Disclaimer: This is a non-profit work of fiction using characters from the Kantai Collection franchise, developed by Kadokawa Games and published by . Please support the official release.
Additional note: Please be advised this work contains allusion to certain contemporary issues, namely war crimes perpetrated by Imperial Japan in World War 2. This work is meant to be for enjoyment, and no offense is meant. Also note that, as a fanfiction, many liberties were taken with Kantai Collection canon for the purposes of this story. That being said, please enjoy.
"They're coming back," Yamato said. "Off to your starboard, one o'clock."
"I see 'em." Yvonne looked through her binoculars out towards the sea. In the distance, four small figures led by a taller form grew larger as they raced across the surface of the water towards Yokosuka. Destroyer Division 6 plus their flagship-slash-babysitter, the light cruiser Tenryuu, were returning following another successful expedition.
Yvonne had never seen an expeditionary mission before. When one such mission had cropped up, she had leapt at the chance to observe it. Her orders were to find specific ship girls that met the criteria for the mission, and she could only do that if she knew what they were capable of. What better way to do that than seeing them in action?
The reality of an 'expedition' was nowhere as glamorous as its appellation made it seem to be.
Yvonne sighed before letting her binoculars hang by their strap from her neck. She was in one of the auxiliary command centers observing Lieutenant Matsuda personally oversee the mission. But his intervention was superfluous. An expedition mission was so routine that Matsuda admitted he normally sent his ship girls out on their own and only checked in on them from time to time. The only reason he was actively monitoring their actions today was for Yvonne's benefit.
Towards the end, the American officer and her ship-girl aide had relocated outside to bring her Mark One eyeballs on the ship girls.
"Well, that didn't take very long," Yvonne grumbled. "I thought expeditions would be much more interesting."
"What did you think they were like?" queried Yamato.
"Anything but what I'd just seen, that's for sure."
Perhaps it was because she was an American and a Westerner, but to Yvonne the word 'expedition' carried connotations of venturing into the unknown. Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Apollo 11 mission… pioneers who braved extreme danger in hostile waters, dangerous domains marked on maps as here be dragons, to stake their claim on terra incognita. Of boldly going where no one had gone before… and not what was essentially a resource milk run.
Granted, it was a really fruitful resource milk run. Destroyer Division 6 didn't pride themselves as the top expeditionary team for nothing. Thanks to their efforts today, Yokosuka could sustain an intense carrier operation for a week. However, while their accomplishments were critical to the war effort, this 'expedition' was more routine than anything else.
The last thing Yvonne wanted were people who did 'routine'.
"Well, I think we can effectively cross off the girls of DesDiv 6 from our list of candidates," she sighed. "On the upside, it wasn't as if I had high hopes for them in the first place. This pretty much seals the deal."
Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation
Part 3: The Brave and The Bold
"Welcome back, you five. Excellent work, as always."
As Matsuda praised the five Kanmusu that stood at attention, the dock workers began to lug the materials they had brought back to the nearby warehouses. The evening sun was just beginning to slip beneath the horizon, casting shadows on the pier from nearby crates and parked dock equipment. However, even in the dimming light, not even a blind man could miss the satisfied looks on the faces of the expedition members.
Commander Swanson and Yamato, the two observers, were off to the side. The former was entering her last observations into her tablet computer. They weren't part of the debriefing, but they'd hung around for reasons of their own. Tenryuu didn't mind their presence. In her mind, the more the merrier, especially when this was a chance to rectify that earlier embarrassment.
"We did a good job didn't we, Admiral?" Akatsuki puffed out her chest proudly.
The oldest Akatsuki-class destroyer wasn't the official 'flagship' this time, given Tenryuu had accompanied them. But she took extreme pride in a job well done. The tiny Kanmusu had been eager for a chance to prove herself to their visitor following the debacle that was their first meeting. She was sure this successful mission proved herself a true lady of the fleet to the doubting American!
"Yes, you did, Akatsuki-chan. I think this is one of the most successful expeditions you've done to date. I'm very sure the First Carrier Division will be very happy to know that they won't be having supply problems for the foreseeable future. Good job, everyone!" Matsuda confirmed.
All five girls took this as permission to break ranks and start exchanging high fives and praise.
"That's Destroyer Division 6 for ya!" Ikazuchi agreed with a hearty laugh, snatching up a stoic Hibiki's hands and shaking them animatedly.
"Akagi-san is going to be so happy with us, nano-desu!" Inazuma cheered.
"Ohy, you see that American? We kicked ass!" Tenryuu, also riding high on her victory, thrust a clenched fist over at Swanson's direction. "What do you think, huh?"
"Hm?" The American officer looked up from her tablet, but her attention was directed at someone else. "Sorry, what did you say, Yamato?"
"Tenryuu's old equipment. Her charges greatly outgun her. You should probably add that in your report after the bit about Akatsuki's inexperience," Yamato advised, just a little louder than she had before… and just enough that the five Kanmusu could hear.
"Oh, right. Thanks for catching that. I'll add it into the report for the Admiral," Yvonne nodded.
DesDiv 6's cheerful celebrations came to a crash stop.
Commander Swanson and Yamato did not look the least bit impressed. The former seemed more interested on typing in her report, with the latter occasionally adding her own input. Up until Tenryuu had called out to them, Swanson hadn't even been paying attention to the debriefing.
The fuck?
Adding insult to injury, Yamato was the one who noticed the five sets of stunned eyes staring at them. She tapped Swanson's shoulder, the blonde's face still all but buried in the glowing screen of her tablet.
"Oh, Commander! Tenryuu and the girls are looking at us," the battleship remarked while gesturing at the five stunned Kanmusu .
"Oh? Oh! Oh yes, good work the lot of you!" Swanson hastily put her tablet away and put on a tepid smile, "You five did great work today. Congrats, Matsuda was telling me this was quite a haul-"
"What the hell!" Tenryuu roared as she stomped over, furious at the complete 180 degree turn the two-faced American had just pulled on them. "What the hell is on the tablet? For the Admiral? Old equipment? INEXPERIENCE? What the fuck are you writing?"
Swanson and Yamato, realizing that they'd made a mistake, quickly backed away as fast as they could, but found that their position on the pier left very few routes for a retreat.
Behind Tenryuu, the Akatsuki sisters were stunned, unable to believe that their expedition had not only failed to impress the observer, but she was about to submit a report to the Admiral that painted them in an unflattering right. Worse, Yamato was in on it!
The fuck was this bullshit?
"Tenryuu, stop this at once!" Matsuda ordered.
"Like hell! Not until I see what is on that tablet!" If this was the second fucking time this American bitch screwed her kids over, well screw the consequences, Tenryuu was going to take Swanson's head!
The nerve of this bitch! Tenryuu reached out towards Swanson... only to find that Yamato had interposed herself between the two like an iron wall, the battleship's features set in a determined frown.
"Move it, Hotel," Tenryuu snarled, her hand placed upon the hilt of the sword at her waist.
"I cannot do that, Tenryuu." Yamato twirled the parasol that rested on her shoulder. "Please cease your aggressive actions. This is a misunderstanding."
"You can prove it's a 'misunderstanding' by handing over that fucking tablet."
"I am afraid that what is on there is classified information, Tenryuu."
Everyone watched with bated breath as Tenryuu, a mere light cruiser that some even considered to be nothing more than an oversized destroyer, stared down the largest battleship in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The shocked Akatsuki sisters were huddling together like a quartet of thoroughly intimidated puppies. The dock workers had figuratively dropped everything to stare at the showdown.
"Jesus Christ. Me and my big mouth," Swanson hissed to herself in self-recrimination.
And then Matsuda put his foot down.
"TENRYUU. YAMATO. ENOUGH!" he barked, placing himself in between the two Kanmusu, with a tone that brooked no objection. "Stand down! Both of you!"
Unable to disobey a direct order, Tenryuu took her hand off her sword while Yamato tipped her head and took a dainty step back.
"You two, cool it! That's an order," Matsuda said with finality.
"Yes, Sir." Tenryuu's teeth were gnashing against each other as she complied with his order.
"My apologies, Admiral Matsuda." Yamato bowed.
