Enterprise's return to wakefulness was slow and didn't get very far, leaving her in a half-conscious haze. Unlike most cases of such waking, though, the reason was not due to anything wrong, but to sheer comfort. Something was encompassing her whole body, something impossibly soft and warm.

"Hey."

Her first instinct was to compare it to a blanket. But a blanket was a seriously inadequate comparison. Her next was to think that this was what being wrapped up in a cloud felt like. But no, it was a little too substantial for that, and besides, weren't clouds cold?

"Hey!"

Whatever she was wrapped up in, it felt really comfortable, so the carrier decided to not worry about what it was and instead enjoy that it was there.

"HEY!"

Slowly, and with great reluctance, Enterprise cracked her eyes open to a round, chubby face with beady eyes staring at her, an annoyed scowl marring the adorable features. Then the fairy nodded and stepped back, throwing up a salute.

"Hey."

"Oh, it's you," Enterprise said. "Why'd you have to wake me up?"

The fairy grinned smugly and crossed its arms. Enterprise sighed, and closed her eyes, but to her frustration, that state of zen half-awakening she had been in was gone. So instead, she opened her eyes again and properly took in her state and her surroundings.

The room she was in was small, but cozy instead of cramped, and in a facade of blue and white tile. Additional white tile coated the floor, and a line of faucets and stools lined her left side. Glancing down revealed the source of the warmth encompassing her to be the hot water of a smooth, porcelain bath, albeit one closer in size to a large hot tub than she remembered most bathtubs being. This also revealed that she was completely naked, which was much less distressing than she'd expected it to be.

"Probably all those times I bathed out in the Pacific," she muttered, before turning back to the fairy on her chest. "So. How'm I doing?"

The fairy hummed, tapping its chin, and pulled out a radio, barking into it. "Hey! Hey hey hey." Soft fairy voices sounded out on the airwave, and the fairy nodded. "Hey. Hey hey."

Stowing the radio, the fairy turned back to its ship. "Hey… hey hey hey. Hey!"

One red eyebrow quirked up. "Wait…" Enterprise said slowly. "You're saying that this soak in a bath is fixing me up?"

The fairy nodded, and then shrugged.

"Well, I'm sure not going to complain," Enterprise groaned as she sank a bit deeper into the bath. "Oh, this is nice…"

The minutes slipped by as the carrier regained some of her earlier zen state in the hot, moist air of the bathhouse, the fairy slipping away while she was distracted. Eventually, though, she was brought out of her bliss again, this time by a door she hadn't noticed earlier opening. A head, topped with pink hair and framed by two brush-like tails in front, as well as distinctly Oriental features, poked itself in.

A shudder went through Enterprise, but it was easily suppressed. The newcomer was a Japanese shipgirl, but for some reason the Grey Ghost was quiet. Well, best not to look this particular gift horse in the mouth.

"Don't worry, I won't bite," she called out - in English, something she realized ten seconds after she said it.

"That's good," the shipgirl replied in slightly accented English, a smile spreading over her face. "Those fangs look sharp."

Enterprise felt a smile spread across her own face at the joke, and she took in the newcomer as she stepped in fully. Warm but tired brown eyes sat above the soft smile she wore, her pink hair now clearly going down past her back. She wore a white sailor top trimmed in blue and sporting a red ribbon. Grey sleeves and turtleneck peeked out from under it. Below, she wore a rather short pleated blue skirt with a red trim, and then brown thigh-high… somethings. The oddest part was the armor plating covering her right shoulder and leg.

"I'm Akashi, repair ship for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force," she said. "I'll be in charge of getting your rather impressive array of damage patched up. So, how are you feeling, overall?"

"Honestly, doc, I'm feeling great," the carrier replied, poking a thumbs-up out of the water. "I don't know how a bath, of all things, is fixing me up, but my fairies told me that it is, and this is pleasant enough that I think I can live with the impossibility." An irreverent grin spread over her face. "So, give it to me straight: how long do I have to live?"

Akashi rolled her eyes, then reached out and gave her patient's forehead a hearty flick. "Well, I can confirm you're not going to go keel up in the next week, so there's that," she answered, ignoring the surprised yelp the action drew. "A more complete diagnosis will have to wait until after I talk to the fairies I have doing diagnostics."

