Initial Interaction
A few minutes later
"I am sorry!" I shouted with a kneeling bow at the three carriers.
The first one waved her hand saying that it was okay since they were the first ones who initiated it. But after saying those words at them you probably would've done the same thing…saying sorry to them after calling them milk tank shits.
"I-it is okay, Ermest-san so let's stop apologizing to each other, right Tomon-maru?" The yellow kimono top woman named Hiryuu spoke to the small fairy(?) beside her.
The small female fairy shouted 'Oi' with a thumb sticking upward in a pose. Hiryuu then made a faint 'hehe' before turning to my general direction.
On the other hand the shortened miko outfitted woman named Zuikaku only averted her eyes from me as I looked at her general direction.
"I did not expect that one to go downhill, though I am sorry, I will surely not let you come close to Shoukaku-nee in the near future." She said.
"Forgive her mannerism but she is kinda possessive when it comes to her older sister Shoukaku-san, so please let it slide." Souryuu spoke with an apologetic expression.
"I'm not possessive! I just don't like him approaching Shoukaku-nee!"
"Yes-yes, tsundere turkey." Hiryuu spoke with a hand waving side to side.
"I am not a turkey!" Zuikaku protested.
The three of them exchanged shouts at each other for a while, forgetting that I am sitting cross legged in front of them. Four years ago I was told not to approach a shipgirl if I ever come close to one, I must show respect to them by bowing at them if they make contact to me and must say excuse me if they wanted to start a conversation. Those were my orders given by Crisanto. But now, I'm casually watching the three of them exchanging insults at each other, like any normal human beings.
It's just like times like these that you would sometimes wonder that if they really differentiate from us normal humans. These girls looked human, they had the skin of a human, they had the voice of a human, they had the features like a human, they had large…..wait…they had bodies like a normal female human. What is there to differentiate them from being called a human being?
Then I saw Hiryuu took something like a beverage can from her pockets and opened the lid on top. She then drank it singlehandedly while listening to the insults Zuikaku is shouting at her. After she emptied it, she crushes it and threw it to the side.
That crushed aluminum can suddenly found itself in front of me. I grabbed the can and noticed the stench it was emitting. It was not a sweet smell, no it was oil, fuck it was petrol oil or something. Then it hit me, yep normal humans don't drink oil.
"Uhuh." I said to myself before throwing the can at my back.
"If only Kaga-san was here, she would've put some leashed around your neck to control you!"
"That only means you can't control your underlings! That is why Kaga-san is placed higher than you!"
"Oy!" The small female fairy shouted.
It was clearly getting out of hand; the two of them are already strangling each other, like two little kids fighting over a small toy. Souryuu was stuck between the two and was trying to be composed in front of me as well as calming the two down.
"Stop pulling both of you, don't you see there is a man in front of us?!" Souryuu finally snapped.
The two aircraft carriers stopped and immediately fixed their shambled outfits. Good thing I was only staring at the sortie board hanging on the ceiling.
As of today, the First Carrier Group which is composed of Akagi and Kaga were sortied together with the Fourth Carrier Group composed of Chitose and Chiyoda. Well we say a carrier group but these two shipgirls are actually seaplane tenders.
The second, third and five carrier divisions were on standby and the reserve ships like Amagi, Unryuu and Katsuragi were on training exercises on the Northern Peninsula.
"Oh, it looks like you guys have calmed down." I said as I lowered my gaze from the sortie board.
Hiryuu and Zuikaku had displeased expressions on their faces, and Souryuu was stuck in between with a hanging smile on her face. It must've been tiring being lumped together with this problematic group…
Then the topic changed into a thanksgiving session for some reason. The first one to open the topic was unbelievable Zuikaku, who was averting her gaze from me.
"Anyhow thank you for protecting that bridge until we arrived. If we haven't arrived in time who knows what would've happened."
"Wait it was your group that arrived there to clear the skies?" I asked in English.
"Well to be specific it was Shoukaku-nee's group since she was the flagship of the detachment fleet that was sent on the south to clear the skies from the enemy planes. I was just supporting her at that time." She answered.
"I-is that so, maybe she isn't that of a klutz after all." I said unknowingly.
"What did you just say?" Zuikaku immediately spatted.
I waved my hand in denial for the words that I just said, somehow she was persuaded by it and immediately changed the topic after that.
"Even though we are shipgirls who are specialized in defeating the abyssals. We are just hopeless when it comes to land based targets." Hiryuu continued.
"What makes you say that?" I asked.
"Well we are not technically that hopeless. If we see them we can just bombard them with our bombs or shells. But flushing them out of hiding is a different story. That is the reason why are called shipgirls not tanks…."