"Lieutenant, this is my fault," Swanson intervened. "I'll take full responsibility-"
"Yeah, you will, bitch!" Tenryuu all but spat at her. "You are so lucky that Tatsuta's in San Diego right now, or your ass would be so-"
"That's it! You two, in my office, now! The rest of you, get back to work." Matsuda pivoted on his heel and marched off towards the nearby office building, anger radiating off his person. "You might as well come along, Commander. We are going to have to have a talk."
The angry JMSDF officer stormed off the pier, followed by a guilty-looking American officer and a resigned-looking Yamato with Tenryuu taking up the rear, her exposed golden eye burning a hole into Swanson's back the entire time.
This wasn't over, not if the Heavenly Dragon had anything to say about it.
Tenryuu felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to see that Akatsuki and her sisters had chased after her. Worried tears filled their eyes.
Goddamn it all...
"Tenryuu-san…" Akatsuki was trying her best not to cry like the little child that she was.
"Why is this happening?" Ikazuchi asked with a whimper.
In spite of her anger, Tenryuu forced herself to put on a brave face for the kids. "Don't worry, kids," she reassured them. "Just head back to the dorm. I'll be back in a bit."
'Swanson is going to pay for making my kids cry,' she promised herself.
As it turned out, Yamato received a brief warning to keep out of fights in the future, given she had not been the one who initiated the hostilities and in fact acted to defuse the sizzling powder keg as well as to protect Swanson. The battleship Kanmusu was mainly present to serve as a witness.
The lion's share of Matsuda's fury was focused solely on Tenryuu.
Now, the light cruiser was not unfamiliar to a dressing down. Tenryuu was one of those military maverick types whose attitudes tended to attract a lot of heat from their superiors but still get away with it thanks to their irreplaceable expertise in indispensable matters. She'd built up quite a resistance to having a superior officer tear her a new one.
Tenryuu adopted her tried-and-tested approach: just stand there and take it until Matsuda exhausted himself with his shouting and ended up too worn out to actually hand out punishment.
"…right after I told you to stop! I don't care what you thought was on that tablet! Commander Swanson is still a superior officer, and a visiting one from America at that! You almost assaulted her in broad daylight in front of dozens of sailors!" Matsuda slammed an open palm down on his desk. "That was unacceptable! What do you have to say for yourself?"
"That the ungrateful bitch should keep her own opinions to herself?"
"GODDAMNIT, TENRYUU!"
Further complicating the situation was Swanson's attempts to take some of the blame. "Lieutenant, look. I'm partially at fault here. I shouldn't have said what I did within earshot of your girls. Listen, this is all just a big misunderstanding. I can quickly clear it up by showing-"
"Commander, don't trouble yourself. This is an internal problem that has been going on for some time," Matsuda insisted, before turning back to Tenryuu. "Light Cruiser Tenryuu. Your insubordination has gone on for long enough. I put up with your behaviour because of your value to the fleet, but what you did today… this is the last straw."
"Yeah, yeah. You say that every time you drag me over here," Tenryuu muttered to herself while nonchalantly waiting for her 'admiral' to finally get down to issuing the usual slap-on-the-wrist punishment. Matsuda was probably docking her leave privileges again or putting her on night sentry duty. At worst case scenario she could be confined for a few days. But hey, nothing she couldn't handle.
"I'm going to the Admiral and getting you scrapped."
"What?"
That… That wasn't the sentence that Tenryuu expected. Surely she had misheard him. That couldn't be it, right? Scrapped? There was no way that would happen. Obviously he said something else...
"You heard me the first time. I'm scrapping you." Matsuda's eyes were hard as the steel of Tenryuu's Rigging.
Swanson and Yamato had gone dead silent, the enormity of what was happening before them rendering them speechless.
"A-Admiral Matsuda… you're joking right?"
"You crossed a line, Tenryuu. I had hoped that your antics could be controlled, or that you would calm down and mellow out some day. But nearly assaulting a superior officer over a perceived slight, without even considering the proper channels is an overreaction I simply cannot ignore," Matsuda said as he leaned back in his chair.
Tenryuu felt like the floor had been yanked out from under her, as if the water buoying her hull suddenly gave way to air, a river turning into a waterfall that fell down, down, all the way down to the rock hard ground...
Scrapping.
It wasn't as bad as it sounded. Scrapping was the process in which a Kanmusu's abilities and equipment were taken away from her. It was effectively a permanent, irreversible discharge from military service. Sometimes honorable.
Sometimes not.
Tenryuu's life wouldn't be snuffed out. But she would be turned into a normal human being like Houshou. Unable to sail the seas on her own power and terms for the rest of her life.
"You're firing me?" she whimpered.
"Yes I am," Matsuda confirmed
This couldn't be happening. Tenryuu had been with this fleet since he'd arrived nine months ago. They'd worked together from the beginning: thick as thieves, partners in crime… comrades in arms. She'd been serving under Matsuda for so long that Tenryuu couldn't imagine being anywhere else but by his side.
More than that, she loved the Akatsuki sisters. Adored them. They were family to her, her precious gaggle of little sisters. She couldn't bear to part with them, all the more so knowing that with the war on there was a chance they'd have to face danger without her to protect them. If anything happened to them while she was away...
This couldn't be happening.
Yet it was.
"You're doing this. You are really doing this," Tenryuu repeated in a blank tone.
"Yes, I am."
"B-But Admiral. I… I, what about the girls?" Tenryuu's mind desperately raced in search of anything she could hold on to. It felt like she was being pulled against her will by the roaring currents of her namesake river. And she couldn't do anything to stop it. "You can't send them out on their own," she found herself begging. "Who's going to take care of them on the more dangerous assignments?"
"They've handled their expeditions well enough on their own without your help, and when Tatsuta gets back from the United States, she will be able to care for them."
Tenryuu felt her mouth go dry. Tatsuta, her sister. Oh no, what was Tatsuta going to think?
"Admiral, please. Please reconsider!" Driven to desperation, Tenryuu dropped onto hands, knees, and forehead. "I was wrong!" she confessed from the seiza position that she had assumed. " I'll write up a formal apology! I promise it won't happen again! Please!"
"Lieutenant, I think-"
Matsuda's raised hand silenced Swanson. The young JMSDF officer looked down at Tenryuu with a merciless stare. "My mind is made up," he asserted.
At those words Tenryuu raised her head, her one uncovered eye looking up at Matsuda's to see nothing but cold hard judgement weighing down upon her.
Swanson and Yamato averted their eyes from the scene to spare themselves the discomfort and grant Tenryuu what little polite privacy they could afford her right now.
"Light Cruiser Tenryuu. Your orders are as follows: You will go to your dorm room and begin packing your belongings. While you are doing so, I will be in contact with the Admiral to discuss what has happened today."
This was a nightmare.
"You will be confined to quarters until such time when we have decided on when we will arrange for your discharge from service, and you will only be allowed to leave during meal times and to use the wash rooms. You will not be allowed any privileges while being confined."
This couldn't be happening.
"You have your orders." And Matsuda sealed his verdict by turning his back on his former subordinate. "Now get out of my office."
But it was.
Hot tears streamed down Tenryuu's cheeks as her calloused hands shoved her personal effects into the plain standard issue duffel bags. Humiliation and anger fuelled her silent curses at the unfairness of it all.
Why was she the one who had been punished? That American bitch had been the one to stir up all that fuss about the stupid report! All Tenryuu wanted to do was stand up for her and her little sisters. And because of that she was being forced to leave, stripped of everything she was in the worst way possible.
This was just bullshit!
"Fuck you, Shitty Admiral! Fuck you with a fourteen centimeter shell!" As she haphazardly jammed one of her spare uniforms into her bag, Tenryuu could no longer bottle up her emotions. "How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends!"
She'd returned to her room in a daze, unable to fully comprehend the disaster that her life had become. The Kanmusu she'd passed on the way were but indistinct faces and voices she couldn't even recall. Every one of them had expressed concern at her uncharacteristic absent-minded state. But Tenryuu had just brushed them off. The whole trip had been one gigantic blur that centred around a single though: 'This is a dream. No, this is a nightmare'.
