Butterflies And Dragons

Chapter 9:

The Way You Are


After a nice, hearty breakfast, Admiral Kensuke Tanaka decided to retire to his quarters for a bit to log some memoirs for a future bestseller, as no new missions were in place as of yet for the fleet at the Etajima Naval District. Prinz Eugen was already sleeping in his bed like a baby with just an open shirt and pink bow panties, her hair undone, her pronounced sighs and heaves sweet music to his ears. "Chuuuuu..." Prinz whispered, her heavy breathing a clear sigh that she had been out to sea for a long time. Her partner in the voyage, Amatsukaze, was also asleep in her dorm, albeit a bit more quieter.

10 minutes into his writing, he heard his phone ring. "Etajima Naval District, this is Admiral Tanaka speaking," he said.

"Ken-ku~~~~~~~~~~n!"

"Ah, Fubuki, it's been awhile." It was April 6, 2015, midday in Japan. People in Tokyo were doing their business lunch business, other rubes were electing to go upskirt without a paddle. "How are you, my dear?"

"Fantastic, Ken-kun," Fubuki giggled. "Tokyo is so amazing, and Akagi-sempai's coach is world-class."

"Well, how about that. Oh, that's good to know. So what are our Olympic hopefuls going to do this week?"

"Currently they are doing some physical training, lifting weights, but they're doing a lot of testing, conditioning, studying, practicing...it's like they're experience life as professional athletes. It's a whole new world for them!"

"But it hasn't overwhelmed them, has it?"

"Hiryuu told me that they live for the big stage, the praise, the cheers, the jeers, the 'don't argues,' all the highs and lows and the drama of competing in meets like this. They believe they're flying the flag for you, me, for everyone out at the Naval District so they are going into overdrive."

A chuckle. "I knew those girls were going to break a leg, literally, to represent our great nation. Nice to know that they are acting like they've been there before. Very nice."

"Akagi's abs now look so toned, so sculpted...and hard as rocks!" exclaimed Fubuki. "I mean, when I touched them, I melted like an ice cube because she looks even better than when she first started. Forgive me, Ken-kun, just thinking about it has gotten me...haaaah, haaaah, you know!"

"She is quite the magnet, that's why she's our ace among the carriers, She may have an appetite like Kobayashi, but she has the body of a bodybuilder when the time calls for awesomeness. That's Akagi in a nutshell."

"I know, right?" A giggle.

"Yep. But what about you? What have you been up to?"

"I've been logging results, but in my spare time, I either run around town for exercise or golf at New Tokyo Citizens with the invisible clubs that Yuubari gave me."

"She knows that Alex Seed guy very well. You know, I talked with Alex and I said, if you're going to have her collaborate with making new golf clubs, you will need to be her admiral. Alex agreed, and the rest is history. He and Yuubari are going along very well, and I decided he will be my protege in terms of bonding with Yuubari. They're a good couple, and now, Yuubari knows how to make really good golf clubs and can even make invisible ones, like the one you know own."

"I often brag to Akagi-sempai and Kaga and the dragons, 'hey, look at me, I am making a mockery of the game of golf by swinging with only air.' Golf is fun, and I even made a few holes in one already!"

"You're a quick learner. You know, you have been conceived with the latest advances in anticipating the trajectory and power that goes with making shots. So you know how to make a good shot, make a good putt, and even beam impact your shots. And to do all that with using a non-regulation club set that no one can see...even more impressive. That's the power of your second remodel at work."

"Really, Ken-kun!"

"Absolutely, Fubuki."

"I feel like going out on the links a bit...but I kinda miss the base. And I miss Mutsuki-chan. I hope she's doing fine without me with her."

"I will let you in on a little secret that I don't want you to disclose to anyone. Okay?"

"Ken-kun?" A whisper. "What is it?"

"Your partner Mutsuki...will also be getting a second remodel in a little over a couple of weeks."

A gasp. "Mutsuki-chan...Kai Ni?"

"She doesn't know it either, but she is going to go through some training right now to get stronger. And I've assigned Mogami, Zuikaku and Shoukaku to do some high-intensity anti-aircraft testing to get her resolve up so that she will be in your company. She's doing really well with her drills. She's been taking some damage, but she's getting stronger and since's she the flagship of the Mutsuki class, she needs this experience to boost her confidence and self-worth."

"I hope she's all right and she doesn't sink."

"This is harsh training she's going through. Just like what you did before we did Operation MI. Exactly the same thing."

"The same thing?"

