It was now 7.27 p.m. in the evening, and Sendai was now getting into her element as the sun went down, flinging another torpedo into the chest of another Ri-Class heavy cruiser as she backtracked and retreated from the advance of the third Abyssal fleet which they had engaged today.
Her technique of throwing torpedoes was something which was invented in the past by ship girls who were frustrated with the slow speed at which the torpedoes traveled underwater and allowed Abyssals some time to evade, and thinking out of the box allowed them to use their body strength to fling their torpedoes at a higher speed with their arm strength.
This technique allowed her to take out the Abyssal Ri-Class as the torpedo detonated despite the Ri-Class evading and avoiding the brunt of the explosion, but was still caught in the resulting explosion as the torpedo hit her shoulder and engulfed the Abyssal in a devastating fireball, the flames licking several strands of her hair and set her black mop of hair on fire.
Sendai had to shield her eyes as the epicenter of the explosion radiated from the Ri-Class's left shoulder and seared off half her face, and she could hear the Abyssal scream in an unholy, banshee-like voice upon being afflicted with second and third-degree burns on the side of her burning steel body.
[AAHHHH!]
Sendai shot at an approaching Ta-Class and forced the fast battleship to shield herself as the flames in the Ri-Class were extinguished after the hurt Abyssal dunked herself into the ocean in order to save herself, Sendai hearing Saratoga remark with a fair bit of concern in her voice as two Abyssal fleets approached them in order to intercept and stop their advance.
"Shit!
These Abyssals are rather persistent in stopping us!"
And Sendai could hear Kagerou reply dryly in response to the number of Abyssals sent to stop their advance.
"Three Ri-Class and two Ne-Class heavies, two Ru-Class and Ta-Class battleships each, and five He-Class light cruisers.
If I weren't scared out of my mind, I'd feel rather proud that we're taken so seriously to the point where they sent so many Abyssals to stop us!"
Jintsuu grunted in response as she carried Arare on her back, the Asashio-Class destroyer having been hurt by a stray medium-caliber shell as it clipped her in the left shoulder and sent her flying.
She was riding piggyback on the Sendai-Class light cruiser's back, lashed together with steel wires to Jintsuu's back and hips in order to allow her to face where Jintsuu was facing while being strapped to her back.
A steel patch was already placed the treated wound courtesy of Haruna in order to help her recover, and she was trying to contribute in some way as Arare used her working arm in order to hold a 12 Cm Single Gun Cannon beneath Jintsuu's armpit, erratically firing her cannons at a He-Class light cruiser in order to help out even after being injured.
Chitose had been temporarily knocked out in her attempt to defend Haruna by body blocking a shell, and even though she had regained consciousness, she had to be guarded by Saratoga and Ayanami while she recovered enough to the point where she was combat-ready again.
Sendai spoke over the radio as the sounds of cannon fire and explosions would drown out her voice even if she yelled until her lungs gave out.
"Well, I'd say that we're pretty fucked, so anyone got a way to unfuck us?"
And Haruna stepped up to the plate as she responded coolly.
"Do not worry.
More than one, Haruna has eight."
And fired all four of her 35.6 Cm Twin Gun Cannons in every direction before her and shook the seas in the process, scoring a direct hit on two He-Class cruisers and a Ta-Class battleship, a shell glancing off of a Ru-Class's cannon stack and struck a Ne-Class's tail.
Haruna managed to instantly sink a He-Class light cruiser and a Ta-Class battleship, and critically wounded the remaining Ne, Ru and He-Class Abyssals as she decapitated one of the two bestial tails of the Ne-Class, caused the Ru-Class battleship's cannon stack to stop working as smoke wafted from it ominously after the impact, and the remaining He-Class's arm cannon went up in flames as the Abyssal attempted to use the hard shell around its cannon to shield itself, underestimating the penetration capabilities of Haruna's large-caliber shell and paying the price for it.