"You got a point, you are the embodiment of the former ships that sunk from the past war not the tanks that were destroyed in mass numbers like the Battle of Kursk." I said with a hand resting on my chin.
Souryuu and Hiryuu laughed as they heard my example. With a deep sigh Souryuu leaned her head and made a smile.
"You're quick to understand. Well another reason is that when we summon our riggings our weight would jump from normal 50 kilograms into a whooaaaaping 16,200 tons." She extended her arms to the side trying to make an illustration to how much she weighted when summoning her riggings.
"Eh, Souryuu-san why are you so proud at telling him your weight?" Hiryuu made a sidelong glance at Souryuu's way.
"Eh?! Ah! Wait no!"
"Oh don't mind, although I look like this I actually do not know any other mass calculations aside from kilograms. So when I heard the mass in tons I just can't imagine how heavy it is. But since you are a carrier I can probably make a general gist of it." I said in a bored look.
Zuikaku made a sigh before making a smirk on her face, she then put a hand beside her mouth as if making a whispering gesture to me.
"If you want me to convert it to kilograms that 16—"
"No!" Souryuu immediately threw a hand on Zuikaku's face, knocking her out.
Souryuu realized what she did and immediately became flustered as she pulled Zuikaku's body outside.
"I-I'll take her to Akashi's shop, Hiryuu talk to him for a bit!"
"Right!" Hiyuu made a thumb's up gesture.
As Souryuu's figure disappeared from view I turned around and saw Hiryuu making a bright smile.
"So, tell me about yourself Ermest-san." She said in English.
Well, Souryuu did say to talk with her before she left. Is there something wrong about talking with these shipgirls? I might dig something that might be worth mentioning back at the tent.
So to continue the conversation I told her about my rank and name once again and what is my job in the 501st Legion, why I was commanding a company composed of 110 soldiers despite being a XO. I told her about my life prior to the blockade which is a normal soldier in the Army as well as a Scouting Ranger during the Muslim Rebellion back in the late 2000's.
"Ehhhh, so you were a revered soldier back then... Did you see a lot of action?" She asked.
"I did have my share of battle experience. My first baptism of fire was during a major operation in Surigao City." I said to her while remembering the events that happened there.
"Do tell I really love action stories you know." She pushed.
"Well, back then I was a squad member of a fireteam named Panthers. Our task was to capture a small bridge overlooking the Banahaw River. Insurgent groups have already taken the bridge and they used small boats to move in artillery pieces."
"So-so, these insurgent groups were armed to the teeth? They were back-funded right?" Hiryuu said in interest as she moved closer to listen to my story. She then paused and immediately pulled a small table from somewhere and grabbed a water jug full of nestea. "While we're at it, let us put some drinks and snacks."
The table was then packed full of biscuits ranging from a green colored one and a flat looking sour bread. I chose to pick a single normal looking biscuit and placed it on my mouth, it was tasty.
"Yeah, according to the DOI the insurgent group named Maus was back-funded by another insurgent group from the middle east. Those artillery pieces though were stolen from a cargo ship passing the Surigao Strait.
"Surigao Strait huh, even back then that place is very problematic. I did not pass there though, Yamashiro wouldn't stop talking about that strait too when she was summoned a few years back." Hiryuu waved her hand side to side.
"The warship wrecks are still there though, they even managed to discover another warship so huge that it carried six batteries!"
"Yeah, that must've been Yamashiro or Fuso's wrecks…anyhow what happened at the bridge?" She asked.
"We landed around nine in the morning, small arms fire were making penetration holes around the chopper and we were forced to make a high elevation jump. But we were able to retake a corner of the bridge with no casualties. The problem though is the other side of the bridge."
"Why-why? What's on the other side of the bridge?"
"Machine gun emplacements, mortar teams, and rocket launchers we were lucky enough they didn't hit us with those things while we approached via chopper. Some of them were even pointing rockets on our positions."
"R-rockets? You can carry those now?!"
"Yes, we do and a country named Russia massed produced them."
I told her about the general layout of the situation and our orders to retake the other side of the bridge. If those artillery pieces were fired who knows what would happen to Surigao City. However during that operation we were not the only ones being sent there to finish the mission.
Another Company was sent on the AM26 Pan-Philippine Highway. The plan was to take the blunt of the attack there while my fire team is tasked on moving on the other side of the bridge to attack the lightly guarded side of the enemy.
The plan immediately became a cluster fuck as soon as the operation started. Out of the nine choppers that were tasked to carry the ten fire teams to the bridge, only six were combat ready while the rest need urgent maintenance.
