And with each return of Nagato through the door, Admiral Watershed had his hands alternately resting up his cheek or clasped over his head. When he attempted to write "iNsAnITY" on a piece of paper detailing how, once again, Hamanami was completely destroyed and left a bumbling hulk limping all the way home, he found that the "I" was more an "l" than not, and he rested his face on the table, letting out then a deep sigh.
"This time, Admiral. We will reach Okinawa and find out who the flagship for this Abyssal operation is," Nagato assured him.
"You have such a sweet voice, Nagato… like Kaga's…" He yawned softly and adjusted the position of his head a few times before settling on looking at the wall. 16:09… this day has gone on too long already.
Soon Nagato was leading the fleet, consisting of herself, Yūbari, Shigure, Yukikaze, Hamanami, and Shōhō. Things went typically. Abyssal ambushes, the manner of which, by now, the fleet should have theoretically been better prepared for, still rained hell down upon them. Through these ambushes the land-based fighters and Shōhō's fighters were doing some good, shooting down the more dangerous of the enemy planes, though here and there a fleet girl nevertheless had to stomach a torpedo or bomb hit. Nagato sighed in relief each time. Soon the six soundly whipped the two light Abyssal fleets waiting for them before the waters where three flagship Ru-class battleships were waiting for them.
"Shōhō, do your job," Nagato commanded once the enemy was in sight. Suisei and Type 97 bombers soon dotted the sky, flanked by Reisen fighters. They decided to go for the battleships, whose AA fire cut down a few, though a majority of them managed to drop their payloads and soar back up into the sky to safety. The bombs and torpedoes that hit the battleships with success did little damage to them. Nagato fired a salvo at the Ho-class light cruiser, and this was enough to sink it, which made her shake her fist, clenched already as it tended to be. The proper flagship among the Abyssals aimed its guns at Shōhō, and any time for celebration was used up. "Ah… I can't fight like this!"
"Hang in there, Shōhō," Nagato replied, then. Yūbari fired at one of the Ro-class destroyers, and too managed to sink it with just a few shells. The second battleship aimed its guns at Shigure, and again, left little time for celebration. "That hurts, you know…" she commented, otherwise seeming to be fine. "Are you all right?" her flagship wondered. "A little cooked, but I'm okay."
"Certain?"
She nodded slowly and aimed at the other Ro-class destroyer. Only one of her turrets was in condition enough to fire, and its shell missed. The third battleship also aimed at Shigure and landed one hit with a high-explosive shell. "Cornering me like this… well, whatever." "Enough of that! I'll protect you!' Yukikaze moved as close as she could to that same battleship and took a shot. It merely shrugged her shells off. The Ro-class aimed at Shōhō but missed each shot. Now it was Shōhō's turn to launch a strike, and with it, she sank her attacker. "Not bad, not bad!"
Now Nagato aimed at the third Ru-class battleship and fired. Each shell landed and seemed to slow the enemy battleship down. The enemy flagship then aimed at Shigure and fired all of its guns at her, but Shigure managed to dodge these. Yūbari fired at the enemy flagship and did little damage, and then the second Ru-class aimed, too, at Shigure, and landed another shot. "Don't you touch her!" Yukikaze yelled, taking a shot at the battleship. Little effect, and there was little else to say. Eventually Nagato managed to lead her fleet away from the action, being able to consider their result a tactical victory.
She sailed right over to Shigure and put her hands on her shoulders. "We have to go back." Shigure nodded, naturally. "I'm sorry, Nagato."
"Don't worry about it." Nagato radioed Admiral Watershed. "Shigure is heavily damaged and isn't fit to continue on with the sortie. My apologies, Admiral."
"Ugh… enough of this… this is hell, this is hell! Well, it's Okinawa, but I can't imagine Hell being much worse. Just go on."
"Admiral? But Shigure…"
"Just check if you can spot the enemy flagship, and then high-tail it out of there."
"Admiral, that won't wo—"
"DO IT! JUST DO IT!" he bellowed.
Nagato's heart sank. "Very well, Admiral." She huffed and shook her head once cutting off the signal.
"Nagato?" Shōhō sailed over to her. "I'll be okay to continue on…"
"It's not you, it's Shigure. She can't take another hit. But the Admiral wants us to continue on."