It was only after she had stepped into her room, the room that she shared with Tatsuta, and was halfway into the chore of emptying her closet of clothes and knick knacks that Tenryuu finally woke up from her walking fugue and found herself in the sweat-cold clutches of reality. That's when she finally figured out that the sky had long fallen on her purple-haired head.
That's when she fell apart.
"Fuck you, too, American Bitch! You wouldn't know what awesome is even if you managed to pry your fucking face off that fucking tablet of yours long enough to actually look and give a fuck!"
Tenryuu's emotions danced a ranbu, a wild dance, upon the fine line between anger and sadness. She lashed out at the ones she deemed responsible for her misfortunes with words brimful of venom.
"And you know what? While we're at it? Fuck you, Hotel Yamato! Take those 46 cm AP caps that you use for bra cups and shove them up your uptight ass because the only thing that comes out of your pretty little mouth is shit!"
As she ranted, she grabbed at her eye-patch, tore it off her face with such force that its strap snapped and slapped at her cheeks as a vengeful parting blow, and hurled the accessory into the floor.
How dare they? How dare they!
"Tenryuu-san?"
"WHAT?" Tenryuu blustered at whoever intruded on her during this moment of grief, fury and tears clouding her sight.
"T-T-Tenryuu-san…"
A cold cataract slammed into the bottom of her gut. Tenryuu frantically rubbed the blinding tears out of her eyes with her forearm to take an actual look at the four figures gathered at her doorstep.
Huddled outside her domain, the Akatsuki sisters quivered with fear and uncertainty. They'd never seen Tenryuu, their cocky, confident older sister figure in a state like this before. The scene proved so unsettling that all four of them, even the normally stoic Hibiki, were shaking in distress.
It was a sight that no older sibling ever wanted to see… much less cause.
"Oh my girls…" All the rage and anger drained out of Tenryuu's body as she witnessed her precious younger sisters in such a sad state.
"Tenryuu-san? Wh-what happened with the, Admiral?" Akatsuki asked in a whimpering voice, trying hard not to cry, "Did it go badly? Can we help?"
A thought slammed into Tenryuu like the Mark 14 torpedo that had sunk her original body: She would be leaving them. She was being forced to abandon the Akatsuki sisters and there was nothing she could do about it. Her little division of adorable destroyers would have to brave this world, this war full of wolves at sea and on land, on their own, without her, their flotilla leader, to lead them.
"Oh my girls!" She raced over to her girls and drew them into her trembling chest.
"Tenryuu-san!" All four Akatsuki sisters whimpered in one united voice as Tenryuu made them realize that she did not want to ever let go of them. "Tenryuu-san! What's going on?"
The temptation to lie to them was immense and seductive. Tell them that everything would be all right. Claim to be finally moving up the ladder and moving on to better things. Say that everyone was recognizing their big sister Tenryuu. Grant them the comfort of thinking that she wasn't the biggest fuckup in the world. Give them the faint hope that they would see her again someday.
But she couldn't do that to her girls. She loved them too much for it.
To be kind to them, she had to be cruel to them.
Tenryuu tightened her embrace before whispering: "Girls… I'm being scrapped."
And so the many massive dams confining the River Tenryuu shattered, and there was no way to stop her long-imprisoned emotions from flooding forth.
She told them then about what happened. How her anger at Swanson and the kami-forsaken report had gotten the better of her and brought about her downfall. How she would no longer be a Kanmusu, not for long, not anymore. How she was going to be cashiered in disgrace, humiliated in the worst way possible.
How being true to her feelings had cost Tenryuu all her ambitions and dreams. How she had lost everything because of what she believed in.
There was none of the bluster and posturing that characterized the Heavenly Dragon. In this situation she found it impossible to puff herself up into anything remotely appearing ferocious. This was the first time Tenryuu allowed herself to show weakness to the four girls whom she had taken under her wing nine months ago.
"Then-... then the Admiral said he'd had enough of my crap…" Tenryuu shuddered. "He said he was going to s-scrap me… So I'm here, packing my bags..."
"That's so unfair!" Ikazuchi blurted out in between her own sniffles, "It was that meanie's fault! We did good work and she was all mean 'n stuff! I can't believe we tried being nice to her! Why isn't she being punished?"
"She's a superior officer. I can't touch a superior officer, no matter the reason," snarled the helpless Tenryuu.
That American bitch... That son of a Hakuchō had forced her way into their lives like a homewrecker. She had forced Tenryuu and her kids to jump through hoops for her amusement. And now she had irrevocably upended their lives, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.
'Izanami-no-Mikoto take you into her rotting bosom, Swanson!'
"We'll… we'll go to the Admiral," Akatsuki declared. "We'll go to him and appeal. He likes us, so he'll listen. We'll get him to let you stay, Tenryuu-san!"
Tenryuu gave the defiant little destroyer an even tighter hug as a hollow reward for her loyalty. "I don't think that's going to work this time, Akatsuki-chan," she whispered.
She hated to admit it, but Tenryuu knew that Matsuda's action lay well within his rights as her commanding officer. And that was the part that burned the most. Despite all her curses at him, Tenryuu admitted to herself that she had crossed a line in the sand. She had come close to assaulting a superior officer. And not just any superior officer, but a human one. And given the strength of the light cruiser she embodied, Tenryuu could easily have killed Swanson with just her bare hands.
And to add insult unto injury, Tenryuu had openly threatened to strike Yamato when the battleship came to stop her. She had placed her hand on her sword and had been this close to whipping her butcher's blade out of her scabbard and trying to plant it within Yamato's heart.
"The Admiral is serious this time. I… I fucked up," Tenryuu admitted. "I'm done for. I'm sorry, Akatsuki-chan. There's nothing you can do."
Her vocalization of her sins ended any little hope within the Akatsuki sisters that things could still get better. They had never seen Tenryuu in a moment of weakness, but now she was admitting to be at the lowest ebb of her strenth.
"We can still see you after this, right?" Inazuma was pawing at an ever-thinning pile of straws. "You can still come and visit, nano-desu?"
Tenryuu didn't reply. She didn't need to. Everyone know the JSDF's policy with regards to active duty Kanmusu. If the service took Tenryuu's Rigging and sent her away, chances were that she wouldn't be seeing them again for a very long time. And with the war raging on, she might never see them again.
Her silence was everything they needed to hear but didn't want to know. The five ship-girls tried to find comfort in each other's shaking arms, hoping against hope that this hug would not be their last.
"Do svidaniya, Tenryuu-san."
"Thank you, Hibiki… Thank you, girls… You're the best little sisters any big sister could ever ask for..."
And for the first time in her life, Tenryuu permitted herself to cry like the sweet children in her arms. And it made her just a little bit happy to share her tears with her precious little Akatsuki sisters.
Even if their first time to do so might be their last time as well.
Hours later, Tenryuu awoke alone on her bed. Sitting up caused her blanket to fall off her shrugging shoulders. As she took a look around her room, the drowsy soon-to-be-former-ship-girl realized that the afternoon had long given way to midnight.
The only sign that the the Akatsuki sisters had been in her room was the blanket that she didn't recall covering herself with. Tenryuu reasoned that they must have awoken ahead of her and quietly retired to their own room.
It was really considerate of the girls to let her catch up on what little rest remained to her. And besides, they had plenty of important stuff on their plate tomorrow.
Unlike her.
"Alone, huh? I guess this is something I'm going to have to get used to." Tenryuu chuckled humorlessly to herself.
Her eyes were still sore and it felt like the strength had been drained from her sore muscles. But she didn't feel like getting back to sleep anytime soon. Another look around her room reminded her how messy it had gotten during her interrupted packing.
Tenryuu decided that she might as well do some tidying up. So she hopped onto her bare feet and began gingerly picking her way through the mess to collect the bits and pieces of her life strewn all over the place.
In a way the room reflected her current emotional state. Tenryuu had not been in her right mind when she began to pack her things. Her crying fit with the Akatsuki sisters had helped calm her down, but the damage remained.
It took her a full fifteen minutes to get everything back into some semblance of order. In the course of cleaning up her mess, Tenryuu wondered what she was going to do with herself now that the chapter of her life as a Kanmusu came close to an end. Scrapping ship-girls wasn't unheard of, but given their scarcity and the need for every able-bodied Kanmusu available, it was incredibly rare.
