Watching the Admiral at work was admittedly pretty boring, but Amagi had other things on her mind anyway. The foremost of these was her sister. The last time she'd seen Akagi…

Too much fire and pain. That image had to be shaken away. Instead she wondered what Akagi looked like now, as a human. The Admiral snapped her out of thinking with a loud question to her secretary. "Hey, Nagato, who do we have that hasn't been out to sea lately?"

"Ashigara, for one. Last I saw, she was a little stir crazy." The battleship tapped her chin in thought. "Do you think she's mad at me? I can't seem to start a conversation with her."

"Come on, Ashi got over you replacing her as my secretary a long time ago. I mean, I was gonna get a big girl eventually. Just didn't think it'd be you and Mutsu."

"Fair enough." Nagato shuffled through a folder full of paperwork. "Is Hatsuyuki still alive? I think I've only seen the girl outside of her room once since I got here."

"Ah, she's my precious little hermit princess." The blonde leaned back a bit in contemplation. "Bring her in here. The kid needs some sun. And Ashi, too."

"Right away." Nagato plucked the microphone off her desk. "Attention. Would the heavy cruiser Ashigara and the destroyer Hatsuyuki please report to the Admiral's office? Thank you." She set it aside. "That's three. Who else?"

A fit of giggles seized the Admiral. "Akebono hasn't been out since Tatsuta scared her last week. I better make sure she doesn't get rusty."

"So a battlecruiser, a heavy cruiser, and two destroyers." It was about then that Nagato realized they'd been talking right past the ship girl of the hour. "Amagi? Any thoughts?"

Her response was prefaced by a shrug. "I haven't met anyone else yet. It's not like I have a preference. I just want to shoot something."

"Life isn't all war, you know." The Admiral's blue eyes lit up with an idea. "Ooo, I know," she mumbled, hurriedly scribbling down something on the paper in front of her. "There. Amagi, Ashigara, Akebono, Hatsuyuki, Kaga, and Akagi. Big guns and big carriers." The last name, of course, made Amagi perk up – which had been part of the blonde's plan. "Of course I'm gonna put you in a fleet with your sister. I'm not that much of a jerk." If she were looking for gratitude, there was none to be found in Amagi's steely eyes. "...yeah. Anyway, you know Kaga too, right?"

A shadow passed over the battlecruiser's face. "I'm familiar with her sister."

The Admiral cocked her head. "Her…? Forget it. I'll just-" Ashigara's appearance in the doorway made her stop short. "You got here quick."

"I was on my way when you called. I wanted to see the new girl." She regarded Amagi with a pointed stare, sizing her up. "Hmm. She looks a lot like Akagi."

"There's a reason for that." The Admiral looked between them and smiled. "Ashigara, this is Amagi."

"Hmm," the battlecruiser said lowly, before her attention went elsewhere. "I have a question. Why are there so few battleships here?"

Ashigara had the answer. "Because of the idiot she replaced," she explained, nodding over to the blonde behind the desk. "The only capital ship we had was Kongou, and she wanted a transfer out. We're not a very active area of operations. At least, not until recently. Now the Abyssal fleet is coming and we can't seem to build another battleship."

"Yeah, my construction luck is fucking terrible." The Admiral blinked and looked over at Amagi. "You don't mind if I sw-"

"No," she replied, an apathetic stare affixed to the word.

"Right." A purple-haired girl with a long ponytail rooted in her right temple slipped into the office before she could continue. "Wow, you got here really fast."

Akebono dismissed that with a wave. "I was at the dock. You know. Not too far of a walk."

The Admiral knew she was lying, but let it pass with a smirk. "Uh huh. Amagi, this is Akebono, a destroyer after my own heart."

She crossed her arms with a huff. "Oh, whatever." And then she peered at Amagi. "What kinda ship are you, huh? You're tall. And..." The resemblance to Akagi made her go quiet for a moment. "Carrier?"

"The only aircraft I carry are scouts."

"But you look so much like-"

"I've been told," she cut her off, growing agitated with all the focus being put on her.