Enterprise suddenly stiffened. "Wait. You have your fairies going through my hull?"

"Go on, get it out of your system," Akashi said, waving her hand.

To her surprise, instead of the usual reaction, the carrier glared at her chest. "And you guys thought this wasn't worth mentioning?!" After a moment, she threw her hands up in disgust. "'You didn't ask'. How the hell was I supposed to know to ask?!"

Akashi giggled into her fist as Enterprise continued glaring at her chest, where her fairies presumably were. Still, she had a job to do, so she put her fingers to her hands and let out a shrill whistle. A second, and then four fairies in orange coveralls and hard hats popped up on Enterprise's shoulders.

"Desu!" all four barked.

"You've finished the diagnosis?" Akashi asked.

"Desu!"

"Excellent!"

The repair ship held out her hand, and all four fairies hopped on.

"You focus on getting better, alright, Enterprise?" she said as she stowed her fairies. "Like I said before, you have a lot of damage to recover from."

"Don't need to tell me twice…" the carrier groaned, sinking deeper into the tub. As such, she missed the frown that formed on Akashi's face as she turned to leave.

~o~

Captain James Lofton paced in front of the door to the long-term repair dock, his hands clasped behind his back and his face a mask of barely-repressed tension. Behind him, Admiral Aritomo Goto, commander of the Kanmusu Corps, as it was popularly known, sat in a chair, playing something on his phone.

As some sort of action prompted a muffled curse from the Japanese admiral, Captain Lofton spun on his heel, staring incredulously at Admiral Goto. "How can you be so calm?!" he demanded.

"It's not my shipgirl in there getting patched up," Goto absently replied. "That, and Akashi can take care of herself."

Any further discussion was called when Akashi stepped out of the door again, closing it behind her.

"So?" Lofton practically demanded, coming to a halt. "What's the diagnosis?"

"I think she should be scrapped," Akashi bluntly stated. "She has serious metal fatigue, her wiring is substandard, her equipment is inadequate for this war, and her brain is like a demilitarized zone."

"Are… Are you paraphrasing a Ghostbusters quote about a building to describe a person?"

"It's a good movie," Akashi shrugged. "More importantly, none of what I said was untrue. With the number of microfractures she has, her damcon fairies are goddamn miracle workers for not letting her fall apart six months ago." The repair ship grimaced, fingering the spot where her twin 5" mount would normally be. "Of course, considering she's at least a quarter Abyssal now, I'm not sure if I should really be praising them."

Lofton froze, and the statement was even enough to bring Goto away from his game. "Are you serious?" the latter demanded.

"Remember her legs?" Akashi replied. "It doesn't just look like she has metal bolted to her thighs. She does have metal bolted to her thighs, because her legs are made of salvaged Abyssal material from that point down. Then there's her hat, and all the contaminated oil and metal she's ingested; honestly, it's a miracle she's still on our side at all."

"Jesus," Lofton muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"No wonder she went berserk upon seeing Ashigara's task force," Goto surmised. "Between this and any lingering… issues from the war…"

"I suspect I didn't trigger anything only because I'm not combat ship," Akashi added. "We'll need a warning not to go in there - and guards, because let's be honest, a warning isn't going to stop a lot of our shipgirls."

Goto let out a sound halfway between a sigh and a shuddering groan, and Lofton patted a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"Can we fix this?" Lofton said once Goto had composed himself again.

"Honestly, Captain, I doubt it," Akashi sighed. "Enterprise has been adding this stuff to her for years now. It's as much a part of her as her normal parts are. It'd probably be easier to just sink her and re-summon her."

"Can we do that? Would that work?"

Akashi and Captain Lofton turned to Goto, who was looking thoughtful.

"I mean, her sinking would presumably mean her spirit would return to… wherever it is we summon them from," he elaborated. "And if it does, then we should be able to call it again."

Lofton and Akashi exchanged nervous glances. "Well, why don't we table that idea until the eggheads have looked at it for a month or forever," Captain Lofton nervously replied.

"Agreed," Akashi said, shuddering.