Only a handful had retired with dignity so far. These were mostly older vessels like Houshou who were too worn out to to continue active service. A few rotten apples had been thrown out on their asses for bad behavior… and it seemed that Tenryuu counted as the latter.
Her mind drew a blank on her immediate and far-off futures. Unlike some of the other girls, Tenryuu didn't have any plans for herself outside of being a Kanmusu. She knew that some of her light cruiser sisters-in-arms had cultivated ideas on how to be integrated into civilian life after the war. Naka, for one, made no secret of her plan to enter the idol business as a full-time performer and future manager.
Tenryuu wasn't one of those far-seeing girls. She had long decided to devote her entire life to the military. She was going to live as a Kanmusu, and she would die as one.
Not anymore.
"Geez, what a mess. Tatsuta would slice my ears off if she found I left our room like this." Tenryuu pulled a pair of undergarments from where they were hanging from her ceiling fan. How the heck did they manage to get up there? "Well, that seems that I got everything."
Casting her eyes around the room one last time to see if she'd missed anything, Tenryuu noticed something she'd missed before. A small handwritten letter rested on the wooden desk on Tatsuta's side of the room. Curious, Tenryuu walked over to pick it up and found that it was Inazuma's prim and easily legible script. They sisters must have left it for her before they had left.
Nice kids. She was going to miss them.
Curious as to what it said, Tenryuu began reading aloud.
"Dear Tenryuu-san. Sorry to leave you alone while you were sleeping. You were so sad earlier, so we thought you should rest when you looked so peaceful sleeping like that."
Chuckling to herself at how considerate and cute her kids were, she continued reading the note.
"We talked among ourselves and decided that… the meanie American… oh, shit."
Tenryuu's face went pale as she continued, her voice rising even as her sense of horrific doom deepened. The sisters couldn't possibly be doing what she thought they were, could they?
"The meanie American needs to get what's coming to her. You said you got into trouble with that stupid report, so we're going to steal it from under her nose… girls what are you thinking, she sleeps next door to Yamato and all the other battleships… and take it to the Admiral to show him how mean she is. When he sees it, he'll understand what a meanie she was and forgive you, you'll see. Just sit tight and let us take care of you for once! Signed, Inazuma... no, no, no, what are you four thinking?!"
This was bad! This was worse than bad; this was a disaster! They'd completely misunderstood why Tenryuu was in trouble, and in their childish idealism had gone off to try and fix the perceived problem by breaking into the room of a foreign military intelligence agent to steal her fucking tablet computer, one that Swanson had explicitly noted to be carrying classified information.
Tenryuu had landed herself in the scrapyard for merely threatening Swanson. She did not want to think of what would happen to the Akatsuki sisters if they got caught trying to steal top secret military information from the American intelligence officer!
She was already damned. But there was no way in this Hell of hers that she was going to let her kids end up like her.
"You idiots!" Tenryuu burst through the door of her room and sprinted harder than she had ever done in both of her lives. "I have to make it, I have to make it!"
Hold on girls, Tenryuu's coming!
It was way past 'lights out.' Aside from the few guards on patrol and the night shift, the base was sound asleep. So it was during this state of low activity that a single shadowy figure slipped through the night, making her way from the Kanmusu dormitory to the officers' barracks and feeling like the greatest dumbass on the entire planet.
Tenryuu had never felt more vulnerable and stupid in her entire life. Here she was, a warship trying to be stealthy on dry land. And she didn't do stealthy. She was completely out of her element.
Creeping around Yokosuka with a spare scarf fastened around her face to muffle her breathing and disguise her features... crawling through foliage on her belly, darting from shadow to shadow to minimize the time she spent lit up, and even climbing up a tree to avoid a patrolling guard... Tenryuu was the clichéd picture of a traditional thief. It was not an image the boisterous and straightforward light cruiser had ever expected herself to be doing. But then again, she hadn't even considered the possibility of herself being dismissed from active service, so there was that as well.
She wasn't supposed to be out here. In fact, Matsuda's orders were pretty clear. Tenryuu was confined to her room until further notice.
Yet here she was, not only out & about in direct & willful disobedience of those orders, but doing so during curfew hours. She was already screwed over, but she knew that getting caught now would make her previous situation look peachy.
But the girls, her girls, were counting on her. And Tenryuu was not going to let the Akatsuki sisters down.
So she persevered with all the pluck and daring she was known for. And she surprised herself by somehow making it to the thick bush outside the officers' barracks without getting detected despite moving with all the grace of a blue whale attempting to climb Mount Fuji.
The cost was that she now looked like a mess. Her recent impression of a snake had gotten dirt all over her clothes. The perspiration caused by her fearful exertion had turned the grime smeared across her face into a mask of mud. There were leaves and twigs stuck in her tangled hair and handkerchief head cover, with two particularly long sticks on both sides of her head pointing straight up like the radar antenna on Nagato and Mutsu's headbands.
There was an upside to her disheveled state. If she ever got spotted, the impromptu mud facial should make it harder for someone to recognize Tenryuu.
But what really concerned the cruiser right now was the lack of hide or strand of hair of the quartet of destroyers she had come to find. While she knew the odds of running into the Akatsuki sisters on the way over here was incredibly slim, Tenryuu had held onto a faint hope of intercepting them and forestall the debacle before the ball got rolling.
Unfortunately, this hadn't been the case. So now Tenryuu stared at the quiet barracks building.
Maybe four would-be thieves had not yet made their attempt. The Akatsuki girls might have even decided not to go through with their plan.
On the downside, this could be the calm before the storm, the moment Admiral Yamamoto embarked on the greatest mistake of his life when he sent the message "NIITAKA-YAMA NOBORE 12 08" to Admiral Nagumo aboard Nagato on the fine morning of 7 December 1941.
There was only one way Tenryuu could find out.
"The American bitch was living in the second floor, I think..." She crept out of the bush and began scaling the side of the barracks from the outside. Finding handholds on the building's smooth concrete wall wasn't easy, but the determined light cruiser made up for it with sheer grit and occasional use of her inhuman strength to gouge out sufficiently-sized handholds in the walls as quietly as possible.
Vandalism? Pah! Tenryuu was already on her way to the scrapyard. Any other punishment was peanuts compared to stripping away her power and status as a ship-girl.
When she'd finally gotten to the second floor, she discovered another problem.
"Which room is it?"
Tenryuu had no idea which room Swanson was occupying . All she knew was that the American was living in the female side of the barracks in a room very close to Nagato, the staff of the secretary ship, and last but definitely not least, Yamato.
This was an intimidating prospect to say the least. Tenryuu knew that entering the wrong room could result in her coming face to face with an irate battleship looking to pound her bridge in for interrupting her beauty sleep. The combination of her ignorance and the blinding darkness meant that Tenryuu had no way of knowing who or what waited for her in each room that she investigated.
But she had to check every room. It was not the smartest thing to do given battleships lived in this dorm. However, for the sake of the Akatsuki sisters, Tenryuu would brave the 46 centimeter guns of Yamato herself if she had to.
"Okay, let's check behind window number one," Tenryuu muttered. She inched herself over to the ledge to the nearest room and began peering through it to see what lay beyond…
"I'm telling you, Nagato-nee. I heard scratching on the walls. There is something outside my window, I'm sure of it!"
"It's just your imagination, Mutsu. Look, let me just open it-"
…only to have the damn thing swing out and slam into Tenryuu's grimacing face.
"HOLY FUUUUUUU-!" Tenryuu gave a loud shriek as she plummeted to the ground. Thankfully she landed in the same bush she had been using as camouflage just a few minutes ago.
Oh, yeah. She had been quite noisy climbing the building, hadn't she?
'I'm a dumbass!'
Spitting out some leaves that had gotten herself into her mouth in the process, Tenryuu stuck her shrubbery-covered head out of the bush and looked up.
And immediately wished she hadn't done so.
For looking down at the horrified Tenryuu's were Nagato and Mutsu in night clothes.
Lights started to come on throughout the entire barracks. Tenryuu's scream had not gone unheard.
"Secretary Ship! We heard a shout! What's wrong?" A familiar voice heralded the appearance of two more faces at the window. Yamato and Swanson responded to the cry of alarm by joining Nagato and Mutsu at the windowsill.