And the company that was tasked on moving on the Pan-Philippine Highway was met with heavy mortar fire and situated minefields making their advance slow. Dead bodies were being listed every hour. It was up to us to make a quick counterattack now or else we might have to find 150 replacements for that company alone.
Bex, Crist, Holland and I were the first ones to arrive at the other side of the bridge. The other twelve soldiers died before they could even make it to the exposed bridge. Stealing some satchel charges and some rockets we were able to take out four of the artillery pieces. We just need to find a clear landing zone for the rest of the fire teams to land.
And we did have a good place for that. A wide open field around 288 meters from the bridge. Small arms fire were exchange from the small village as well as slipping through their lines just to make a hot insertion beacon.
After placing the beacon heavily armored choppers namely the BRW-100 twin choppers, arrived with the rest of the company in it. Another problem though was the open field. The landing site was around 51,283 square meters, that's almost the same size as a football field. Trees surrounded the landing zone and small arms fire was raining on us every second. But the deployment of the third and fourth Scouting Ranger platoons did not stop.
After re-linking with the rest we were ordered to push west from the landing site. Which was 272 meters from the landing site, our job was to clear any insurgent groups dug deep on a small shoe factory.
Before we could even reach the factory we were rained by small arms fire as well as indirect mortar fire from the insurgent group. Loosing around six men before we reach the outer fence of the small shoe factory, the factory itself was empty. Weapons and clothing were left all over and bodies of some insurgent group were lying on the ground.
Then a radio call came in saying that an American insertion team already cleared the factory before we arrived. It was a good thing, but the feeling of dying without even doing anything was stinging at the back of my mind.
After checking and rechecking the perimeter, the pressured company that was hold up on the highway managed to relinked with us and a small aiding facility was erected for the wounded soldiers. And there were a lot of them.
The next order came a few hours after that, the next job was to silence the long range mortars at the Almont Beach Resort.
We took the trucks that the pressured company came with. Just a small amount of trucks was enough since we were not expecting large resistance. We expected wrongly, they already zeroed in on us and mortar rounds were raining all over our exposed meat ride.
Of the six jeeps that we took only two managed to take cover behind a landfill facing the main building of the beach resort. Machine gun fire pinned us and mortar rounds were closing in to our positions, when suddenly the mortar fire ended.
We were still pinned down at the landfill out of desperation we threw some smokes to the enemy and crawled for about 70 meters to the tree line. It was there that the fighting became intense. We forced our way through the main building and were greeted by a small number of the defenders.
Sitting on the managers room are soldiers of the Ghost Team that America sent in as aid. The mortar teams were already silenced and the inner perimeter of the resort cleared from enemy presence. I did not feel relieved nor was filled with happiness when I realized that the ordeal ended. No, after hearing what that Ghost Team member said to us, none of us ever feel relieved.
Thanks for eating the pressure for us; we were able to slip in undetected thanks to your efforts. Next time bring some effective radios alright?
"White washed, huh?" Hiryuu said while leaning on her hands.
"Yeah, I think. I don't even know what to call it. Was it defiance or something I dunno the turn…..something that correlates with fooled, I don't know."
"Well it's not uncommon to find yourself being used as bait by another team. There's nothing wrong with it, but saying it bluntly in front you was probably pushing it too far."
"I seriously do not know. I may be a man speaking English in front of you but my knowledge in the dictionary is only limited to the things my superiors shouted at me as well as the movie phrases that I constantly heard."
Hiryuu took a biscuit from the tray and placed it in her mouth. She then stared at the opened window of this building. I might call it a canteen or a lunch eating building.
"Though, as long as the mission ended with results or somehow got a successful conclusion those feelings don't matter in the eyes of those in the higher ups." Hiryuu said softly as she stared outside.
Her tone somehow was different from the usual tone that I heard a while ago. Her demeanor too was different. And something else feels off.
"Oh pardon me, talking about the things that already ended made things gloomy. Sorry about that." She said in a cheeky smile.
Her usual tone returned, but her expression was not. She looked, pained…no distant, she looked distant to my eyes.
"I did not expect it to end that way. I was really pumped up to bring up a fight at that war. But just a single battle…a single failure on us part, somehow tilted the tide of that war." She said coldly.
"Hiryuu-san?" I called to her.
"Oh…"
She somehow realized that I was calling her name. She then sprawled across the table and made a sigh. After that a curious expression came on her face, she raised an eyebrow before raising her hand in the air, mimicking a stop gesture.
"Align your hand with mine." She said.
And I followed her request. I raised my dominant hand since she was raising her left hand so that my hand would mirror hers. Slowly I rested my palm on her slender hand.
