minutes to regroup with them, and after putting to rest the fears that Shimakaze had only fainted and wasn't dead, they set course for Truk with Nagato carrying Shimakaze all the way.
*SPLASH!* Shimakaze can feel something wet get splashed onto her body. It feel so warm and so tingly, VERY TIGNLY! Suddenly her eyes burst open and she shoots up into a sitting position before she even knows what happened. "I've heard how quick these work and how effective they are, but I didn't know they were THIS effective." comes Nagato's voice. "Well you've never had to use one." says Mutsu. Shimakaze finally gets her barrings and looks around. She's partially undressed (not that much remained on her after the battle), but is now all wet. She looks up to see Nagato holding a green bucket having just dumped a green liquid all over her. "You're quite the lucky one Shimakaze-chan. The Admiral was kind enough to let you have one of the few instant repair buckets we have here. I bet you're feeling much better now." says Mutsu. Shimakaze feels her shoulder and her head. And it's true. Her wounds have been instantly healed. "You should also know that Yuubari-san is hard at work repairing and rebuilding your Rensouhou-chans." says Nagato.
"You should tell her the other bit of good new Nagato-san!" comes another girl's voice from Shimakaze's right. Shimakaze looks over and sees Fubuki, with Mutsuki, Yuudachi, Destroyer Group six, Carrier Groups one and five, and the Kongo sisters all looking over her. "You should go ahead and tell her that Fubuki-san. I think she'd like to here it from you more." says Nagato with a slight smile. Fubuki gets down on her knees and grabs Shimakaze's hand. "Congratulations Shimakaze-chan! Not only did our Search and Destroy fleet get the gold star, but you were named the MVP of the battle!" says Fubuki with a big smile. Shimakaze can barely believe her ears. "Really!? I'm the best? Really? I knew it! I'm fast, after all!" says Shimakaze with a smile of her own. "Well you did take on a massive Strike Fleet all alone and survive. Not only survive but you sunk five destroyers, heavily damaged three Wo aircraft-carriers, and a Battleship Princess, knocked an Airfield Princess out of operation, and damaged several other Abyssals. To NOT give you MVP would be the dumbest decision in the history of the Fleet Girls." says Nagato.
Everyone shares a laugh at Nagato's comment. The laughter soon dies down, and everyone begins congratulating Shimakaze in their own way. Akatsuki even calls her a real lady now. Kongo tells her she can be in her fleet any day to which all her sisters get jealous. Kaga even says she wouldn't mind having Shimakaze as her escort. Which was big coming from Kaga. Eventually Nagato has to order them out. "Okay, now that the congratulations are over with Shimakaze, get dressed. The Admiral wants to see you as soon as you're finished here. I think he wants to congratulate you in person for a job well done today. And Yuubari-san says to swing by the dry dock to pick up your new and repaired Rensouhou-chans." says Nagato. "Yes Ma'am!" says Shimakaze with a salute. With that the two Battleship Fleet girls leave. Shimakaze quickly grabs a new set of clothes that's just as skimpy as ever and quickly runs out the door.
As with everything she does she loves to do it speedily. She runs right past Nagato and Mutsu. Mutsu smiles. "That girl will never slow down will she?" she says with a giggle. "No. And I wouldn't have it any other way. But I do believe she's learned a hard lesson. And she may very well have matured some too." says Nagato. "That's true. I do hope so. We're here to watch them all grow up after all, into wonderful Fleet Girls." says Mutsu back. "Indeed." says Nagato as the two watch Shimakaze run off to the dry docks. After swinging by the dry docks to pick up her new and repaired Rensouhou-chans, they all run towards the Admiral's office.
They all reach it and she skids to a stop. "Destroyer Shimakaze reporting as ordered Admiral!" she calls out. The door opens and she runs in. She salutes, "What is it, Admiral?" she asks with a big smile.
END!
Author Note: I just wanted to make this one shot after rewatching some Kantai Collection again. Shimakaze has always been by favorite KanColle ship even before the anime came out and I thought it was about time I give her her own small story. I hope you all enjoyed it!