"You were motivated by Yuudachi to be as strong and as tough as she is. When you placed Kisaragi's ornament on her head, Mutsuki's drive to want to fight and be of use to this fleet rose higher than Mount Everest. She wants to do the job as well as you do because she knows that's what Kisaragi and you would have wanted."

"That's wonderful for Mutsuki-chan, I do hope she is able to get remodeled and become someone we can rely on for missions when the five of us return from our work here into Tokyo. It might make our work a whole lot easier. This is great news."

"But don't tell anyone. Where are the others?"

"They're in the gym, lifting weights. Again. They're turning into men at times! They really want to win gold! This can sometimes be scary, Ken-kun."

"Women turning into men...that's something new coming out of you. Well, Kaga and Hiryuu can be manly at times with their tone of voice, especially Kaga, since she's that type of person. One more for my memoirs. Thanks, love. But as I said, keep it a secret until Mutsuki finds out for herself. Because if it goes out, it may not happen at all. And you're gonna have to cop that."

"Will do, my sweet Commander Ken-kun! Love you!"

"All right, I gotta go do my writing, and I'm going to talk to you later. Bye, Fubuki!"

"Bye-bye~~~~~~~~! Chu!" A kiss, and Fubuki hung up.

The Admiral squealed as he continued to write his memoirs. A groan. "Admiral," groaned Prinz, rubbing her half-lidded eyes turning over so that her breasts were exposed unintendedly, "come over here and massage me gently, mein Herr...haaaah..." She was grabbing the sheets, her body sweating like a stallion.

He stroked his chin and said in a deep, Alec Baldwin-like voice as he returned to the bed, "Das ist nun mal so." Prinz Eugen continued to sleep, closing her eyes as the Admiral massaged her chest and midsection, ensuring their collective carnal satisfaction.


"One!" exclaimed Akagi, lifting a 30 kg dumbell while perpendicular to the floor.

"ONE!" exclaimed Kaga, Souryuu and Hiryuu, lifting similar weights of resistance in the same style.

"Two!"

"TWO!"

"Three!"

"THREE!"

"Four!"

"FOUR!"

"Five!"

"FIVE!"

"Six!"

"SIX!"

"Seven!"

"SEVEN!"

"Eight!"

"EIGHT!'

"Nine!"

"NINE!"

"Ten!"

"TEN!"

Fubuki watched the Butterflies and Dragons improve their physical shape while jogging from a treadmill at The Sports Connection gymnasium. In the background, Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" was playing. The carriers were sucking wind, obviously exerting themselves from the lifting they were doing. She had run 10 km on the treadmill and was aiming to run 15 more before they retired back to JWU to cool down. There was an urban onsen called LaQua where the girls would relax and Kaga would fold more towel rabbits. Essentially this was like the drydocks but tailor-made for the general public. But the thoughts of Mutsuki's impending second upgrade were too good to pass up.

"Not good enough!" Akagi proclaimed to the three. "Let's do it one more time! And...One!"

"ONE!"

"Two!"

"TWO!"

"Three!"

"THREE!"

"Four!"

"FOUR!"

"Five!"

"FIVE!"

"Six!"

"SIX!"

"Seven!"

"SEVEN!"

"Eight!"

"EIGHT!'

"Nine!"

"NINE!"

"Ten!"

"TEN!"


Days passed. Nights passed. Days and nights passed. Sometimes she forgot that it was just her, her turrets and the planes that she had to shoot down, firing torpedoes and bullets at her. It all up to her to fight or flight. All or nothing, go for broke. Tattered but not torn, bruised but not beaten, Mutsuki, with her dark brown hair and cool cherry eyes, skated the seas outside Etajima like an Amazon at the end of her rope, her hair ornament shining like the son, her underwear peeking out like a richly cheeky tease if you please as drone after drone met its deserved end.

She walked a thin line and was not ready to meet Kisaragi in heaven just yet. In fact, in a dream before this last test of fate, this last test of honor. Kisaragi told her, "Don't follow me for the sake of finding your own happiness. You must follow your own path and blaze your own trail. That is really all you need to know, because we all know that shipgirls were built to leave their own legacy on their own terms. That's what the admiral told all of us, and that's what I want to tell you, before you wake up to the cold world of reality." Such honest words from an honest girl that left too soon.

"Haaah...haaaahhh...haaaaaaahhh..." Heavy breathing. Sweat. Torn clothes. On the brink of failure. A crossroads. Heaven and hell met, and it was an epic tango on the pier.