"Heh, just as I thought. Your hand is bigger compared to mine. It's rough too, you must've been through a lot huh?" she said.
You could say that, since I am 170 centimeters tall, of course my hands would be that long. Hiryuu herself was a bit taller than me but not as tall as Shoukaku, but her hands were a bit smaller compared to mine.
"I've always wanted to touch something way back from that time. Back then I was just a warship carrying personnel, bombs, and planes. Now, they call me a shipgirl, experiencing things like these never gets old."
There were rumors floating around in the Army. Rumors that sounded surreal and others sounding pretty far-fetched. The most farthest-fetched rumor I've ever heard of was about shipgirls retaining memories during the Second World War. The rumor started when a shipgirl named Yukikaze immediately started screaming after seeing her fellow shipgirls, who she was escorting when they sank during battle, walking beside her.
During that war, IJN Destroyer Yukikaze has scuttled a lot of other warships. From the start of the war up until the end of it, I do not know how many she gas scuttled but seeing her expression during her introductory at the Naval Base...she must've scuttled a lot.
This shipgirl in front of me too was no different from that rumor. Hiryuu, was an aircraft carrier that took part in Operation MI or also known as the Battle of Midway. Akagi, Kaga, and Souryuu sank on the initial battle and a day later Hiryuu was the only one left of the carrier task force.
She fought together with some destroyers who were left of that carrier task force. She fought against three American carriers namely USS Enterprise, USS Hornet, and USS Yorktown. She managed to defend herself on her own but around five or four dive bombers penetrated the defenses and scored a direct hit.
It all ended there though, the rest were just wiki speculations and books published about the war. I do not have the motivation back then to read what happened during the Second World War. So I only had a bit of knowledge here and there, rests are unreliable information I found on the net.
"I've done my part and I regretted the outcome. Maybe this is a sign to make up with my mistakes back then right, Ermest-san?" She said as she looked at me straight in the eye. "You feel it too don't you?"
"Feel what?" I asked.
"The feeling of wanting to return home" She said with a warm smile on her face.
It was at that point that it came to me like a bell. Although it's been bugging me for the past four years it was at this moment that this annoying feeling inside me was screaming in max volume. No matter how many times I occupy myself with hobbies that I haven't done before nor the experiences that I've wanted to do in Japan, this feeling didn't fade away, not a tad bit.
And it's been accumulating as days pass by like a tick of a clock. I knew what it was but it was at this moment that it was shown in front of me clear as day.
"And your face has been showing it all this time you know?" She continued talking.
"W-what do you know?!" I clenched her hand unknowingly while facing her way.
"Of course I know." She casually says with a wink.
With a warm smile she clasps my hand. While resting on the table she spoke in a calmly manner as if she has already recovered from it.
"I was part of the first batch that sank during at war. I held this feeling ever since I've sent my survivors to the destroyers that were close to my proximity."
I became silent as I felt her warm gentle hand. I swallowed back my urge to talk back since it was already futile to make an argument whether she feels the same way or not. Who am I kidding; she is a shipgirl that sank on that war, of course during her capsizing she would've had these feelings of wanting to go home.
When I looked at myself, I also asked the same thing.
"Is my home even there anymore?" I said in a cold tone. "I have a family, a mother, a father, an older sister and a little brother. They are everything to me, I joined the army to protect them from the influences that would harm them in the near future but what am I doing in a land that isn't even my homeland?"
I urged myself to end it there but the words escaped my mouth, how I wished to go home already and ask the people in the village if they are safe, is my family safe?
Due to the strong abyssal miasma that I just heard off, any satellite or any wireless connection are immediately eliminated upon entering the Philippine excursion zone. No information is going in or getting out and the sky is full of abyssal planes that would sometimes swarm into thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
Neither scout plane nor bombers packed with supplies were able to fly above an island country named the Philippines.
"I just wanted to go home and meet them…" I said in a faint voice.
I must've overextended myself because Hiryuu was making a worried expression. She raised her upper body and tilted her head to the side.
"You've finally got it out huh?" She said.
"Huh?"
"I said you finally got it out of you. You know I've been observing you for a while now, since you have a small tent near the base whenever I sortie out I would always see you staring at the vast ocean. You had this look in your face, it almost mimicked a face of a man wanting go back. The same expression I always see on the faces of my sailors during the war." She said with a finger on her cheeks.
She then let out a light giggle before placing my hand on the small table. She then took a small biscuit and placed it on the table. She then took another piece and breaks it into two even pieces.
"How about I tell you a top secret information that would lighten up your mood?" She said making a wide smile.
I immediately nodded at her, she then said 'good-good' before stuffing a biscuit into her mouth.