"'Bono here is the prickliest ship girl on this planet. If you can get along with her, you can get along with anybody." The Admiral grinned again, knowing exactly what was coming next.

Akebono exploded, pointing an angry finger at her commander. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" She only got madder when the Admiral started laughing. "Hey!"

"Akebono, please," Nagato said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "And you too, ma'am."

Ashigara was enjoying the display. "Hee hee. They're like sisters."

"Oh god. I'd rather sink than be related to her."

"Awww, I love you too!" While they'd been teasing each other, Hatsuyuki had sneaked into the room and was currently standing by the secretary's desk. Her head was down. The Admiral's voice lost its boisterous tone as she addressed her presence. "Hey. Hatsu, I see you. Come here."

She did, but with incredible reluctance, eventually ending up at Ashigara's side. "Uh… hi. Who's this?"

The battlecruiser's agitation subsided a bit with the breathy, mumbling way Hatsuyuki spoke. Her own voice dropped in sympathy. "My name is Amagi."

"Oh. Hi."

The Admiral clapped her hands with a smile. "All right then. You're all the… uh, Nagato, how many fleets do I have again?"

Nagato indulged in a facepalm and sighed. "Good grief, ma'am. Just give them a number."

"If you say so. Tenth? I don't have that many ships. Pretty sure." Those blue eyes said the Admiral wasn't certain in the least.

"You need a hand?" Ashigara asked Nagato. "I'll try to understand her handwriting, you go pull the records."

"No, thank you, I've got it."

"What are are you trying to say?" the Admiral asked, sounding remarkably like Akebono.

"I—never mind." Nagato rose from her chair and looked at the entire assembly. "I assume you have orders?"

She nodded and regarded her new fleet. "Yep. Be ready to suit up and deploy within the hour. There's an island south of here that I want investigated, and you get to be my detectives."

The combined fleet had drawn something of a crowd; several ship girls, including Nagato, were standing on the roof of the dock to watch them depart. Akebono and Hatsuyuki took the lead since they were fastest, but Amagi was no slouch. Ashigara made a note of this as they departed the harbor. "You're pretty fast," she said loudly over the wind, "to be carrying so much weight."

Amagi kept her eyes forward. "I was designed to be fast."

The cruiser tilted her head a bit, wondering why her reply seemed so… flat. "Hmm. Not much of a talker?"

"Fine with me," Hatsuyuki said over her shoulder. "I'm sleepy. Let's get this over with."

Ashigara stared at her in disbelief. "S-sleepy? It's ten in the morning!"

"So?"

"I can't believe how lazy you are."

Akebono was already annoyed with the conversation. "Yeah, yeah, we know. Who's got the map?" Hatsuyuki raised her hand. "Terrific. Which way?" All she did was point forward, then swing her arm to starboard. This left Akebono more than a little frustrated with her non-verbal cues. "Can't you just say the compass bearing?"

"I dunno bearings."

She literally could not believe this admission. "How can you not know—you have a radar built into your skull! Tiny navigators with binoculars live in your friggin' backpack!"

Hatsuyuki looked back at the funnel and superstructure attached to her back with leather straps. "I dunno. I'm sleepy. When can we go home?"

It was all becoming a little too much for Ashigara, who hid her eyes with one hand and groaned, "Some fleet we are. The Admiral has lost her mind." And then Amagi took command, steaming ahead of her and splitting the destroyers. "Huh?"

"Line abreast," the battlecruiser ordered firmly. Gone was the metallic flatness in her voice, replaced by brassy confidence. "I'll take the maps. Just follow me." Hatsuyuki was, of course, more than willing to foist the responsibility of navigation off on her and handed over the charts straight away.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Akebono adjusted the flower in her hair and coasted to avoid overtaking her flagship. "You been in a fight before?"

Amagi rested her arms upon her inbound turrets and settled in for the trip. "I know what Abyssal blood looks like."

Both Ashigara and Akebono emitted an impressed "Ooooo," with the latter adding "That was a really good one-liner." Amagi acknowledged none of this.