Four pairs of eyes looked down through the open window at Tenryuu. The stunned stares of the three battleships and one human officer were like iron pins that immobilized the cruiser.
As she returned her astonished gazes, breath caught in her throat, Tenryuu could hear the barracks coming alive with shouts of confusion and alarm as the building occupants awoke.
"Well, now. That's something you don't see every day," Swanson quipped with a raised eyebrow.
Caught in the act by three of the most powerful Kanmusu in Yokosuka, frozen like a deer in the headlights, Tenryuu knew she was done for.
"Who the hell is that?" Mutsu asked, eyes wide as the window of her room.
Tenryuu remembered to breathe. They hadn't realized who she was! The poor lighting, the mud & leaves marring her features, and the scarf covering her head, she remained unrecognized! She had a chance!
She ducked her head back into the bush and scrambled away on all fours as fast as her arms and legs could take her while hoping that the battleships would stay stunned a bit l-
"Guards! Intruder! Put the base on alert, we have an intruder in the base!" Nagato bellowed, loud enough that Tenryuu was sure that she could have been heard all the way on the other side of the Pacific. "We have an intruder! GUARDS!"
Well, shit.
Tenryuu figured that in the increasingly likely event that she was thrown off the base with only the dirty clothes currently on her back, she could probably apply for a job that required a lot of tree-climbing, a skill that she was rapidly getting pretty good at.
Hiding among the leaves of another tree she had relocated to, after her latest hiding spot was nearly compromised, Tenryuu wondered how she was going to get out of this mess. And what was going to happen to her if she didn't escape the ongoing hunt.
Granted she was already going to be scrapped. But Tenryuu knew that if anyone ever discovered she was the intruder, scrapping was going to be the least of her worries. Maybe they'd have just thrown her out on her ass before, but at the rate she was going, Tenryuu was probably looking at some serious jail time.
That's what they did with panty thieves, didn't they?
"I can't believe it! An honest to goodness panty thief! MY GOD!" Kongou, leader of one of the nightgown-clad search parties that had eagerly volunteered to hunt that fiend down, exclaimed loudly from below where Tenryuu was hiding.
The ship-girl base, being as specialized and regulated as it was, maintained a token number of human staff on site, including guards and military police. As such, Nagato had roped in all the Kanmusu that were willing to help – which was most of them - in apprehending their intruder. Soon the base was on full alert with roving flotillas of excited Kanmusu (some armed to the teeth thanks to partial summons of their Rigging) running about trying to find the 'fiend'.
Honestly, it was a wonder they hadn't realized it was her the moment they did a headcount. Tenryuu wasn't complaining, though.
This heightened security made it considerably harder for Tenryuu to get back to the relative safety of her dorm.
The one bright spot to this bleak night was that Tenryuu had seen Inazuma in one of the patrol groups. If Inazuma was searching for the intruder, it stood to reason that her other sisters were also part of the hunt. If that was the case, that meant they weren't raiding the American's room.
Well, at least she accomplished part of why she came out here.
Now all Tenryuu had to do was survive.
This must be what submarines felt like while being hunted by squadrons of destroyers. The next time Tenryuu met one, she promised to buy that sub-girl the biggest goddamn parfait she could afford, because that kid deserved it.
If there ever was a next time...
"We must find her and administer BURNING JUSTICE!" Fires of righteousness blazed in Kongou's eyes. "A panty thief! I never thought I'd see the day!"
"It was only a matter of time, Kongou-nee-sama," Kirishima stated severely while nodding head besides her sister. "We may be battleships, but we are also beautiful young women. It is only natural that young boys would take interest in us. We should capture him and… interrogate him to see what he knows!"
"But wouldn't we be more worried about enemy spies? This is a military base, so maybe the intruder was looking for something else!" Haruna, seemingly the only one of the four sisters with half a brain, suggested.
Unfortunately, the lone voice of reason was quickly smothered by counter-battery fire.
"No way! Nagato's description of the intruder clearly matched that of a panty thief!" Hiei pumped her fist excitedly. "Man I can't wait to find that pervert and beat him into the ground! Try stealing our panties, would you?"
It was all Tenryuu could do not to bash her head against the trunk of the tree that hid her from sight. In fact, she seriously considered just dropping out of the tree, going over to Kongou, and slapping the silly out of the former battlecruiser.
Panty thief? This was a fucking military base!
What about that American bitch's tablet, the one with classified information? Have her soon-to-be-former sisters-in-arms forgotten there were more important things in the barracks that underwear?
Seriously, someone attempts to break into the officers' barracks where the base's secretary ship and a foreign intelligence officer were staying. And somehow these girls' first suspect was 'panty thief'.
Tenryuu didn't consider herself the sharpest tool in the block, but come on!
And yet pretty much all the Kanmusu who were searching for her had somehow jumped to the same conclusion: that a heinous pervert had infiltrated the base to steal their undergarments.
Tenryuu had known Kanmusu were mildly military and a bit eccentric. After all, she was one of them, even if it wasn't for much longer. But this really took home the cake.
She was beginning to worry for the future of Japan, all the more so now that she was getting kicked out of the outfit.
"Nee-sama! I think we should check our own dormitory!" Hiei declared. "If she really is a panty thief, she might try to steal our stuff too!"
"OH NOES!" Kongou gasped in pure dismay. "The only one who should see my panties is the Admiral! Onwards girls, we must secure our modesty!"
With that, the fast battleship foursome tromped off to secure their precious underclothes from the non-existent panty thief reputedly out to steal their treasures.
Tenryuu resolved to make sure that the Akatsuki sisters never grew up to be as airheaded as those bimbos.
Remembering she was going to be scrapped, her mood once more plummeted like plunging shellfire.
"Heh, I guess I am going to miss this," Tenryuu muttered to herself as she rested with her back against the wooden bark.
For all the idiocy of the Kongou sisters, it was their eccentricities that made life in Yokosuka so exciting. And they weren't the only colorful personalities on the base, merely its most colorful.
The naïve innocence of the Akatsuki sisters, the insatiable appetite of the First Carrier Division and the rivalry they had with the Fifth Carrier Division, Tenryuu herself being the butt of Tatsuta's jokes… despite being embroiled in the greatest conflict ever recorded in human history, everyone on Yokosuka brimmed with quirky life.
Even this tense hunt for an intruder had somehow transformed into something so amusing and memorable.
Tenryuu couldn't believe she was no longer going to be a part of this. The realization cut her more deeply than her own sword.
"…I have to keep moving."
Tearing herself free from ruminations about 'meanwhiles' and 'neverweres' and 'could've beens', Tenryuu continued her silent run back to the dormitory.
'Eat your heart out, Sendai,' thought the triumphant Tenryuu. 'I'm a better ninja than you!'
Somehow, against all odds, she'd managed to make it to the small garden area in front of the main entrance of the dormitory without getting detection. Either she had massive unrealized talent at stealth, the other Kanmusu of Yokosuka were horrible at detecting an intruder on their home turf, or the ship-girls weren't taking this hunt seriously.
Tenryuu sincerely hoped it was the first one.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she crawled through the undergrowth, hoping she could make the home sprint. And then she saw a final complication.
"What do you mean, 'you haven't sent everyone out?' There is an intruder on the base! We need to find them!"
Shoukaku wilted under the angry gaze of Nagato. The similarly cross Mutsu, Swanson and Yamato stood right behind the frustrated secretary ship.
"Some of the girls are tired and stressed out," weakly argued the snow-haired carrier. "I thought it would be best if-"
"This is a critical situation!" Nagato was furious. "There is an intruder on the base. We have no idea what his objective is or what he's capable of! What if he means us harm? And you let the other carriers sleep in during this emergency?"
Well, that explained why there weren't any fairy-manned observation planes in the air. While none of the carriers were certified for night operations, the lighting around the base would have sufficed to guide the good old Mark One eyeball. Good thing they hadn't gotten involved: if they had, Tenryuu's goose would have been cooked!