"We've successfully liberated an island—no, an island country named Taiwan. In the past this island used to be under our jurisdiction but after the war China took it. Anyhow, yesterday Akagi and Kaga's carrier group were tasked to liberate the small islands north of Luzon, I think they were called the Batanes islands but I am not sure. We've managed to grab a foothold island called the Itbayat Island. Unfortunately—"
"What is it?"
"There aren't any Filipino citizens there responding to our hails. The island was barren, there's a large concentration of land based abyssals in the island too. And the Admiralty issued a liberation Operation on that Island in two months if the current supplies allows it."
"Two months?! But that would take long—no, what am I saying, if we do a landing operation of course we will need preparations. That includes making strategies and preparing equipment and supplies."
"Yes and Admiral Goto has already been preparing us shipgirls for the landings two months from now…..is everything alright?"
"Huh? Oh, no it's- it's nothing. I was just surprise that I we can now finally get home to our homeland." I said to her worried face.
Hiryuu leaned closer but I would only lean back. When she was annoyed by it she made pouting expression before she continued explaining about operation.
"Anyhow, the operation is called Operation PL which stands for Philippine Landings. I hope this information would cure the worries that have been acuminating deep inside your heart. However..."
"However?" I asked.
"However, retaking the Kyusu is the top priority right now. Liberating the Philippine isles while be on hold if the Army pushes for the upcoming Kyusu Liberation Operation." Hiryuu added.
Truthfully speaking I cared nothing about the Kyusu Operation. All that I care about is the idea of that the Japanese will be coming to my homeland to liberate it from the abyssals.
With a bright smile I immediately hugged her upper body. I do not know how or why I did it. I probably was overwhelmed by happiness when I heard about a secret intel regarding a landing operation on my country.
I was prepared for a strong beating after I suddenly hugged her, but she didn't. Instead with a sigh she extended her hand and embraced me as well.
"I guess that means yes, I guess." She said.
I immediately pushed back. I don't want her to get the wrong idea with my actions so I immediately made a bow and said sorry.
"No, its okay. Of course you would be overwhelmed when you heard about the information that I just told you. But please don't tell the others okay, and by others I meant the other soldiers in the Army. This is supposed to be top secret operation so any leaks might give the abyssals the needed information to counter the operation." She said in authoritative tone.
"You can count on me. I won't tell anyone about Operation PL. What's with that smug look on your face?" I said to her with a playful salute.
"Hmm? It's nothing really."
What is she—?
Oh, right.
"Since you've given me a highly secretive intel, might as well ask about the payment."
"Oh, please don't make it sound dirty."
"Then what is? What is the payment that I must repay you?"
"Hmm, for starters do you have a phone? Can I request for your phone number?"
I nodded and did just that. I gave her the phone and she took my phone number while making a humming tone. She then raised her head and returned the phone to me.
"How about hanging out near the edges of the Naval Base two weeks from now? I found this cool looking cavern near the sortie area."
"Since my company won't be doing anything, sure I'll come." I said to her with a thumbs up.
"Also bring some drinks, I'll bring the snacks. I'll give a head's up message in the near future." Hiryuu threw a smile before making a dark emptied stare above my head.
It was at that moment that a new shipgirl arrived at the building. She had a long hair wearing white and red clothes. She immediately opened her eyes when she looked at me. No, she had droll dripping out on the corners of her mouth, she isn't going to eat me is she?
And behind her was another shipgirl with a brown hair tied in a side ponytail. She had white and blue clothes and a muneate over them. When she saw me her eyes became daggers stabbing me in the eyes.
"Ah, snacks!" The first girl shouted and ran towards the table where the biscuits are placed on the table.
"Why is there an intruder here? He seems to be casually sitting on the floor. I think I must perform dispensary actions for this." The second girl said coldly as she summoned her bow and arrows.
I still remember the numb feeling that I got when Shoukaku fired an arrow at my forehead. And seeing this shipgirl making a dangerous glare, I was sure that her arrows would definitely penetrate my skull.
"Ah, it's Kaga-san. Sorry Ermest-san. But it looks like you're on your own with this one. Be safe though."
When I heard Hiryuu say that an arrow passed over my face. The tip of the arrow's feathers gently passing over my cheeks. Then a late supersonic boom entered my ears. While almost disorientated I immediately stood up and barrel rolled out of the window.
"Oh you aren't escaping from me."
Immediately as I ran, arrows were slowly finding their mark on me. Some of them were not expanding into a plane and some of them expanding halfway. But one thing's for certain. If I am hit with those angry looking fairies inside that cockpit, I will be sent to the infirmary for at least a long time.
Chapter End
Update 10/30/18