Sendai saw Shigure fire torpedoes at the afflicted Ne-Class Abyssal who was downed and was clutching the bloody stump where her dismembered tail was supposed to be, clumsily evading the torpedoes with all the finesse of a limping drunkard as the Abyssal attempted to reach down into the ocean and fish out her missing tail.
Only to be shot in the face by Naka with her 14 Cm Single Gun Cannon, being sent flying as Naka blew the smoke which was wafting from her cannon barrel while she commented on Haruna's tide-turning play.
"Wow, Haruna-chan!
That's certainly worthy of an MVP move when we go back home!"
Shiranui then sailed past her, arming her torpedo launchers as she agreed with her before reminding them of their true objective.
"Focus.
That was an excellent move, but we need to protect Haruna since she needs to reload her cannons, and mustn't be hurt because of the rations which she carries."
Kagerou pouted a little as she revved her engines and sailed behind Shiranui, firing her torpedoes in specific directions in order to disperse the crowd of Abyssals and allow for easier targeting, since the torpedoes would bottleneck them.
"Aww, Nui-Nui, you're no fun!
Let's dispose of these Abyssals together, shall we?"
Sendai pulled out another two torpedoes from her launchers as she flipped them and held them in a reverse grip, sailing forward and backing the Kagerou-Class duo up while noting Shigure following closely behind her, and she felt the setting sun empower her as she felt more and more excited about the night battles which she would get to fight in before stepping onto Aogashima Island.
Flinging a torpedo at a Ta-Class battleship, the fast battleship put her fast speed to good use as she pushed off her left feet and achieved a strafing speed which a slow Abyssal battleship would be hard-pressed to replicate due to their heavy equipment, safely evading the hurled Type 93 torpedo as it plopped into the ocean behind her.
She fired her cannons as she sent another Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighter out to join the one currently dog-fighting Saratoga's F4F Wildcat Fighter Planes, which were attempting to deny the Abyssals the ability to get a bird's-eye-view of the battlefield and control the flow of the battle by making informed decisions regarding their movements to push the ship girls back.
Shigure, Shiranui and Kagerou's Anti-Air 10cm Twin High-angle Gun Cannons barked in order to take out the Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighters as they evaded torpedoes and cannon fire, and one of the Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighters was hit in the underside several times as it caught on fire and began a downward descent towards the Combined Fleet.
Saratoga strafed in order to evade the kamikaze attack, smacking the flames which were passed on from the Abyssal Fighter's trailing fuel fire onto her dress before she snuffed out the flames with her palm, grimacing in pain after being scalded.
Sendai noted that there were now one light and medium-damaged Ne-Class heavy cruisers, two Ru-Class battleships in which one had a non-functional cannon stack, a Ta-Class fast battleship, four He-Class light cruisers and two Ri-Class heavy cruisers remaining.
Need to stall for time until the sun disappeared over the horizon…
Saratoga sent out two TBF Avenger Torpedo Bombers in order to join the two F4F Wildcats, who had already taken out the Abyssal Reconnaissance Fighter with their teamwork and were now focusing their machine-gun fire on the Abyssals, allowing Sendai to fire her 14 Cm Single Gun Cannon and hit a He-Class light cruiser in the left collarbone.
She noted that Chitose was wobbling while she took up the rear so as not to make herself an easy target as she shakily sent out two Suisei Dive Bombers and Ryuusei Torpedo Bombers, looking rather fatigued with her forehead creasing with sweat as she struggled to stay up.
Sendai braved enemy fire as she ran up to the Ru-Class battleships, whose billowing smoke emanated from their cannons as their ejected shells tickled Sendai's ponytails, feeling them flaring up and sending chills down her spine as she evaded by blitz-hopping from side-to-side and dumped the torpedoes in her launcher into the water as soon as the Ru-Classes missed all their shots, although Sendai had to give them some credit when one of her large-caliber shells hit the water and almost tripped her up.
Boy, that would have opened up a whole other can of worms.