A roaring grumble sounded out from the repair dock, and Akashi grinned and turned towards the mess.

"In the meantime, I'd better get her some food. Oh, her reaction should be great."

~o~

Enterprise glared at her mutinous stomach. "Oh, shut up," she snapped. "I had that can of Spam, and I ate a stick the night before. What more do you want?"

Her stomach wisely didn't respond, and the carrier sank back into the water, thoughts running through her head. Thoughts she'd managed to keep suppressed up until now, and that Akashi's appearance had jogged again. After all, if the Japanese had summoned their ships, it stood to reason that the United States Navy had done the same.

"Yorkie…" she muttered. "Hornet… Wasp... Aunt Lexie… Northampton…"

Regrets. So many regrets. Her sisters, Aunt Lexie, all sunk because she couldn't save them, hadn't been good enough. Northampton, split off from her escort just to sink. And as much as those events gnawed at her, it was what she'd become afterward that truly burned, after three years of reflection. Snapping at Aunt Sara, ignoring her screens, shunning the Essexes, especially the earnestly enthusiastic Hornet…

"Gah, dammit, I'm brooding again," Enterprise grumbled, slapping her cheeks. "Remember that promise, E: abandon your fear, always move forward." Her hands fell, clenching into fists at her sides. "I will not let history repeat itself. Not on my watch."

Her stomach picked that moment to grumble again, and the carrier returned to glaring at it. "Way to ruin the mood," she muttered. She eyed the room, trying to find something to distract her, and her eyes fell on one of the steel faucets lining the wall. A steel faucet that looked impossibly delicious at that moment.

"Ah, geez, I really am hungry," she said, wiping a spot of drool from her cheek. "How long have I been out, anyway? Akashi didn't mention that."

Seconds after she completed that thought, the door swung open, admitting a shipgirl she didn't recognize. She sported long brown hair held up by a red ribbon, a white apron over a long blue skirt and gray shirt, and a motherly smile that sent a pang through Enterprise's heart. And more importantly, she was wheeling in front of her a cart stacked high with food.

Steaming piles of grilled meat, several whole grilled fish, vegetables and rice galore, a stew-like concoction steaming from a pot that smelled absolutely amazing, another pot of a steaming, thin soup, a basket filled with something doughy, and the crowner: a jumbo refrigerated tub of ice cream, accompanied by several glass cups and a variety of toppings.

"Hello, dear!" the shipgirl - no, her savior - announced, also in slightly accented English, as she wheeled the food cart up to the edge of the tub. "I'm Mamiya, one of the food supply ships here in Yokosuka. Akashi informed me you were hungry."

The small part of her mind that wasn't gibbering over the veritable feast in front of her filed away her location for later. The rest was too busy making sure her saliva glands were putting in overtime.

Mamiya giggled as drool dripped down into the water. "And I see she was understating things!" Bending over, she retrieved a large tray and unfolded it before placing it over the tub, stretching from side to side. A fork, knife, spoon, and small bowl were placed on top of it, and Enterprise immediately snatched up the former, panting in eagerness. She didn't have to wait long, the food ship taking the bowl and filling it up with soup, the bowl joined by a plate - more a platter, really - of the stew-like substance and a generous helping of rice, and then a glass of ice water.

"Curry rice and miso soup to start," she said. "Dig in!"

Enterprise needed no encouragement, immediately devouring the curry and gulping down the soup, the seasoned savoriness complemented by the bland rice, and the mild miso soup taking off the edge. Next up was one of the fish, delightfully fatty, salty, and crunchy, and then grilled beef and chicken, skewered on wooden sticks and bearing their own flavors, complemented by charcoal and a hint of seasoning. The carrier's every moment was a parade of barely-remembered flavors assaulting her tongue non-stop, and she was dimly aware of something brushing at her lips every so often.

Still, even the carrier's vast appetite began to be sated, and she slowed down - just in time to see the first of the ice cream placed in front of her.

It was vanilla, dusted with just a bit of shaped chocolate and topped with a candied cherry. Enterprise grabbed the spoon and took a scoop; after the recent attack on her taste buds, she was expecting something merely good.