"Are you gonna give up on us now, Mutsuki?" asked Zuikaku, her cold, steely glare pressing the issue.

"No...I musn't...Kisaragi-chan...Fubuki...chan..."

"You've done very well up to this point," Shoukaku said. "Now you need to finish the job. Stand!"

Mutsuki stood up, despite her tattered, beaten state, her breathing still hitched, but her resolve still strong. Her eyes were aflame, and now her burning desire to finish the job coursed through her veins.

Zuikaku and Shoukaku fired their last wave of drones.

"One more…one more…" Mutsuki whispered. "And…fire!" And in the span of three minutes, three fateful minutes...they all went down, but not without Mutsuki flying into the pier, exhausted, her breathing heavy.

Yuudachi was there to get to her. "Are you all right poi?" she asked.

"Yeah, I...think so..." And a glow. A glorious, rich yellow glow pervaded all over her frame. "I did it."

"Looking good," Mogami said. "Roll out to the factory and get fixed. Good work."

"Right. Yuudachi-chan, want to follow me?"

She took her hand. "I'm right behind you poi! Congrats poi!"

"Hey, don't forget about me!" Shigure said as the three of them walked to the factory where Mutsuki received her remodel. In terms of clothes, Mutsuki received a smoking cool blue blazer with white trim, her name and yellow crescent patch and a red tie held back with a yellow crescent. covering her shiny aqua blue underwear and the other clothes which she retained. For her equipment, she was equipped with a 12.7cm Twin High-Angle Mount (Late Model), a 61cm Triple (Oxygen) Torpedo Mount and an Enhanced Steam Boiler.

"Here, Mutsuki," Yuubari said, handing Mutsuki a pair of cheap sunglasses handcrafted in Houston.

"Kisaragi-chan...Fubuki-chan...thank you..." Mutsuki said. "I feel like a new woman today."

"Hey, do you want me to call Fubuki-chan poi?" asked Yuudachi, holding her mobile.

"Let's do it!"

"Heheh!" Yuudachi punched a few numbers and on the other side of the country, Fubuki's phone rang.

"Hello?" Fubuki asked.

"Fu-bu-ki-cha~~~~~~~~n!" Mutsuki said, talking to her via videophone.

"Whoa, you did it!" Fubuki said. "You got your second remodel!"

"Isn't it awesome?" Mutsuki showed it off, even swinging her hips a bit. "It's too back I can't fight with you right now because you're with Akagi-sempai and the others, but this is the greatest day of my life! I feel like I won the lottery, Fubuki-chan!"

"You always told me you wanted to be strong, Mutsuki-chan. I'm glad you reached your goal."

"But it was also because of this." She pointed to the hair ornament. "I was inspired to go through all of that training and I'm now on your level. Now I won't be scared to fight with you when we are together again!"

"Getting that second remodel takes a great deal of responsibility, so do your best because you're doing it for me, for Kisaragi-chan, for Yuudachi-chan, for all of us. And even Shigure."

"You know it, Fubuki!" Shigure said.

"Thanks for being my guiding light in my darkest hour, Fubuki-chan," Mutsuki said, in tears of joy. "I dedicate my second remodel to you. I hope we will fight together again."

"We will, I promise you, Mutsuki-chan. I love you, with everything I have."

"I love you too, Fubuki-chan." They kissed through the screen. "So, I gotta go now and head off to lunch with the others. Oh, by the way, what are the others doing?"

"Practicing at the range. I got a lot of free time. So maybe we can, you know, talk later over videoconferencing? My heart melts at your new you, you know?"

"Oh, stop tempting and teasing me Fubuki-chan, you perv!"

"All right, I will see you later, okay babe?"

"Bye-bye, Fubuki-chan!" Mutsuki blew a kiss, and the two of them hung up. As they hung up, Fubuki proceeded to masturbate in delight, knowing that her lover ship-wise had rediscovered her own meaning to being awesome.

"Okay poi, shall we go to lunch, poi?" asked Yuudachi as the three girls left the factory for Mamiya's Bar.

"After you," Mutsuki whispered lovingly to Yuudachi as they strutted to the cafe, where a buffet was being served. Italian food everywhere. "Oh my. There's pizza and pasta and calzone here!"

"Ehhhh? No naporitan poi?" asked Yuudachi. "So boring poi! Just pure Italian food poi!"

"You're making it sound like that's a bad thing, Yuudachi," said Shigure, piling her plate with fettucine alfredo. "Sometimes to live is to win."