The other destroyer in their line was more put off than anything. "Ew. Blood is gross."

Behind them, the archipelago faded into a cluster of green dots against the blue sky. Their chatter along the way was minimal at most, with Amagi doing most of her speaking to the voice in her head – Ooyodo, the fleet's operations officer. "Aerial reconnaissance suggests there isn't much activity around your target, but we can't fully confirm this from the air. There might be resources we're missing, too."

Akebono, a hand to her ear, had been listening along. "So is this a sortie or an expedition?"

"A little from column A, a little from column B. If nothing else, the island might be able to host a small forward base."

"Oh, lovely. We're real estate agents now." Ashigara rolled her eyes and glanced to the side, where she noticed Hatsuyuki hugging herself oddly. "What's wrong with you?"

"Hiding my arms. Don't wanna get sunburned."

"Hmm, well, perhaps if you got out more you'd have a tan."

Hatsuyuki muttered something under her breath and looked away. Amagi glanced over and decided to squish any burgeoning argument. "Don't start. We're almost there."

Almost wasn't quite right, really – they needed another two hours worth of sailing to arrive. Their "target" was a small, flat little bump of land in the ocean with a few trees and one big mountain in the middle. Ashigara had to groan at the sight. "Come on! Why did she send us out here? This is barely a key, much less an island. What could anybody want with it?"

Akebono shrugged off her whining. "Eh, you never know. Maybe it's got resources or something." Then a flash of something black far off her port bow made her stare. "What was-" There it was again… and it looked somewhat human. "Chi-class! Bearing 208!" She brought her gun turret to bear and aimed, but the enemy was moving in the opposite direction. "She's getting away!"

"Is she a scout?" Ashigara scanned the horizon for more contacts. Her radar lit up with two more. "Over there. Two more."

"Type?" Amagi asked, training her turrets where the cruiser was pointing.

"Can't tell, exactly. Not big."

"Break formation. We have to assume torpedoes are already in the water." Amagi snapped her fingers at Hatsuyuki, was only just beginning to raise her turret. "You. With me. You two go after that Chi-class while we see what's over here."

"Time to go win!" Ashigara chirped. "Let's go, Akebono."

As they split up, the reserved destroyer just had to ask "Why me?" of her impromptu partner.

"Because you're the most quiet." Amagi squinted, her eyes barely able to pick out two black dots coming around the island. Now there were four targets on an intercept course. "Here they come."

This was now a group of four Chi-class torpedo cruisers, female humanoids – at least from the waist up – with grayish skin and one icy blue eye visible from underneath a white mask. Their lower halves were a tangled mess of black tubing and metal parts. Stuck to their forearms were black, rocky-looking masses. One of these had a mouth. Two broke off to face Hatsuyuki, while the remaining pair regarded Amagi with confused stares, neither sailing toward her nor away.

"Launching torpedoes!" Hatsuyuki yelled – or tried to, though it came out hoarse. Her spread swam toward the approaching enemies, but traveled harmlessly between them. "Missed..." She resorted to firing her gun, wincing with the noise of every shot. One shell struck an enemy vessel right in the face, causing her to topple over and tumble across the sea. "Oh. Huh."

Amagi kept one eye on that engagement and the other on her own targets, who still hadn't opened fire. Her course was perpendicular to theirs; she was trying to cross their T and take their launchers out of play. By the time she pulled it off, though, they were at such close range it didn't even matter anymore. They finally opened fire on her with their cannons. She returned the favor.

Ten high-caliber shells flew from her barrels and struck the Chi-class sailing astern. The impact blasted off her left arm and part of her skull, adding a brief bluish mist to the orange flame and black smoke. She sailed on for a few seconds more before succumbing to her wounds and starting to sink. The remaining Chi-class shrieked with panic and swerved away to escape. A chuckling Amagi gave chase, aiming only one of her guns and firing. This shell struck the machinery portion of her opponent, which afterward emitted smoke and little tongues of flame. The Chi-class slowed to a stop, now dead in the water. "Going somewhere?" Amagi asked cheerfully, sailing right up to her and watching her struggle. When she tried to swing her weapons around, Amagi grabbed her by the arms and held them upward. "No."