She watched the fireball devastate the Ru-Class battleship and erase her from the equation, deliberately standing with her back to the sun in order to throw the Abyssals' aim off while she noticed another barrage of large-caliber cannons being fired from behind her shortly after Haruna's trademark,
"Fire!"
She saw that the large-caliber shell finished the job by taking out the damaged He-Class light cruiser who was sailing a little slower than usual after Haruna's previous shell damaged its arm cannon and rendered it almost unusable, punching through its chest and guaranteeing its death as it collapsed on the ocean like a cavalry rider falling off of his collapsing horse, the Abyssal and motorcycle-esque half both unable to function as the former had a hole where its humanoid heart was supposed to be.
A second shell punched through the knee of a Ri-Class heavy cruiser, Sendai watching as the large-caliber shell smashed in and eviscerated the kneecap of the Abyssal, culminating in a morbidly beautiful explosion of steel bone fragments flying everywhere like a frag grenade explosion before the strip of flesh which connected her lower leg to her thigh was burnt off by the growing fire which erupted from the gaping hole which was located where her knee was supposed to be.
Collapsing in pain, the crying and seething Ri-Class was put out of her misery as Kagerou's torpedo hit her prone body and made her disappear behind a spray of water, blood, fuel and flames while Sendai exhaled in relief upon seeing Haruna come in clutch in their time of crisis.
The last shell glanced off the Ta-Class's shoulder armor, throwing up a vibrant shower of sparks behind her as both Haruna and the Ta-Class looked surprised at the near-miss, the Abyssal discarding her cracked shoulder guard which held up her cape and was left with her sailor uniform top and dark thong, with her alien rigging located around her hips.
Saratoga's two TBF Avenger Torpedo Bombers dived down in order to drop its payload into the water, and was greeted with a hail of Anti-Air fire courtesy of every single Abyssal on the battlefield, and one of them spiraled out of control after a Ri-Class fired into the ocean and produced a water column which one Avenger flew through and made it spin out before hitting the water.
Sendai noted that on her radar were two signatures of downed Fairy pilots, surmising that the absence of a Suisei bomber and Wildcat were the reason why two floating signatures were present even before the Fairy pilot ejected from its cockpit as his plane hit the ocean.
Shells whizzed across the battlefield in both directions, and she heard another ship girl cry out in pain behind her as she turned back to see Shiranui flying back, barely turning back forward in time to hop over an enemy torpedo before boosting across the battlefield as she flung another two torpedo at two He-Class light cruisers, one for each Abyssal.
One managed to inexplicably shoot down the incoming torpedo, producing a loud explosion whose blast wave displaced the ocean underneath it in a small bowl as the Abyssal achieved the million-to-one odds of hitting a thrown torpedo on the warhead with a shell, detonating it prematurely and saving its skin.
The other Ne-Class light cruiser wasn't so lucky as the torpedo hit it on its flank, carving a flaming, spherical void into its body as the Abyssal howled in pain, using its arms to push it under water and douse the flames before they lit a fuel reserve on fire, disappearing in a billowing plume of boiling steam as Sendai heard someone scream.
"AAAHHHH!"
While an explosion sounded out behind her.
Oh shit.
No one screamed like that unless someone was either dead or dying.
And especially since ship girls were mostly hardened soldiers, it had to be serious.
Whipping her head around, she could see that an aghast Chitose had taken off her blazer and was using it to smother the flames which danced on the back of a ship girl, and Sendai's heart sank as she kept low and looked around to deduce who it was.
Kagerou and Kuroshio were protecting Shiranui, who was clutching her limp left arm with some sort of broken bone or dislocation at her shoulder joint as the Kagerou-Class trio inched towards the downed Fairy pilots in order to retrieve them, cannons blazing all the while.
Arare was still strapped to Jintsuu's back, both Asashio-Class destroyer and Sendai-Class light cruiser firing as the former's arm was healed up enough to dual wield a 12 Cm Single Gun Cannon and a 12.7 Twin Gun Cannon and provide Sendai's sister with a second pair of arms and weapons.