"I give up, poi, at least let me have-COOKIE!" A cookie pizza was on the spread, and no one touched it. She grabbed the entire cookie pizza and added some gelato on top and a dash of nutella. "Bam! I haz a poifect lunch poi!"

"But you can't have a cheeseburger though," Mutsuki said, grabbing some slices of pizza before taking a seat with the other three.

"Of course not, Mamiya's not serving that today, you preppy nerd poi! Humph!" Yuudachi took a big bite of a wedge, swallowing it down with some milk.

"Fubuki-chan was right, I can take it a lot more without feeling guilty," Mutsuki said. "This tastes so wonderful. Am I turning into Akagi-sempai."

"Mutsuki." A cold hand from Shigure was on Mutsuki's shoulder. "We're all remodels. We're all turning into Akagi-sempai!"

"Whoa...okay, in that case..." Mutsuki wolfed down her jug of milk in 10 seconds.

"New record set poi: 10 seconds poi," Yuudachi said. "You little ripper poi."

Mutsuki adjusted her glasses, striking a pose. "It can't be helped," she said in a Kirishima-like voice. In the background, AC/DC's "Shot Down In Flames" was playing and a few older shipgirls were deliberately getting tipsy in a vain attempt to out themselves from the impending mission next week, currently being planned by Admiral Tanaka.

"Hey, hey, heyheyhey, I have, I have, I have a question," said Jun'you with a hiccup. "Anybody lucky to get ringed?" She held up her ring. Then the two shipgirls next to her held up their hand with their ring, and then all the others except for Ooi held up theirs, including Yuudachi and Mutsuki and Shigure.

"What the hell? Why don't I get a ring?" Ooi snarled at Kitakami, who was flashing the bling off her ring with a zing that made her sing on the wing. Truly a thing.

"Maybe it's because you are a stuck-up lesbian insulting lesbians all over the world with your obsession of me," she replied.

"Kitakami-san...how could you...I will never..."

The Admiral stormed into the cafe. "Who took the supply of rings from the factory? That's supposed to go to the vault!"

Yuubari stood up. "I am sorry, it is my fault. I thought this was just a normal piece of cargo intended for Mamiya's Bar because of the insignia of Mamiya in her undies! Forgive me!"

The Admiral saw the sea of hands with rings. "Well, this should be useful for our next mission, but..."

Ooi noticed a disturbing bulge in the Admiral's pants. She quickly scurried over and pulled the pants and underwear down, revealing a spinning dick that she stopped with a push and then pulled the ring out of.

"OOOOOOOOOOOQWWWWW!" roared the Admiral in pain, rolling on the ground, covering his crotch. "Ohhhhh! Ooooooh! Ooooohhhh! Uwooooooooh!"

"So that's where my ring went," Ooi said, wearing it before having the audacity to take a sniff. "Ewwwww, this smells! You're going to have to wash this ring, Admiral."

"Um, why are all of you...are all...huh?" He was surrounded and needed to hightail. They all wanted his body and take their frustration out for one too many drydock visits. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Admiral Tanaka, with his pants and undies off, was chased by the fleet except for Yuudachi and Mutsuki and Shigure, who continued to eat their lunch. They chased him to his private quarters, where they had an forced orgy he would never forget.

Mamiya, Irako and Yamato were setting up the spread. "Oh my goodness, everyone has left...and chased the admiral..." said Mamiya.

"Well, I think we're going to have some food left over for us," Yamato said to her and Irako.

"Or maybe not," Irako replied, pointing to the three girls, who had cleared the rest of the scraps on the spread.

"Ah, Mutsuki?" asked Mamiya to her.

"Yes, Mamiya?"

"The Admiral has a mission ready for you next Tuesday. He'll debrief you on the details tomorrow. There's a chance you could be the flagship. As you can see, he has his...private affairs to deal with. Excuse me," Mamiya went to the kitched to handle her nosebleed after seeing the Admiral's manhood up close, thanks to Ooi.

"Whoa," Mutsuki said. "All this pressure...you guys think I can handle it?"

Yuudachi gave a thumbs-up. "Gotta live up to it poi! This is what you work for poi! Your big chance poi!"

"And didn't Fubuki say she would coach you on the tactics?" Shigure added.

"Fubuki-chan turned me into a pro poi. You can be the same poi!"

"If that's the case." A smile was on her face. "At last...I have a chance to avenge Kisaragi on my own terms." She stroked her hair ornament and nodded, her look of determination a sign that her days of being in reconnaissance would come to a close soon.


END CHAPTER 9