The Chi-class tried to wrench her arms free, but was helpless against the battlecruiser's immense strength. With her secondaries, Amagi began to dismantle her, firing at her shoulders until both her limbs went limp, then detached with bloody snaps. She threw those away and grabbed the Chi-class by her black hair, dragging her along as she got underway again. "Come along." The screams of agony she got in return, like two steel plates being rubbed together, were music to her ears.

Meanwhile, Hatsuyuki was having some trouble with the last Chi-class; the battle had devolved into an endless series of evasive maneuvers from both ships. She saw Amagi sailing her way, but also the enemy she was towing. At this distance it looked like a pursuer. "Behind you!" she shouted over the radio. Then she noticed the awful state of the Abyssal. "Uh… what..."

"May I have this dance?" Amagi called back happily. She put herself in the middle of their drunken spiral, openly laughing when the Chi-class turned hard to port after seeing her approach. Like her sister, this Abyssal received a shell to her machinery to slow her down. She released the Chi-class in her grasp and worked on the other as she had before, explosively amputating her arms and tossing them aside. This left the two enemies bobbing helplessly on the waves, writhing and wailing in pain.

Hatsuyuki, with both hands over her mouth, could say nothing in protest. If she tried to speak, she'd end up puking instead.

Amagi placed a hand to her temple while smiling at the torpedo cruisers' misery. "Ashigara, Amagi. Engagement completed. Two confirmed enemy sunk. No friendly losses."

"We ran into another Chi-class ourselves, but it's fine. We're wrapping up here. What happened to the other two over there?"

Her smile became a bitterly evil grin. "Heavily damaged."

"Nice job. Uh, what's that noise, by the way? It's freaking me out."

"The sound of victory. We'll meet you at the island." Amagi ended the transmission and grabbed both Chi-class by the hair. "Go ahead," she said, nodding at Hatsuyuki. "I'll be a bit slow."

"Why?" Hatsuyuki asked. She had an idea, but maybe it was – no, Amagi grabbed her wounded quarry and towed them along, just as she feared. "Y-you can't do that."

Amagi glanced back over her shoulder. "Are you going to stop me?"

The destroyer's mouth went dry with terror. "N-n-n-no..."

"Then you may proceed."

And proceed she did, storming ahead at full speed. She beat Amagi to the island by a long way, arriving almost at the same time as Ashigara and Akebono. "Huh? Where's the new girl?" the latter asked impatiently. "We found some bauxite. She's gotta radio in."

Hatsuyuki squirmed with anxiety as she checked the horizon. "Sh-she, um, she..."

"Come on, spit it out!"

Ashigara knew better than to pile on – she sensed the destroyer's genuine fear and handled it with kid gloves. "Akebono, shush. Hatsu? Did something happen? Are you all right?"

"Amagi-"

It was too late. There she came, her wheezing cargo firmly in tow. A bluish slick trailed out behind them. No longer were the Chi-class screaming; instead they languished in silence, exhausted from the pain and hardly moving. "Find anything else?" she asked.

Both destroyers moved very close to Ashigara. Hatsuyuki hid behind her, but Akebono was too proud for that – she did keep silent, however. The cruiser gingerly approached, trying to keep her own shock from becoming overwhelming. "Amagi, what in the world are you doing?"

"Taking home trophies." Her face dropped at their horrified looks. "The ship girls in the Capital Region looked at me the same way."

"You cannot-" Ashigara's voice caught in her throat at Amagi's glare, so she had to think fast. "You can't tow them. You'll be too slow. We'll become targets if the enemy has any carriers nearby."

Those steely eyes went skyward as Amagi considered her words. "You have a point, I guess."

Ashigara allowed herself a subtle sigh. "Right. Right. Just let them sink in peace and we'll-"

Amagi did nothing of the sort, instead turning two of her main turrets on her captives. She fired at their necks, effectively decapitating them, and held onto their heads while allowing their bodies to get swallowed by the sea. "There. I should be able to maintain speed now. Did you find anything on the island?"