"Well, I…"
"Did you even do a headcount?" Tenryuu could almost see the steam issuing from Nagato's ears after Shoukaku shook her head. "What if the intruder had kidnapped or killed someone? We wouldn't know about it until it was too late because you didn't bother to check! I am doing a headcount, get everyone else in that building out here, now!"
With an "Eep", Shoukaku scurried inside the building to gather up anyone who was still inside.
Inside the bush, Tenryuu realized that all her efforts were for naught.
Nagato wanted a roll call immediately. That meant that there would be no chance for Tenryuu get back into her room and clean up her mud-caked self.
If she continued to hide herself, everyone would notice her absence and rightly suspect her. But if she showed herself in all her mud-encrusted guilt...
Either way, she was screwed.
But Tenryuu refused to quit. She was a fighter. If she couldn't cancel her personal apocalypse, she would settle for delaying her doom for as long as possible by. Fate was going to have to drag her kicking and screaming all the way to her execution.
Still, watching everyone in the dormitory file out one after another and line up in parade formation before Nagato and her entourage sent a chill down her spine, especially since Tenryuu was mere footsteps from discovery.
"I am so screwed," she mumbled to herself once the last jammies-clad ship-girl made to the very end of the line.
"Roll call! Sound off!" Nagato ordered.
"Naka-chan is the first one!" sang the Idol of the Fleet.
"Two," yawned a bleary-eyed Yuubari, who'd been up all night tinkering with her Rigging like usual.
And so it went, as Kanmusu after Kantai Musume reported in before their secretary ship while the helplessly immobile Tenryuu could only watch from her concealing bush.
Much to her relief, Hibiki and Inazuma were among the line-up. The two young destroyers stood out from the others in that they were the only ones wearing their uniforms. From what Tenryuu had pieced together, Hibiki and Inazuma had been returning to the dorm from one of the search parties when the other Kanmusu began filing out.
To avoid confusion and maintain headcount, Nagato had gently told the young destroyers to join the line, at least for the moment, until they finished.
"Eleven!" Zuikaku yawned. "Final count."
"Eleven. How many do we have on patrol?" Nagato asked of Mutsu, who had been on the radio talking with Ooyodo in the guard room for a headcount of their volunteers.
"According to Ooyodo? Twenty five, not including ourselves and Yamato."
"We're down a head," Nagato declared after pausing to do a brief mental calculation.
"Perhaps it's Tenryuu?" Mutsu suggested thoughtfully. "Lieutenant Matsuda submitted a report to the Admiral for her scrapping, so maybe she's sulking in the dorm somewhere?"
There were multiple gasps from among the line of Kanmusu at that.
"If it is her, then she's in for a world of trouble," Nagato growled. "She may be going to be scrapped, but until she is she is still a Kanmusu of Japan, and that means she has to act like one. Hibiki!"
"Da, Secretary Ship?"
"Go into that dormitory, find Tenryuu and bring her out here," Nagato ordered sternly.
"Understood, heading out." Hibiki gave a polite nod, pivoted on her foot and marched back into the dormitory.
Tenryuu knew the white-haired destroyer like the back of her hand. So she noticed Hibiki's brief hesitation to accomplish Nagato's orders and the sideways glance meant for Inazuma, who looked even more skittish than usual.
Something was very wrong. They couldn't have…?
"Inazuma, fall out," Nagato ordered, motioning for the little destroyer to move behind her. Inazuma, wringing her hands all the while, shuffled behind Nagato where Mutsu, Swanson and Yamato waited, and then turned to face the line of Kanmusu and presented her back to the bush where Tenryuu was hiding.
And then Nagato opened up with a blistering salvo that would cause Yamato to blush.
"WHAT THE HELL WHERE YOU NINE THINKING?!" Nagato roared at the top of her voice, causing everyone, including Tenryuu, to flinch. "THERE IS AN INTRUDER ON THE BASE, AND YOU NINE DECIDED TO SLEEP IN? THAT IS THE MOST IRRESPONSIBLE AND SHAMEFUL BEHAVIOR I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE CAREER!"
"Well, you haven't been at this for much longer then we have…"
"WHO SAID THAT!?" Nagato was on the warpath. Soon the nine Kanmusu looked like they'd rather take on an entire Abyssal battlegroup on their own than remain in the secretary ship's smoldering sights for one second longer. Tough, because there was no sign that Nagato would be letting up any time soon.
Well, getting chewed out by Miss Beeeg Seeebeeen wasn't going to be something that Tenryuu would miss…
A soft thump followed by a terrified "Hawawa" drew her attention away from where Nagato was grilling the Kanmusu to where Inazuma was standing.
Lying on the ground behind Inazuma's shoes after falling out of her sailor blouse was an unmistakeable shape as flat as the chest of its owner.
Commander Swanson's tablet.
Tenryuu felt her mouth go dry as questions whirled through her dizzy head. How had Inazuma gotten it? Were Akatsuki, Hibiki, and Ikazuchi involved? More importantly, why had Inazuma brought it here?
Inazuma was fully aware of her loss and precarious position. The little ship-girl was vibrating in fear. She began using the heel of her shoe to slowly nudge the tablet into the undergrowth that Tenryuu was using as cover. It was excruciatingly slow, but any faster and she might have drawn unwanted attention.
Fortunately Nagato was too busy tearing the line of Kanmusu a new one to notice, and Mutsu, Yamato, and Swanson were morbidly engrossed by the scene. But Inazuma still needed to get rid of the tablet ASAP.
Tenryuu wanted to pound the ground in anger. Her little sister was in danger! Inazuma had gotten herself into hot water because of her!
And then she noticed Swanson stiffen.
Oh, shit.
The American officer turned that disquietingly curious gaze of hers upon Inazuma, who froze like a rabbit spotted by a fox.
Time seemed to slow for Tenryuu as she witnessed the makings of a disaster. Of all the people who could have noticed, it just had to be the American bitch. And the moment Swanson spotted her tablet and recognized it, Inazuma would be doomed.
Like Hell! Tenryuu knew what she had to do.
"Hey, kid," Swanson began. "There's something behind-"
"TENNO HEIKA BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Tenryuu exploded out of the shrubbery. She scooped the tablet from the ground and went after Swanson. "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!"
"WHAT THE F-!"
The astonished look in Swanson's eyes, the look of a vulnerable enemy flagship caught in the naval searchlights of a light cruiser on a last ride to death and glory, was something Tenryuu would treasure for the rest of her life.
The silence that filled the office of the Rear Admiral in charge of Yokosuka was stifling.
Tenryuu fidgeted under his gaze. The Admiral had a reputation among the Kanmusu for speaking more with looks than words. She'd rather die than admit it, but that stern gaze was unnerving her. It was a relief when he finally spoke.
"We all know why you're here."
Tenryuu, covered in foliage, mud & grime, stood stiffly before the Admiral's desk, surrounded by very cross people. Understandable, given she'd kicked the shit out of at least two of them. And while she might have taken quite a pounding in the process (as evidenced by her cuffed lip, bleeding nose and aching ribs), she still felt she'd gotten the best of the exchange.
Not everyone could say they had knocked Nagato unconscious by bashing the battleship over the head with a tablet with such force that the blow broke the computer. Knocked her out for a good thirty minutes too!
"Yeah, yeah. I beat the shit out of three battleships before they restrained me." Tenryuu shrugged offhandedly. "Then I wrecked the Yank bitch's computer over Nagato's head as my parting shot. Not bad, if I do say so for myself."
She knew she was doomed. She had known it the moment she flung herself out of the bush right into harm's way for Inazuma's sake. Her sole thought had been to destroy the evidence in a way that wouldn't implicate the Akatsuki's sisters while drawing the attention of every other Kanmusu in the area.
And she had succeeded.
Swanson and Yamato stood off to the side watching proceedings. The latter was nursing a black eye. The former hadn't said a word to Tenryuu after getting ambushed, instead settling for an intense stare directed at the smug light cruiser who'd come within a hair's breadth of beating the stuffing out of her.
Nagato stood by her Admiral's side, holding an icepack to her forehead. She, too, was staring at Tenryuu, except her glare was lined with 16" shells and the promise of justice.
