(This story follows the timeline of the Kancolle animated series, taking place roughly during Episode 4.)
― negawaku wa, hana no motonite haru shinamu ― "Let me die in spring under the cherry blossoms,"
― sono kisaragi no mochizuki no koro ― "in the month of Kisaragi under the full moon."
[1403, The Day After the W Island Operation, Naval Base Dormitory]
The room was full of girls whose heads were a riot of color, like a pile of so many colorful pom-poms, milling about a round wooden table. All of them were sporting a black sailor uniform with a white tie - or almost all, rather; two of them were wearing red ribbons on midnight blue, but they blended in well enough with the rest. When they lined up at night you could be forgiven for imagining they were a bunch of fluffy balls parading through the darkness.
The green one spoke first, facing the room. "I've sent a telegram to Yuzuki and Minazuki. Is everyone here?"
The black one peered into the corridor. "Yayoi and Mutsuki aren't here yet... I've only just put on the tea, so it's just as well."
The light brown one answered her. "Actually, Yayoi said she had something to attend to, so she told me to take care of it... honestly, it's such a pain."
The pink one was indignant. "At a time like this, of all things? Really, that Yayoi, sometimes I don't know what she's thinking, pyon!"
The light brown one again. "Well, you know how she is."
The yellow one stood up. "I think Mutsuki's still down at the docks, I'll run and - "
The green one again. "No, it's fine. She said she wouldn't be coming. We're here for her sake, too."
Nagatsuki sighed. One by one the girls sat down around the table - light brown (Mochizuki) next to green (herself) at the head of the table. Roughly across from them in a large arc, sat pink (Uzuki), yellow (Satsuki), dark brown (Fumizuki), white (Kikuzuki), and black (Kikuzuki). The door was to her back, the other side of the room rounded out by great bay windows facing into a sunlit courtyard.
The truth was, Mutsuki hadn't exactly said she wouldn't come - she just suggested that they have the meeting out on the dock instead, so that if Kisaragi would chance to come they wouldn't have to wait for her. But seeing as how Nagatsuki insisted that it would be difficult to bring the tea out there, she smiled and said that they should just go ahead without her.
As eighth-in-class, there was no particularly good reason for Nagatsuki to be the de facto secretary for all Mutsuki-class issues - not that there had been any actual issues to deal with until this point. From the day she had arrived, she had charmed all her sisters with her seriousness, something they all agreed made her the natural fit to be class rep, flagship, secretary, fleet commander, admiral, and anything else they could think of. So somehow she had found herself organizing the fun things they did together.
But suddenly the fun and games had come crashing to a halt, and here they were.
The truth was that Nagatsuki had actually been relieved to hear Mutsuki's answer. It hurt her to see her older sister like that, but... what would happen if she had come? Normally at these parties, the girls of the Mutsuki class would just chatter away pointlessly about everything and anything... but with things as they were, trying to maintain a light atmosphere for their older sister would have been a farce.
But what else could they do? They could confront her, shake her by the shoulders, plead with her through tearful eyes to just open her eyes to the truth, a grand sisters' intervention... but Nagatsuki didn't have the stomach for that either. Their sister deserved better.
Nagatsuki sighed. First things first. She hadn't asked Mochizuki to stand by her, but they both knew that she were going to ask her to speak. She dimly realized that the case of teacups was still under her chair, but the tea could wait. She was at the head of the table, and everybody was waiting on her - or rather, seeing as how it was a round table, anywhere she was sitting became the head.
She broke the silence.
"Well, we've already heard the reports... it's already beyond a doubt that what we heard was accurate, but for now, I'd like to hear exactly what happened out there."
"Ah... again? I had to go over all this for Nagato and the others already, you know? What a pain."
"Sorry, Mochizuki."
"Well... you guys more than anyone should know what happened."
[1539, Previous Day, 55 Kilometers off the coast of W Island]
The fighting was over before they realized it, the merciless Type 91 shells of the fast battleships putting a decisive end to the carriers that had ambushed them.
"I see, so they came back to this area!"
"Look-kuma! The enemy is retreating-kuma!"
"Should we pursue, nya?"
"No... we're not in formation for pursuit. We should regroup and find Kisaragi."
Yuubari glanced over. Mochizuki was behind them, and though Yayoi had been driven off course, she was still barely within visual range. It was Kisaragi that had escaped far to the southwest, dodging a line of torpedo attacks in an evasive action that had cut her off from the main fleet.
Yuubari wasn't too concerned, though, as the enemy had been caught in a flanking pincer attack by the rest of Torpedo Squadron Four and were unable to pursue; they would meet up soon. She raised her voice. "Half-speed bearing southwest until Yayoi catches up; we'll return to base as soon as we meet up with Kisaragi."
The squadron adjusted itself to her commands.
"Ah... that was terrible, nya."
"It's nothing next to what Third Torpedo Squadron had to go through, kuma. Thank goodness the Second Fleet was here... battleships really are amazing, kuma..."
"Ah..." Yuubari sighed wistfully. "I want to be a battleship one day."
"Is that even possible, kuma?"
"Well," laughed Yuubari. "You gotta dream big, you know?
They had barely turned to face their new bearing when the sound of an explosion faintly echoed in the distance, and a column of smoke began rising out of the sea.
A cry went up from across the squadron. "Kisaragi!"
Yuubari was already shouting orders. "Countermand those orders! Tama, Kuma, full ahead, now! Mochizuki, she's not far, but regroup with Yayoi before bearing same. I'll be between you two, so I should be fine alone."
"But - !"
"There might have been some forces remaining we didn't know about! Watch each other's backs, and don't let down your guard. If you see enemies, break off, do not engage!" She looked up from her radar watch to scan the horizon again. "Don't worry about us. We'll find her."
With that, Yuubari turned back towards in the direction of the smoke and gave full speed to her unwieldy, overloaded engines - Tama and Kuma had already sped far ahead, leaving her to follow in their wake.
Helplessly, Mochizuki glanced over at the plume rising from the distance, before turning her eyes away and made a course for Yayoi who had been their port-side patrol. She, too, was working her engines for all they were worth; it would only be minutes before they were close enough to talk. From there, they would drive for the southwest, where they would find Kisaragi, probably moderately - no, severely, from the look of it - damaged, maybe even so much that Kuma and Tama would have to break out the tow lines. By the time they got there the cruisers would probably have taken care of what they needed to, and they'd see Kisaragi's crying face, probably complaining about how her hair was ruined - Mochizuki couldn't help but smile at that.
But that was alright, the base wasn't too far off, and they'd laugh and cry with her as they made the slow trip home - when they caught sight of the naval base, Mutsuki's complaints about their lateness would disappear as she worried herself sick over Kisaragi's damage, and they'd all go into the baths together and talk about old times, and, and, and...
The skies and seas both seemed clear, so what exactly had that been?
And why did she have such a bad feeling about this?
Author's comments: After watching the anime, as a supporter of all things Mutsuki, I felt like writing this kind of a story. I hope you find it enjoyable and faithful to the characters. The story will continue for a while longer.