Instead, as cold, creamy sweetness spread over her tongue, Enterprise found herself transported to a field of snow, a trio of furry aurochs pressed up against her and chocolate falling from the sky.

A blink, and then she was back, the ice cream gone entirely.

"How was the meal?" Mamiya asked, beaming.

"I… that was… but you… how… buh?" Enterprise said intelligently.

"That good, huh? Good, good," the food ship nodded, retrieving her utensils and the tray and stowing them. "I'll be by again for dinner. In the meantime, Naka put on a marathon on your TV, so enjoy!"

"A what on the what?" Enterprise wondered as her wits finally came back to her. Mamiya held up… something, pressing what was probably a button, and then something lit up in the corner of the room. The carrier's eyes widened as she beheld what looked like a small movie screen, showing some sort of animated feature involving a man in a blue and orange martial arts outfit with the most improbably spiky black hair she'd ever seen.

"Dragon Ball, eh?" Mamiya sighed. "Well, I suppose that's as good a choice as any. Enjoy, dear!"

Enterprise nodded as she left, and then settled back to watch the… show, was it? Might as well see what it was like.

~o~

That set the pattern for the next few days: sit in the tub, eat large, absolutely delicious meals, and watch more episodes of Dragon Ball, which she was increasingly considering one of the best things she'd ever seen. Aches she'd never known she'd had were disappearing, her supply fairies were actually satisfied for once, and a steady of stream of Japanese auxiliaries and personnel had dropped by to say hi and remind her that, somewhere along the line, she'd gotten famous. Like, really famous, signing autographs famous. It was a little awkward, considering she didn't think that she really deserved it, but hey, she'd been the last ship standing, so she could at least understand why.

This day, though, that hadn't happened yet, and so she was settled in to watching Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma traverse the Planet Namek, which in her opinion was not a very interesting planet, but it was clearly going to be blown up a lot in the future, so eh. The sound of giggling children drifted past her door, a sound she had become familiar with and thus ignored.

She did not ignore the door creaking open, nor the whispered voices that wafted in.

"This is dumb," came a grumpy, somewhat deep - for a young girl, at least - voice. "Remind me why we're doing this again, Kagero? Because if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not get in trouble with the shitty Admiral."

"It's fine, it's fine!" came another voice, high-pitched and so sugary she could taste it. "I mean, why would the Admiral ban us from entering here and then not post guards if he didn't want us to come in here? Obviously, he wants to see who can show initiative!"

"That was a rhetorical question, dammit!" the first girl retorted. "Also, that doesn't make any sense!"

"If we're going in… we should… go in…" said a third girl, her voice flat and toneless.

The trio of voices piled in, revealing themselves as destroyers, two in sailor uniforms with the same design and blue hair, one short and dark and the other long, ponytailed, and lighter. The third wore a different sailor uniform, tight black shorts, and had brown hair in two pigtails. The short-haired girl was just as emotionless as her voice, the ponytailed one looked grumpy and like she had been that way for a long time, and the last obliviously cheerful, but with a hint of madness in her eyes.

All of this was processed and discarded by Enterprise as other mental lines asserted themselves. Lookouts identified the three as two Asashio-class and one Kagero-class, with 6 5" guns and eight torpedoes. They were already well within gun and torpedo range, and more importantly, they were the exact kind of ship that had sunk Northampton, and crippled New Orleans, Minneapolis, and Pensacola. They were the enemy, and they needed to-

Enterprise flinched, gritting her teeth, a hand flashing to her eyes. She was dimly aware of her helm flickering in and out on her head, and that the destroyers were looking suddenly nervous.

"... Out…"

"W-What?" the ponytailed destroyer stammered, taking a hesitant step back.

The hand went down, eyes with red irises surrounded by black pinning them in place. "Get… out!" she shouted, indicating the door. "Out, you little brats, before I do something we're all going to regret!"

The destroyers hustled out, and Enterprise felt the black rage and hate drain away, letting her slump against the porcelain of the tub.

"Fuck, and it was going so well, too," she muttered.

~o~

Arare, Kagero, and Kasumi squirmed as they sat seiza on the floor of Admiral Goto's office. The Admiral's piercing gaze was bad enough; Abukuma's badly concealed worry was worse; but worst of all was Shiranui's resigned frustration, as if she simply expected this from them. That hurt.