"Tenryuu, are you completely unrepentant for your actions? Does your foolishness know no bounds?" The only thing keeping the battleship from throttling Tenryuu was the presence of the Admiral and Swanson. "You broke into the room of a foreign officer, stole military equipment containing classified information of a foreign nation, assaulted three of your comrades in attempting to attack aforesaid foreign officer, and then destroyed what you stole moments before capture just to spite us? Is that it?"
Tenryuu was faced with Nagato's full unbridled fury. It was a sight that would have sent lesser people or Kanmusu screaming in terror.
"Yeah, destroyed it by breaking it over your head."
"TENRYUU!"
However, Tenryuu wasn't intimidated in the slightest, not this time. Nagato might have intimidated all those Kanmusu earlier, but Tenryuu had just knocked her out in melee with an improvised weapon. So much for a member of the mighty the 'Big Seven'!
"Look, Secretary Ship. We both know there's no salvaging this situation." Tenryuu rolled her eyes dismissively. "Let's dispense with the pleasantries and just get down to the fact that I'm fucked beyond all measure, 'k?"
"So. You have nothing to say in your defence?" The Admiral said evenly. Unlike Matsuda, who had been brimming with anger, the Admiral simply spoke with authority and experience.
He too understood this was merely a formality and wanted to finish going through the motions as quickly as he could. As far as anyone was concerned, Tenryuu was guilty as sin.
"Nope. What's there more to say? Let's be honest here. You guys caught me with the smoking gun," Tenryuu shrugged, allowing herself a cocky smile as she did so.
"There will be consequences," the Admiral said. "Before, you would have just been quietly scrapped and dishonorably discharged to avoid the loss of face of the Kanmusu corps. However with this… we will have no choice but to do a full court martial. I can assure you that you will be facing jail time."
Tenryuu felt her heart clench at the thought. She wouldn't just be scrapped, her dreams and ambitions taken away from her, Tenryuu would have her name permanently blackened in the eyes of her countrymen. To her knowledge, no Kanmusu around the world had ever been dismissed in this manner. She could forget trying to make a life outside the Navy after this; Japan's stance on people with prior convictions was not pretty.
However, Tenryuu couldn't think of any way out of this without also compromising Inazuma. That was something she would not allow, not even to save her own skin.
"…Just get on with it," Tenryuu grumbled, closing her eyes and accepting her fate.
She had won, but it victory would have its cost.
"Very well." The Admiral. "Light Cruiser Tenryuu…"
The doors to the Admiral's office swung open.
"Admiral, wait. There has been a development," Matsuda announced as he entered… followed closely by all four Akatsuki sisters, their eyes red and faces pale with fear. They were huddled around Inazuma, who was shaking like a leaf, and clearly the most frightened of them.
There could only be one reason why there were here, and Tenryuu felt her heart sink through the floor.
"Well? Spit it out, Lieutenant."
Looking regretful, Matsuda stepped aside to allow the four destroyers to take center stage. All eyes in the room focused on them. Akatsuki, the ever stalwart leader of the group, looked like she was about to speak up, when Inazuma laid a trembling hand on her shoulder.
The message was understood.
Breaking away from her three sisters, Inazuma, the kindest, most soft-spoken of the Akatsuki sisters, looked the Admiral in the eye and spoke the last words Tenryuu wanted to hear.
"It was me, nano-desu. I stole the tablet, nano-desu."
And then she began to talk. She described in detail on how she had come up with the idea of getting back at 'meanie-pants' by stealing the tablet from under her nose. She went into how the four sisters had meticulously worked out a 'fool proof plan' to clear Tenryuu of the injustice done to their big sister figure. She then lamented their panic when plan had fallen apart when the base suddenly went on alert when the 'panty thief' had appeared.
Then she revealed that she, somehow hidden outside Swanson's room in the confusion, had seen the intelligence officer run into the room to grab things before rushing out to aid the search effort, leaving the door ajar. She had taken advantage of Swanson's actions to rush in and quickly grab the tablet from where it was resting on her desk before running back out again. She had planned to hide the pilfered tablet in the dorm.
Then the roll call, her near discovery, and Tenryuu's sacrifice. Inazuma continued spilling the beans, each word driving a stake into Tenryuu's heart.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Tenryuu wanted to run over, seize Inazuma by the shoulders and demand to know why the little destroyer had done what she had done. Stupid, stupid, stupid girl! Tenryuu knew she was doomed anyway, but now Inazuma would be punished as well. The destroyer was still young, but that black mark on Inazuma's record would have consequences for her, consequences Tenryuu had now failed to protect her from.
She had been so close! Just a few days more, and the matter would have been settled. Kanmusu were very sensitive issues with the Japanese, and Tenryuu knew they'd want this settled and swept under the rug as soon as they could. Better to believe one troublemaker was responsible than that one of their more dutiful and well liked Kanmusu had played a part. Tenryuu would have shouldered it all, and no one would have been bothered to look deeper.
They had almost gotten off scot free, and no one would have been the wiser. She had almost won! Tenryuu wanted to laugh, cry and scream at the same time, but alas she was pinned in place by her frustration at the futility of it all.
Matsuda clearly already knew, and now the Admiral would know as well.
It had all been for nothing.
Eventually Inazuma stopped talking, leaving the room in silence as everyone digested what had just transpired. The awkwardness and tension in the room was so heavy Tenryuu could almost taste it. What had previously been a simple, if unpleasant, matter had taken on an entirely new dimension, and no one in the room quite knew how to deal with it. Even the weathered Admiral looked like he had swallowed something sour and was unsure what to say.
"So is this correct, Inazuma?" the Admiral said solemnly. "You admit that you were the one to break into Commander Swanson's room and steal her tablet, and Tenryuu is only here because she covered for you? Am I to understand this is correct?"
"…yes, nano-desu." Inazuma shifted nervously on her feet, eyes downcast.
The older man contemplated what Inazuma had just revealed. Were it any other person, the Admiral would not have believed the story so readily. However Inazuma was one of the most honest and upstanding Kanmusu alive. She couldn't tell a lie to save her life. Her story had to be true… no matter what it implied.
"Thank you for being honest, Inazuma," the old man said, not unkindly, and for a moment Tenryuu could have sworn he had aged in the time it took for Inazuma to confess. "But this changes nothing," he continued, eliciting shocked gasps from all four destroyers. "Regardless of her reasons, Tenryuu still assaulted three other Kanmusu and put the base on false alert. Compounded with her earlier actions…"
"But it was all meanie-pants fault!" Ikazuchi interrupted, clearly in a panic. She was quickly pulled back by Hibiki and Matsuda, both who looked helpless and resigned. The Admiral had come to a decision, and there was no stopping what was about to happen.
"As I was saying, Tenryuu's actions, when taken in full, are unacceptable for a Kanmusu of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force. You may have provided some mitigating circumstances for her later actions, but the fact remains she has done things we cannot ignore." The Admiral regarded Inazuma with a pitying look. "You four have also conducted yourselves in a manner that requires disciplinary action. I take no pleasure in this… Lieutenant Matsuda."
"Yes, Admiral?"
"Clean up your mess. I'll deal with Tenryuu." The Admiral's expression was stony. "This matter isn't finished, Lieutenant. We will speak of this later."
"I…I understand, sir." Matsuda closed his eyes. The four Akatsuki sisters, unable to do anything more, were now openly crying at their failure. Their good intentions had not only failed to save Tenryuu, but it had shot themselves and Matsuda in the feet. It was, plainly put, a disaster of epic proportions.
Tenryuu herself just stood there, shoulders sagging under the weight of everything that had happened today. Nothing had gone right. Everything had gone wrong.
Nobody said a word.
Nobody… until Swanson spoke up for the first time.
"So, let me get this straight," Swanson said, her eyes having never deviated from Tenryuu the entire time, not even when Inazuma had been talking, "You, Tenryuu, first left your dormitory when you realized what the four sisters were doing?"
"Isn't that fucking obvious by now?" Tenryuu answered sharply.
The Admiral, Matsuda and Nagato looked like they were about to reprimand her, but were stopped when Swanson raised a hand in a placating gesture. The American was clearly up to something.
"Okay, so out of concern for your fellows, and with little time to prepare or devise any alternative situations, you attempted to break into a building where you knew that there were three, three battleships were sleeping. You did this knowing full well that they would not take well to your intrusion, and that you could get into a fight with them, as well as numerous officers who could very well throw the book at you. Is this correct?"