Behind her, Hatsuyuki was beginning to weep. Akebono was making noises herself – whether it was crying or not wasn't clear. Ashigara, slack-jawed and stunned, couldn't look away from Amagi's grisly cargo. "Uh, we'll… we'll worry about that later," she said quietly, not knowing what else she could say.

The sun was creeping into the western sky by the time they returned. Amagi headed up the detachment, one severed head in each arm and still smiling. Ashigara lagged behind somewhat, mainly to see to the frightened destroyers at her sides. Not a word had been spoken the whole way except when Amagi and Ooyodo were in radio communications. The dock opened for them as they approached. Once inside, there was an uproar over the heads, as expected. Yuubari was the one who met Amagi at the concrete landing, waving her arms in denial. "Uh, no. Throw those away," she demanded. "Also, ew." A withering stare left her unable to ask again. This was enough time for the crane to come down and retrieve Amagi's combat gear, after which she simply headed for the exit with her trophies.

Yuubari shook off the chills and approached Ashigara as she made it to the landing. "What the hell was that?" She looked down at the destroyers and blinked. "What happened?"

Ashigara pointed at Amagi's retreating form. "She happened. Could you grab my weapons first? I need to go speak with the Admiral." When she didn't get an answer, she glanced over and found all the color drained from Yuubari's face. "What?"

Yuubari was also watching Amagi depart. The light cruiser shrugged weakly. "Nothing. Just been a while since I've seen a severed head."

Once free of her gear, Ashigara left Akebono and Hatsuyuki to return to their dorms while she made a beeline for the headquarters building. The Admiral's office doors were shut; when she tried to open them, they turned out to be locked, too. After pressing her ear to one, she could hear muffled voices inside. "Hey!" she yelled, pounding on the door. "Admiral! Are you in there? We need to talk!"

The blonde was inside, but she denied this request. "Kind of in the middle of an operations meeting, Ashi!"

How frantic was she? Frantic enough to snap at her commander, something she'd never ordinarily do. "I don't care! This is important!" Silence from within made her wonder briefly if she'd crossed a line, but a few seconds later there was a subtle click.

Mutsu opened the door and peeked out. "Oh my. You look like you've seen a ghost," she commented, head curiously tilted to one side. "Come in, come in."

Ashigara was at the Admiral's desk in an instant; she didn't even bother to acknowledge Nagato besides shoving past her to get attention. "We have a very serious problem."

The Admiral was looking down at the maps on her desk and misjudged how serious her former secretary was. "Already told you, I can't get you a da-" And then she glanced up. Stunned by the emotion in Ashigara's eyes, she dropped the joke. "What? What happened? Nobody radioed in. I thought everything went okay. You didn't run into-"

"I didn't radio in because I didn't want Amagi to hear it."

"Oh. Well." They could almost see her blood turn to ice. She turned to the two battleships with a tight-lipped smile. "We're gonna need a minute."

"Okay. We'll be outside." Mutsu took her sister by the wrist and led her out of the office, gently closing the door behind them.

Ashigara let her commander have it the moment they were alone. "Amagi is insane. Do you hear me? She captured two Chi-class cruisers, blew their arms off, and wanted to bring them back as trophies! They were still alive! What was she planning on doing with them? And Hatsuyuki and Akebono… they're probably scarred for life! Hatsu wouldn't stop crying the whole way back! Akebono..." Her rant began to lose steam. "I…"

"Uh, Ashi?" the Admiral asked as she started to cry. "What else happened?"

"She executed them. Right in front of us, as if it was nothing. She still has their heads," she concluded, hiding her eyes as she struggled to collect herself. Silence, so long she had to move her hand and see what happened. "Admiral?"

"Ashi, uh..." The blonde removed her cap with a frown and set it aside. Her eyes darted to a stack of folders on the cabinet in the corner. "Amagi is just like that. There's not really anything I can do."

Dumbfounded, Ashigara snapped at her again. "You can order her to stop!"