Naka was with Saratoga as the latter rushed over to the injured ship girl whom Chitose had in her embrace with a horrified expression, and it finally clicked in Sendai's mind regarding the identity of the injured ship girl.
Shigure.
Sendai closed her eyes as she swallowed the lump in her throat, centering her heart and mind as she allowed the twilight sky to envelop her and calm her down.
Most people knew her to be a night battle idiot, but there was something about the night which, to her, made her prefer it over daylight battles.
If the day was to give way to the darkness which was the night, part of the reason why she liked night battles so much was because of the phrase 'darkest just before dawn'.
Since night battles took their toll on everyone even though she liked night battles, it inspired her to do better so that the sun would rise upon their victorious battle, and not the corpses of her teammates.
Shigure was injured, and Sendai, even though she knew that they had to play things safe in this sortie, knew that when night came, she was in her element as a nocturnal ship girl and could go all-out in order to protect everyone, consequences be damned.
Her spirit now quadrupled in intensity due to her love for night battles and desire to get revenge for Shigure's injury, pulling out two torpedoes and held them like kunai knives in a reverse grip as she bolted forward, understanding that in the nighttime, accuracy of ships on both sides were worsened due to lack of sunlight which illuminated their targets, and the moonless night did nothing to help them improve their odds of hitting them.
Just the way she liked it.
She called out over the radio as she informed the Combined Fleet of her plan to devastate the enemy in close quarters.
"Everyone.
I'm going to get in close and flank them in order to destroy them from the inside, so provide cover fire, please.
I'd also like to thank everyone for being so patient with me, the Night Battle Idiot has awakened!"
But Chitose was still concerned about her safety, especially since she would be danger close as the ship girls would be firing in her general direction.
"Are you sure about this, Sendai-san?
You'll be fighting while danger close, since we'll be firing shells and torpedoes in your direction, and you might be caught in the crossfire…"
But Sendai grinned, in part due to her gratefulness for Chitose's saint-like personality and caring nature which allowed her to watch over her comrades with a motherly concern, and because she knew that despite Chitose's concerns, she was the night battle idiot.
They couldn't hit her even if they all turned on her.
Sendai was in her element during the night, and like the incorporeal yet ever-present darkness, she was nigh-untouchable.
"Don't worry.
I'm the Night Battle Idiot, I know my way around in the darkness.
I need you all to keep firing your cannons, and stop them from using their night-vision to find me."
She could see the flash of cannons on both sides as she ran in a semi-circle in order to avoid running into the cannon-fire of the Abyssals.
She knew that during night battles, the use of night vision was discouraged as one's light-sensitive night-vision-enhanced eyes would be affected and overwhelmed by the bright muzzle flashes more than a normal eye would, and staring into the chorus of bright spots which were the result of muzzle flashes and spectacularly bright explosions with one's built-in night vision activated for too long might eventually lead to blindness, which required a prolonged dip in the docks to repair.
As Junyou-san demonstrated in the Battle of Mikura Jima Island, when staring into spotlights with her night-vision activated blinded her.
She remarked after keeping track of the enemy composition and those who had perished in battle,
"To my knowledge, there's one Ne-Class and Ri-Class heavy cruiser, one Ru-Class battleship, a Ta-Class fast battleship and two He-Class light cruisers remaining.
Don't worry.
With me here, we'll be able to take 'em all down in five."
A moonless night blanketed her and concealed her approach as she ran up to the flank of the remaining Abyssal fleet, holding her torpedoes as she ran into the fray and expected the Abyssals to be confused as to who's shooting them up from within their ranks, and she flung her two torpedoes at the heads of the Ru-Class battleship and the He-Class light cruiser respectively before slipping away.
The Abyssals were distracted by the explosions which radiated from the torsos of their teammates, allowing her to avoid attracting their attention as the Ru-Class's flaming, shattered skull hit the ocean after her torpedo detonated at point-blank range and caused her skull to cave in from the resulting blast wave.