"Yes."
"Now, upon discovery, you successfully evaded search teams actively trying to locate you while you returned to your dormitory. Several of these search parties were ship girls with their equipment. Is this correct?"
"Well, most of them just grabbed their guns and I don't think any of them had their radar, so…"
"When you arrived at the dormitory, you found your escape route cut off. While hiding from Nagato, you saw Inazuma drop my tablet on the ground. In a split second, you realized what she had done, that she was in imminent danger of discovery by myself, and that you were the only one in any position to stop it."
Swanson paused for effect as everyone in the room slowly digested what she was saying,
"You then made the conscious decision to break cover, feign an attack on a human officer to draw the attention of three battleships onto yourself so that you could create an incident to cover up Inazuma's misdeeds… an incident you knew would be dealt with closed by your superiors as fast as possible due to the sensitive nature of Kanmusu. You made a series of calculated risks to sacrifice yourself to protect your peers. And in the process of doing this, you knocked Nagato on her ass while taking on three opponents that were way above your paygrade. Am I right in saying all of this?"
The room was dead silent. There was no need to answer, for the answer was obvious.
More than a few jaws were hanging open, Tenryuu's included.
Swanson turned to the admiral, her eyes and jawline set.
"Fuck it. I need her."
What.
"Commander Swanson, what are you…" the Admiral began, only to be cut off by Swanson whose eyes were so bright as if they were on fire.
"The Chief of Naval Operations gave me a blank check to get anything I needed for my mission. Tenryuu is exactly what I need. I want her." Swanson stated firmly, then added, "You know what? Throw in the rest of Des Div 6. They snatched that tablet from under my nose and would have gotten away with it if Nagato hadn't run over to the dorm. But more to the point: I need her."
"But she's about to be scrapped!" Matsuda protested on reflex, only to flinch at the glare he got from Swanson.
"You people don't want her? Fine. Gimme a line to the Pentagon so I can talk to Admiral Briggs. I wasn't kidding about my blank check. We'll buy her from you if we have to. People are complaining we don't have any ship girls anyway. What better way to start with a cruiser like Tenryuu?"
"You are serious. You are completely serious," Nagato whispered in shock and awe.
"Do you think I'd kid around about anything relating to my mission?" Swanson stated firmly, jabbing a finger in the direction of a flabbergasted Tenryuu. "I need this girl."
To say that nobody in the room, besides Swanson, had any idea what was happening anymore was an understatement. The day had been a rollercoaster ride for all of them, Tenryuu and the other members of her unit especially. This was merely the latest twist in an already complicated story. The Yankee that had been the cause of their downfall was now trying to poach them.
"May I ask why?" the Admiral said, voicing the thoughts of every other person in the room.
"Tenryuu is a light cruiser. In fact, she's a light cruiser that, from her specs, is actually more of a glorified destroyer than anything else. I said as much in the report I submitted to you earlier today," Swanson stated with absolute certainty. Tenryuu bristled at the mention of her older equipment and the mention of that damned report, but held her tongue just this once out of curiosity. "However, she willingly took on three battleships, including the Yamato, knowing full well she was at a disadvantage... and she won."
"She didn't win. She eventually was overpowered," Nagato pointed out.
"You and I have very different definition for victory then," Swanson corrected, her lips slowly curling into a smile. "Tenryuu picked a fight she knew she couldn't physically win, yes, but she did so while fulfilling her real objective, which was to cover up what Inazuma did. Had these four not come forward on their own accord, chances are she would have pulled it off. Hell, if the Akatsuki sisters waited a day to come forward, we might not even have believed them."
The pieces were falling into place as everyone began to realize what Swanson was getting at. The Akatsuki sisters had stopped crying and seemed hopeful once again. The Admiral had started leaning forward, his interest at Swanson's reasoning growing by the minute. Nagato, Yamato and Matsuda just seemed stunned at what was happening.
And Tenryuu?
Tenryuu was rocking back on her feet mouthing the worth 'what' over and over. This was surreal. One moment she was being crucified, the next she was being praised. Life didn't make any sense for her anymore.
"You do realize that Tenryuu is still considered an underpowered Kanmusu with severe attitude problems," The Admiral pointed out.
"History has proven that smaller warships can go up against larger ones and win all the time. November '43, Ironbottom Sound. Destroyer O'Bannon takes on battleship Hiei in an action that ultimately causes the battleship to be scuttled. Also in November '43, Guadalcanal, your destroyer Yuudachi took out two destroyers and a cruiser. October '44, Samar, four tin cans hold off the entire Japanese fleet at point blank range to protect American escort carriers and force them to retreat after two hours of combat." Swanson shook her head firmly, her point having been made. "It isn't the size of the ship in the fight that counts, it's the size of the fight in the ship. And Tenryuu has a hell of a lot of fight in her."
The sheer amount of reverence and respect in those words almost sent Tenryuu to her knees. This was the highest praise one soldier could give to another, and Swanson, the woman Tenryuu had hated with a burning passion just hours before, had given it to her.
"Equipment can be upgraded. Skills can be trained. That attitude though? That innate courage?" Swanson turned towards Tenryuu, their eyes meeting once more. It was at that moment Tenryuu knew that Swanson, a young girl barely older than she was, was someone who would move Heaven and Earth to see her will done… am inspirational leader who could lead men and women into the gates of hell itself to do battle. A leader many would gladly follow…
"I. Need. Her."
…And it was in that one moment of clarity that Tenryuu became one of them.
It was only hours later, when the sun was starting to creep over the horizon, when Yvonne Swanson finally stumbled back into her quarters. The young woman was exhausted after spending hours hashing out the details of her newest 'acquisition' with the Admiral.
It had been hard, it had been difficult, but Commander Yvonne Swanson, United States Navy, was now the proud commanding officer of one Tenryuu-class light cruiser, officially on loan from the JMDSF to the USN until further notice as a gesture of good faith and cooperation between the two services.
Unofficially, it was Tenryuu being assigned to penal duty for 'grievous insults and unacceptable behaviour' and 'damaging military equipment' by serving under the woman she had offended, but honestly Yvonne didn't care. She'd gotten what she wanted. A light cruiser capable and brave enough to take on three battleships at the same time and knock out one while accomplishing her mission objectives would be invaluable no matter how she looked at it.
To think she'd been so certain that none of the ship girls in that expeditionary mission had been what she was looking for!
"I sincerely hope that you aren't going to make a habit out of this, Commander. Why, at the rate you're going, you'll have a whole bunch of us following you!" Yamato had jested to Yvonne, before she had gone back into her own room. "Why, I would almost think you're building a harem!"
"I really do hope she was joking about that," Yvonne groaned as she buried her face back into her pillow, thankful that the Admiral had given her until the afternoon to catch up on her missed sleep, "Making a harem? I'm not really doing that am I?"
This was not what Yvonne had expected to happen when she'd come to Yokosuka.
"Dakota and the others are so not going to let me live this down."
To be continued…
Beta note: I can foresee a great many unhappy letters in my inbox in the future, haha.
In the interests of heading off a similar shitstorm to what happened a year ago, I'll note that military discipline can be a harsh and unforgiving thing, and yes, getting Tenryuu scrapped is a massive escalation on part of Matsuda and Yokohama Admiral, but as the POV is following Yvonne, we're as ignorant as her as to Tenryuu's past misbehavior. (I now invoke my right as Comrade Archivist to deploy Word of God and state that Tenryuu is 1) not a model shipgirl and 2) the scrapping wouldn't have been immediate, there would still have been a disciplinary hearing at first, and an Article 32 would have happened. But that's not really relevant to our story. ;) )
This chapter is brought to you by the Committee for the Restoration of The Greatest Generation. My sincere thanks to you, Comrades. This chapter was also brought to you by the Asus GTX 750 Ti Strix. It was not brought to you by a certain head of state whose wife has a memetic compulsion to buy handbags.
Thanks for reading, as always, fellow admirals. And remember:Tenryuu is the mother of DesDiv 6's hearts. Tenryuu is best chuuni momboat. Even if she'd gut me like a fish for saying that. ;)