The door opened, admitting the light cruiser Kinu. "Yes, Admiral? What is it?"

"Kagero, would you mind repeating your reasoning for entering the long-term repair docks against orders?" Admiral Goto said instead of answering Kinu.

"Uh, that you banned it but didn't post guards so you could see who would notice the obvious loophole, thus telling you who shows initiative?" the destroyer repeated.

"That still doesn't make any sense," Kasumi muttered.

"Admiral, why was I called in if we're just going to go over Kagero's leaps in logic again?" Kinu asked.

"Hey, you're the one who suggested that!" Kagero snapped. "So don't go calling this my leap in logic!"

Silence fell on the room, Shiranui and Abukuma staring at Kinu in stunned amazement, while Kasumi-

"You shitty light cruiser!" she roared, surging to her feet. "I oughtta-!"

"You will be doing nothing of the sort, Kasumi!" Admiral Goto barked. "Stand down!"

"But-!"

"That's an order, Kasumi." He turned his gaze to Kinu, who froze mid-step through the door. "And as for you, Kinu, I'm guessing this was one of your pranks again?"

"Aheh… yes?" the light cruiser hedged.

"In that case…"

Kinu suddenly found her way out blocked by a set of hard abs attached to the battleship Nagato.

"Nagato, please take her to her room and make sure she stays there," he said. "I have a few more matters to handle before we get to punishments."

"Of course, Admiral," Nagato said, picking up a silent Kinu like some sort of stuffed animal and walking off.

"Well, now that that's over with," Goto said, turning to the last destroyer in the room. "Shiranui, I believe you had something to say?"

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "Shiranui has changed her mind."

Goto continued to look her way for a few more seconds, before turning back to Desdiv 18. "Alright, Abukuma, why don't you get your destroyers back to their room? I believe we're done here. Ah, and Abukuma, while you go," the admiral added as she ushered her charges out. "Could you tell Ooyodo to come in here?"

"Ah! Y-Yes, Admiral."

The bespectacled light cruiser poked her head in a short time later. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"I did," the admiral confirmed. "You heard what Desdiv 18 did?"

"I did. And I think I know where you're going with this, Admiral," she replied. "I checked in with Akashi this morning, and it will be at least a week before she's sufficiently seaworthy to transport to San Diego." The secretary ship grimaced, adjusting her glasses. "I think we're actually going to have to go with the plan for guards. Kagero might have been the most eager, but there are others who will want to see the famed Enterprise for themselves. The problem is who we can spare for the job."

"Tatsuta has minimal combat duties, and Katori has been looking for a break from teaching," Goto immediately rattled off. "And even better, they're both quite intimidating in their own way."

"I'll send out the orders immediately," Ooyodo said, smiling.

~o~

Zuikaku glared at Tatsuta. "Look, I don't want to go in," she almost snarled, the angelic smile on the light cruiser's face not shifting an inch. "I'm not stupid. I just want to talk to her through the door."

"And as I've told you before, we're under strict orders not to let anyone who's a combat ship in," Tatsuta said primly, her eyes closed.

Hands flashed out, grabbing the light cruiser by her collar, and Zuikaku dragged her right up to her snarling face. "I. Get. That," the carrier properly snarled in that tone of voice usually saved for customer service lines and the DMV. "And I keep telling you, I don't want to go in! I just want to talk to her through the fucking door!"

Tatsuta's eyes cracked open a notch, and Zuikaku had a sinking feeling that she'd just fucked up. A hand drifted up to clasp her wrist-

"Ahem."

Both shipgirls turned to Katori as she lowered her fist from her mouth. "In the interest of clearing this up before someone dies," she said, prompting Tatsuta and Zuikaku to break apart. "I suggest we ask the one who knows best about Enterprise's condition." With that, she rapped her knuckles against the door to the dock. "What do you think, Enterprise?"

"Yeah, sure, it's a sight thing, mostly!" the carrier called back.

"There we go. Problem solved!" Katori chirped.