"What?"
Admiral… She clenched her fists and teeth and sighed.
(This is why she's not my flagship… Admiral Watershed closed his eyes and covered his head with his arms, planning now to properly sleep.)
"We're continuing on," Nagato informed everyone.
Shigure's eyes widened. "Nagato?"
"Shigure. Take care out there. We don't know what could happen. But whatever you do," she pleaded, putting her hands on Shigure's shoulders again, "don't get hit. Please."
Shigure's stomach scrambled. She nodded slowly. "Yes, ma'am. I'll try my hardest."
"I will sink you… over… … and over again…!" announced the Aircraft Carrier Princess.
"Shōhō, if you can still launch your planes, do it! And make sure, damned sure, that your fighters can protect Shigure!" Nagato ordered.
"Yes, of course!" Shōhō launched her remaining planes into the air, something a whiff of air in the sky compared to the swarm of Abyssal planes that headed in their direction and began to descend, expertly avoiding the fleet's anti-aircraft fire, onto their targets. A Reisen fighter fired tens of rounds into a "Helldiver" bomber, but it still managed to drop its bomb on Hamanami before crashing into the sea. A "Cat" fighter shot that Reisen down. Then, another "Helldiver" decided that Shigure should be its target. Shigure panicked and fired both her main gun and AA guns at it, missing again and again and watching with sweat rolling down her eyes as the bomb dropped. She stopped as though seized, accosted, apprehended… and the bomb exploded right as it touched her. Fires started everywhere. Everyone fanned out while trying to shoot down the enemy planes and dodge their bombs and torpedoes, and thus nobody had eyes on Shigure as she burnt and began to sink. Before her heart had been racing as fast as it could, but with no more need to do so, slowed quickly to a beat a second.
"Well…" Her feet went under, and then her whole body's force upwards was no more, and so gravity pulled her under. "This is it for me. Goodbye, everyone…"
"SHŌHŌ! WHERE'S SHIGURE?" Nagato yelled, sallying over as quickly as she realized that Shigure was nowhere to be seen, and was not thinking at present about how three torpedoes and a bomb had hit her, and that Shōhō was on fire. Shōhō's heart dropped, and she looked in every direction. "I, I don't know! Shigure? SHIGURE!" she called in vain.
"Nagato!" Yūbari rushed over. "This is a trash fire, we have to retreat!"
"Yūbari! Have you seen Shigure?"
"Shigure? Shit!" She whisked her head around. "No, I don't! Where's she gone? Ah! Nagato, we have to get out of here!"
A shell hit Nagato in the back as she thought, Oh, no… and as a fire started on Hamanami's battered turret, she thought still, No, no, no…
None of those five had a real memory of returning to base. Every minute they looked back, but instead of Shigure sailing to rejoin the formation, which had a hole in it at present, there were simply islands and patches of water. One was white as salt, but the rest, dark, despite the waning gibbous moon. They were slow and silent when they returned to the base. Nagato found Admiral Watershed sleeping at his desk, snoring.
"Admiral, wake up."
"Zzz…"
"Wake up."
"Hmm?"
She banged the desk.
He jumped out of his chair. "Ah, Nagato! You're back… how did it go."
"Admiral…" Her eyes dropped, and soon so did her gaze, to the side, eyelids shutting as well. "Shigure, she… …"
"She what? Got damaged again? I'm all out of instant repair buckets… it's as if I should take a break from all this sortieing and not rush things."
"Not rush things… not rush things…" She shook her head. "You don't have to worry about using a bucket on Shigure, that's for sure. That's how I'll put it to you."
"Ah." He sat back and nodded. "She sure is a lucky ship, huh?"
Nagato's expression twitched. "She sunk, Admiral. Shigure is gone."
Admiral Watershed's eyes widened. He sat up straight and stared at Nagato, and then turned to the side a moment, mouth open some. When he finally turned to face Nagato, who had not moved a centimeter in that space of time, he only managed to say, "Sunk?" and received a nod in response. He stared a while longer and then leaned forward, field of view letting him see the floor and bottom portion of his desk quite clearly. "… Shigure… she… sunk?"
"Yes, Admiral. I told you so, but telling you that now isn't bringing her back. … Nothing will."