The He-Class light cruiser managed to squeeze off a shot in her direction before expiring, clearly an action performed in its death throes as the remaining Ri-Class heavy cruiser noticed her presence due to the stray shell flying in her direction, shouting urgently as she pointed her arm cannon at Sendai.
[There she is!
A ship girl!]
But two Dauntless Dive Bombers saved her ass by diving in their direction despite the hail of Anti-Air cannons which lit up the night sky, dropping their payloads as they detonated on the ocean before the Ri-Class's feet and on the Ri-Class's stomach.
Disappearing within the fireball and the resulting blast wave, the Abyssal heavy cruiser was devastated as the explosion took off both her legs and a large portion of her hips, the smoke dissipating to reveal half of a Ri-Class remaining on the battlefield, blood and guts flowing out from the cross-section of her lower torso and was splayed out on the ocean as the Ri-Class's mouth was agape, attempting to gulp down oxygen like a fish while she sank.
The two He-Class cruisers turned on her, forcing her to keep moving as she used the darkness and chaos to mask her movements to some extent, blind-firing as she saw another ship girl approach them.
Naka smoothly evaded a medium-caliber shell which was headed straight for her head, almost causing Sendai's heart to skip a beat as Naka held a torpedo in her hand, jumping up and performing a running vault in order to jump above the He-Class and the torpedoes which it fired.
She braced herself against the Abyssal light cruiser's Anti-Air turret fire to throw the torpedo in its hand towards the other He-Class which followed closely behind, detonating on the surface of what passed as the motorcycle fairing and windscreen and disabling the He-Class's mode of transportation.
Using the momentum from her jumping front flip to land behind the Abyssal which she vaulted over, Naka spun around while pushing off of her boat slippers and used her boost gauge to put some distance between them as she fired into the back of the Ne-Class and sailed away.
The Ne-Class was set on fire from behind as its motorcycle-esque transportation vehicle careened out of control, the flames trailing behind it and taking its toll on the Abyssal as Ayanami narrowly avoided a head-on collision, only being grazed on the arm after strafing out of the way and was flung on the ocean while clutching her left arm as the Ne-Class crashed and burnt a fair distance behind her.
Shiranui had fired a torpedo after Naka's thrown torpedo had disabled the Ne-Class's transportation-vehicle-lower-half, Sendai shielding her face and pulling back a little as the resulting explosion lit up the battlefield due to the explosion of Shiranui's torpedo, cursing due to the unexpectedly bright and hot mini-nova which would have no doubt overwhelmed those who had their night-vision on.
"Shit!"
Sendai prepared her cannons in order to fight the remaining Ta-Class battleship, who had somehow remained untouched throughout the entirety of this battle, but she only saw the back of her sailor uniform as she evaded Haruna's cannon shell and performed a flawless swimming dive into the ocean in order to escape the battle after the Combined Fleet had whittled down their numbers despite taking several casualties, deciding to cut her losses by retreating as Sendai heard Saratoga call in order for them to regroup, do a headcount and assess everyone's injuries.
"Everyone, on me.
We need to assess everyone's condition and decide our next course of action."
Exhaling in relief, Sendai sailed back towards the Combined Fleet as she observed the members of the Combined Fleet and their respective injuries.
Ayanami was hurt from the immolated He-Class's hit-and-run as it must've struck her on the arm with a glancing blow, but she was otherwise in pretty good condition.
Kagerou and Kuroshio were alright, but Shiranui must've dislocated her left shoulder, since her left arm was almost non-functional as Kagerou tenderly moved Shiranui's fingers and arm to help regain the feeling in her hand, while Kuroshio was working out a way to shove the joint back into the arm socket.
Naka's dress was partially torn due to the amount of Anti-Air fire which she attracted while airborne, and in her hands were the three retrieved Fairy pilots, cuddling up in her cupped hands as she waited for Chitose and Saratoga to retrieve them.