Zuikaku flashed Katori a grateful smile, even as Tatsuta stepped back, grumbling under her breath, and the carrier chose to ignore the hint of disappointment in her tone. She sat down, facing the door, and began to speak.

~o~

"I'll understand if you hate me."

For a long moment, Enterprise found herself at a loss for words. Why would she hate this shipgirl she'd never even- oh, right, Zuikaku.

"I'll be honest, I kinda forgot about you during my big refit," she sheepishly admitted. "I was just a bit of a pit of self-loathing at that point."

"Heh, I don't know whether to be annoyed or relieved at that."

At the mention of relief, Enterprise shifted uncomfortably in her tub again. Seriously, everyone here treated her like this unstoppable uber-badass. Those were a lot of expectations to live up to!

"Yeah, can we not talk about that?" she said. "I've been hearing how badass I am for the last three days, and it's starting to stress me out." Casting her mind for a topic, she snapped her fingers as one came to her. "Oh! How's the rest of the Navy doing? Most of the people I've talked to have been support personnel who get their knowledge from newspapers, and I'd like a first-hand account."

"The American shipgirls, huh?" she heard Zuikaku muse. "Well, I've mostly met them on the Alaskan route, so I can only tell you about the Third Fleet, but… I suppose I should start with Oriskany."

And so she did, and she didn't stop at just a veteran carrier who hadn't even been finished before Enterprise had gone to reserve. There was Salem, who was practically a witch with her 8" guns. There was the dynamic duo of Kitkun Bay and White Plains, the baddest escort carriers in the Pacific, who had fended off and sunk an entire heavy cruiser group on their lonesome. A hundred destroyers, each distinct in their quirks, skills, and personalities.

And, of course, there were the battleships. Though she still couldn't shake the image of them burning in the waters of Pearl Harbor, it felt good to know that they were still fighting, and doing a damn good job of it. Arizona, still the gentle soul Enterprise remembered from those better days pre-war, and apparently rather uncomfortable with her martyr status. California, still every stereotype about her namesake state rolled into one, just updated for the new century. West Virginia, still the best shooter on the high seas.

The carrier made a note to talk to Arizona as soon as possible.

"-And Maryland took one look at her and started chasing her, screaming something about making her 'decent'," Zuikaku continued on a story she'd apparently heard from one of the destroyers, her smile audible in her words.

"Wait, how skimpy are we talking here?" Enterprise interrupted.

"Sleeveless, midriff-baring top, microskirt, and visible thong," came the answer.

For a moment, the carrier had no answer to that. "What's a- You know what? Never mind, I've got a good idea. Continue."

"Right. Well, a twenty-one knot battleship trying to catch a thirty-nine knot destroyer is-" Zuikaku cut herself off, followed by the sound of cloth shuffling. "Ah, damn, I have an appointment to get to. I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

Enterprise nodded, then flushed slightly as she realized what she was doing. "Right, yes, tomorrow. Looking forward to it." She took a deep breath to compose herself before continuing. "It was nice talking to you, Zuikaku. And… for the record, I don't hate you."

Another long moment, and then she heard Zuikaku walk away. She also heard a "Thank you", so soft she was almost sure she'd imagined it.

~o~

A week passed by in this manner, but Enterprise eventually found herself being looked over by Akashi's fairies once more.

"Alright," the repair ship said as she retrieved the diminutive, orange-clade figures. "I'm pleased to announce a clean bill of health for you, Enterprise."

"Yes!" she whooped as she stood out of the water. "Finally, I get to actually move!" At that moment, her nakedness registered and she hastily moved an arm over her breasts. "You, uh, wouldn't happen to have my clothes, would you?"

"I can do you one better," Akashi replied, pulling a towel out from… somewhere, followed by a stack of clothes. "We had the uniform remade, and we also found you some proper underwear. Go ahead, try it on."

Soon, Enterprise was back in her old outfit, grinning widely.

"Ah, so much better," she sighed contentedly. "So, now what?"

"Now?" Akashi grinned. "Now we retrieve your flight deck and get you on a plane to San Diego."

"And don't forget my hat," Enterprise added, drawing a grimace from Akashi.

"I was hoping you'd forgotten about that," she muttered.