"Eeh...Admiral..." Kirov murmured, rolling onto her side.
"K-Kirov? Eurocruiser? Can you hear me? Kirov!" Saratoga's voice registered itself in her consciousness. Kirov shifted in the bed, cracking open an eye to the white of the room.
The bed and blanket felt different compared to her usual bed and blanket. She dropped her head to see the rest of the bed, and by extension, the room.
What she saw? White.
The bedsheets were white, the ceiling and walls were white, the blanket was white, hell, the gown she was apparently dressed in was white. She turned to her right, and her vision registered a navy blue anomaly in the room.
Nope. Don't belong here.
Saratoga's eyes were slightly wider than normal, mouth slightly agape. Kirov felt multiple pads adhering to her skin, to which she saw multiple machines. Among them was the heart rate monitor, which let out a small beep every few seconds.
The American fleet carrier suddenly wrapped her arms around Kirov, before her body began to convulse with sobs as she tried to muffle her crying in Kirov's gown.
Kirov jerked. "S-Saratoga? Comrade, what's wrong?"
Her friend raised her head slowly. "E-eight days. You've been here for eight days, and you've already gotten yourself into a coma?!" The Russian cruiser was taken aback at the carrier's sudden burst.
A coma? So torpedo to the stomach is a pretty bad injury then.
"What do you mean?" She asked unsteadily. Saratoga stared at her, directly in the eye, before breaking down and beginning to beat on the arm laying next to her.
She's adorable.
"You've been here for eight days! Eight! None of us know you that well, but none of us want to see you leave that quickly, either!" She wailed.
"Aie! I get it! Please stop hitting me, it's beginning to hurt!" Saratoga sniffed and withdrew from the bedside. She sat back in the plastic chair, hair clinging onto the backrest.
The room fell into a silence once again.
"Here, Admiral!" Kongou's voice spoke in the outside the room before the door creaked open. "Hm? You're awake? Good to see you fine!" The battleship waved Mitsuwa in with a smile and chuckled as she crouched beside Kirov's bed. A man in a white coat followed Admiral Mitsuwa. Kirov caught his name on the tag he wore above his heart.
Dr. Karsten Steinitz.
"How d'you feel? Anything still broken?" Kirov shook her head. "Good! The instant repairs work on you too!" The doctor beamed. "Of course, you'll still be sore for a few days. Rest bitte, you will be fine, and do not ever do zat again."
Kirov stuttered.
Mitsuwa spoke up. "You had us worried. Akashi said the instant repair bucket heals physical damage, and not trauma the brain may have suffered." He paused, and moved beside Saratoga.
"I'm needed at a conference in Tokyo soon, so have a good day, girls."
Admiral Mitsuwa smiled and stepped out of the room, mop of black hair beneath his famous white hat and Admiral's uniform.
As one of the last experienced Admirals in Japan, Mitsuwa had a well known name. He represented Japan, if not humanity's salvation and hope against the Abyss.
"Ja. You seem fine," the doctor said. "But as I said before, rest before go into combat. Not overdo or stress body for at least next three days."
He paused.
"I'm free to go, then?" Kirov asked, wrapping the blanket around herself.
Must this hospital be so cold?
She recieved a small jerk of the head. "Is strange, you wake from coma in unnaturally short amount of time, and are affected less."
"Of not positive, but I believe repair party has large role in recovery. Give them rest too." The doctor walked around her, unhooking machines and powering them off.
Kirov saw his nearly imperceptable glance at Saratoga and Kongou. He reached into his pocket and stuffed a small packet of paper into her hand. She heard her comrades on the opposite side of the room, talking just out of earshot. Wrapping her hand around it, she quickly hid the paper between the folds of her ushanka. If the doctor needed to deliver this paper in such secrecy that her friends were not wanted to see it, he must have a reason.
She stood up. Kongou followed suit, and held the door for both of her accomplices.
The hallway was as cold, if not colder than the room she'd awoken in. Akashi, who joined them as they passed the cafeteria, produced a small module in her hand, which she held up.
"I replaced your reactors in their old positions," she reported apologetically, as if blaming herself for Kirov's torpedo to the stomach. "Hopefully you'll have no further stability dysfunctions."
Kirov thanked her, grateful for the added weight.
"It's not your fault for my injury. I'm willing to take a torpedo as long as it helps the war effort." Akashi shook her head softly, but said no more.
A nurse approached with a basket and handed it to Kirov. Peering into it, she recognized her trench coat folded atop the remainder of her garments. She excused herself, and entered a washroom to change.
Not let note fall out. Check is still in, I will read later.
The three made their way through the hospital until reaching the glass doors.
The hospital was on the very outskirts of Tokyo, and was the official hospital of Yokosuka Naval District, which had a clinic but no hospital. Damage beyond the repair capabilities of the docks were treated at this hospital.
Saratoga walked to a shuttle waiting at the side of the parking lot. She motioned for Kirov to enter, as Akashi was already scrambling up the steps.
The doors closed with a hiss, Saratoga taking a seat beside Kirov.
"You've never been in a car before, have you?"
"Not that I recall."
The carrier grins. "You'll enjoy it."
A car, huh? She felt somewhat nervous, but watched as Saratoga pulled down a strap from above her left shoulder and inserted the metal tip into a buckle which gave a click. She reached for her own, and did as she saw.
The shuttle gave a lurch, and Kirov jumped slightly.
"No need to fear for the worst. This area is relatively safe," Saratoga laughed. "Actually, the Abyssals can't walk."
Kirov felt an acceleration, and eventually found herself staring outside as trees whipped by at speeds unimaginabley fast. Vibrations shook the vehicle now and then, a sudden leaning to the right, then to the left, and to the left again. As the initial awe and shock of being on a land travelling vehicle, her radar crews sent her a small message.
The Naval Base is the opposite direction. We're going to Tokyo.
She jerked, and shot a look at Saratoga beside her. The carrier returned it.
"What?"
Kirov tilted her head. "Radar's said we're heading towards Tokyo. Care to elaborate?"
Surprise wrote itself over her comrade's face, but Saratoga replaced it with her usual smile.
"It's a surprise," was all she replied with. The carrier wouldn't budge after that.
Realizing she wouldn't get anything out of her comrade, Kirov sighed and leaned back into the blue fabric of the seat.