His face shot up. "We can just build her again. I don't mind. And get her experience again, yes!" He jumped up. "That's what we'll do."
"Is that what you think of Shigure? That she's expendable?" She looked at him with furrowed eyebrows and crossed arms. "Now I have more reason to be angry with you, Admiral Watershed."
"No, she's… not expendable. …" He looked back down again. "Shigure… Shigure… Shigure. … But we have to try building her again. Shigure means so much to me…"
"You let her continue on with a sortie despite her heavy damage, and you didn't pay for it, she did. That does tell me just how much she meant to you."
"… get out."
"What?"
"GET OUT!" He banged his fist against the table, red eyes with tears exiting them focused on her.
"Admiral!" Her angry expression became as angrier as possible.
"GET OUT."
"Fine." She turned quickly and exited, and once he was alone in the room again, he put his hands on his desk and looked down. "What have I done… I'm the only one to blame…"
"Ōshio, Hatsuyuki, another frickin' Naka… none of you are Shigure!" Admiral Watershed rested the top of his head against the bricks making up the factory. "And no more flamethrowers for me… now I have to wait each time. What a crock of… … hold on."
Hokkaidō was no difficulty for Abukuma and her light fleet, and it meant this: "I'm the Shimushu-class coastal defense ship, Ishigaki. What? Is there something on my face? … oh, all right. Leave destroying submarines to me." And Yūbari's handling of the transport phase resulted thus: "Thanks for your hard work, Admiral. Training cruiser Kashima, reporting for duty," and a giggle to boot.
Soon the two were out, ready to deal with the small number of Abyssals that still managed to harry shipping near the Izu Islands. "This shouldn't be too bad," Kashima mused to herself. Destroyers were sunk here and there.
"We brought back Shikinami and Kitakami."
"Again." Kitakami was scrapped before Shikinami.
"Here are Ōshio and Hatsuyuki."
"Again? Wow. Again."
When Kashima sank the lone I-class destroyer no ship was out to greet her. Instead it was once again time to deal with a Ho-class light cruiser and two Ro-class destroyers. "Open fire!" Shells went the Ho-class's way but did little damage. It replied in kind by firing at Ishigaki. "Oww! … It'll take more than that, you know! Take this!" She, too, aimed at the enemy light cruiser, but again did not do much to it. One Ro-class destroyer fired at Kashima, the other at Ishigaki, but both missed. Kashima fired torpedoes at one of the destroyers and sunk it while managing to dodge every torpedo sent her way. "Let's keep going, Ishigaki! You'll be able to, right?" Hearing an "Absolutely!" brought a smile to her face, and as night fell again, she sailed right up to the Ho-class and, point blank, destroyer it completely. The last remaining Abyssal, the Ro-class, fired at her but missed again, and Ishigaki took a shot at it.
She missed, but letting it go was no issue for the two. The familiar sound of a ship rising from the ocean delighted the pair's ears.
"I'm the Shiratsuyu-class destroyer, 'Shigure'. From here, please take good care of me."
Kashima sighed in relief and took Shigure by the arm. "I have a lot to tell you, Shigure."
"Really?"
"So it seems…"
Admiral Watershed was stood at the pier with his water hose, expecting another failure to find Shigure after the hundreds of units of resources he'd wasted trying to build her. That's all I do, is waste resources… I'm just terrible at saving them… at least Kashima and Ishigaki won't take many for repairs. And they get fixed up real fast, too, this early on in their careers. Instead of four ships he saw three, which he found odd, and none of them were signaling anything to the base, which confused him even more. He nevertheless readied up his water hose. It soon fell out of his hands.
Shigure glanced up at him when she noticed that he was on the pier, but didn't look at him while she was setting down her rigging and gun on the beach. Soon she was, though, and at his shoulder, precisely, which was centimeters away from her face. There was a hand around her back another around her head. "I'm sorry, Shigure," she heard, once and again. "I'm so sorry," Admiral Watershed added.
"Admiral? What are you sorry for?"
"Shigure…" He squeezed her. "I didn't appreciate you enough… and I… ugh, God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry… so sorry, and…" He rested his cheek on her shoulder. "And sorry, too. Shigure, I'm sorry, and…"
"It's okay, Admiral." She smiled softly at him. "It's okay, you know? I'm okay."
She was okay.