There was something very wrong with the Admiral. Her demeanor was almost timid; Ashigara couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her act this way. "I mean, I could try, but I'm not sure she'll listen."

"Are you afraid of her?"

Now it was the blonde doing the snapping. "No!" They stared at each other awkwardly. "We're stuck with it. She just transferred in, and we really need the help. I can't defend this area with just two battleships and four carriers." Ashigara's face said her reasoning fell flat, but there was nothing she could do. "Don't look at me like that, Ashi. I'm stuck. Maybe when Akagi gets back, she can talk to her. Or something."

That fell flat too, but Ashigara crossed her arms and decided to endure. "I'm keeping her away from the destroyers," she stated gruffly.

The Admiral slipped her cap back on with a sigh. "Yeah, good idea. I'll go see 'em later. They probably need a hug."

"Oh, they're not the only ones," Ashigara assured her, trembling as she remembered the vacant stares of the heads Amagi carried.

To placate Ashigara's concerns, the Admiral agreed to speak with Amagi that evening and try to get her to ease off the brutality. Fortunately, she came in lacking any body parts that weren't her own. "Oh. I see you stopped carrying the heads around."

Amagi adjusted the bow in her hair nonchalantly. "Akashi is making display stands for me."

"That's..." The Admiral stopped short and looked to the side, mumbling, "That poor girl."

"She doesn't know what I want them for, unless Yuubari has told her. I assume you wanted to speak with me about my behavior at sea?"

Arms folded, the Admiral screwed up her courage and went the imposing route. "Yeah. You scared the hell out of Hatsu and Akebono and that pisses me off, so stop."

"Hmm. I'll just decapitate them straight away next time."

"Wh—that's not what I meant!" she yelled, standing up. "No trophies!"

Ooyodo's head popped through the open office doors before Amagi could reply. "Excuse me, ma'am? Kaga and her fleet have returned."

The Admiral looked over, eyes wide with surprise. "Huh? They're a day early. What's going on?"

"Houshou had engine trouble. They decided to return rather than risk her coming back by herself."

"Damn!" Lost in her own thoughts for a moment, the Admiral didn't notice the subtle changes in Amagi's eyes until looking back up at her. "...oh. Yeah. Uh, we'll pick this up later. You can go see Akagi."

Absolutely blank-faced, Amagi turned and walked out of the office no quicker than usual. As she passed through the front door and got outside, there were four women emerging from the dock building. Two of them were dressed like archers – and, in fact, had specialized chest plates on. They lingered while the other two ladies moved off toward the wharves. Amagi crossed the road to meet them. She already knew which was which despite them having their backs to her. Some spark in her mind saw to that.

"Things were going so well," Akagi lamented as she drew closer, while idly examining her longbow. "And the weather was perfect! What a shame. I hope Houshou is all right."

Kaga sounded much less cheerful. "Unryuu still has a few things to learn." She noticed Amagi first and raised an eyebrow. "Hello? Who are-" On further inspection, the resemblance to her carrier partner took her breath away. "What in the world?" she asked louder, turning around.

"Hmm?" Akagi followed her lead and made eye contact with Amagi. "Oh! A new face! Hello! I'm Ak-" Silence fell as she realized she may as well have been looking into a mirror.

"We already know each other," Amagi said, her tone as gentle as it had been all day.

No words would come to Akagi. The only sound she made was a choked sob before she dropped her bow onto the grass and stepped closer. She tried to speak again and got nothing. Instead, she clamped onto Amagi in a hug and began to bawl. "Sister?!" she finally screamed. "When? How?!"

The battlecruiser patted her on the back a few times. "I missed you too. How have you been?"

Akagi snorted obnoxiously to get air. Her mind traveled in a hundred different directions all at once. "Forget me, when did you—how did—I'm so happy to see you!"

"It's a long story."

Off to the side, Kaga eyed their reunion with equal parts shock and pleasure, though that was caused almost solely by Akagi's happiness. "Amagi. The Amagi," she breathed, making the connection at last.

What she couldn't figure out was how she was standing here.