Jintsuu was panting rather heavily after carrying Arare on her back for a majority of the battle, although the silent Asashio-Class destroyer had done her best to chip in by providing extra firepower despite suffering from a wound similar to Shiranui's, and Jintsuu had soldiered on by carrying her downed teammate without a word of complaint.
Chitose, Haruna and Saratoga were treating a critically wounded Shigure, having had one of her legs blown clean off and was lying in a prone position on the ocean as Haruna tended to the burn wounds on her back.
And those burn marks didn't look like the kind you'd get when you grazed a boiling kettle, it looked like the kind which someone had to stand in a furnace or be hit by a flamethrower for several seconds to sustain, popped blisters likely a resulting of thrashing around on the ocean as parts of her skin were simply scorched off and exposed raw, tender and swollen red flesh which decorated a large area on her back.
Her tear-stained cheeks were a testament to how she did her best to endure Haruna's first-aid treatment, and the burnt remnants of her uniform were likely discarded, as was her training bra, since they were considered restrictive wear which would complicate the severity of the burn and the resulting swelling.
Saratoga was holding the remnants of Shigure's smoking battle backpack, with Saratoga's Fairies using fire hoses to hose down the destroyed battle backpack while treating the Fairies which maintained Shigure's battle backpack.
When Sendai asked Ayanami about what happened to the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer, Ayanami looked rather crestfallen as she replied gravely.
"Well, when a medium-caliber shell and torpedo looked as if it was going to hit Chitose-san, Shigure blocked both attacks as the torpedo blew her right leg off, as evidenced.
And I suppose the enemy shell must've hit something vital in her battle backpack, because it spontaneously combusted and set Shigure's back on fire.
Even though Chitose threw her into the water and used her blazer to smother the flames on Shigure's back while Haruna ripped the battle backpack from her back, she was still burnt pretty badly and is likely taken out of the fight for good."
Sendai turned back to Haruna as the Kongou-Class battleship attempted to gently lift a limp Shigure after treating Shigure's wounds with whatever little medical supplies she had on hand, using strips of her large miko sleeves to bandage the wound while Chitose used her blazer to cover Shigure's burnt back.
Shigure winced pathetically, a dying whine escaping her lips as the injured muscles on her back were strained by the motion, and Haruna was speaking to Chitose while doing her best not to complicate a weeping Shigure's wounds.
" … used the water-skin in our rigging to wash her wounds, and I've applied several layers of steel to facilitate faster recovery.
But the fuel which I burnt in my rigging in order to boil and sanitize seawater to apply over the burn needs to be cooled down before it can be used.
We're not too far from Aogashima Island, so I suggest shuffling the fleet composition around to prioritize the wounded being carried on the island to prevent them from getting shot at."
Chitose nodded, looking around as she discussed who should be sent onto Aogashima Island either to carry out their reconnaissance mission or avoid participating in any more battles, and who should be sent out to engage the Abyssal fleet.
"Well, Shigure-san is unable to fight on, so I suppose she'll have to be brought on land to avoid being injured any more than she already is.
I can take her place by adding some firepower to the patrolling fleet as well as utilize my Kouhyouteki midget submarines in battle.
Arare-san will be going on the island since she's hurt, and even though she may have healed up a little after applying steel patches to the affected area, we can't take any chances since her performance might be affected by her wound.
And since Saratoga-san is capable of performing night battles even though she's a carrier, she'll be invaluable in the upcoming night battles."
Hmm, so Saratoga, despite being a carrier, was capable of night battles?
Sendai's breathing became heavy with excitement upon hearing the prospects of being buddies with a new night battle lover alongside Yuudachi, but she channeled her enthusiasm towards more productive thoughts as she raised her hand and spoke to her seniors.
"Well, I don't mind patrolling the surrounding oceans for Abyssals to sink since I'm the Night Battle Idiot, and no one can deny my enhanced performance when the sun goes down.
So, Sara-chan, you're capable of night battles, hmm?"
Sendai walked up to the Lexington-Class carrier, looking rather impressed that American carriers, unlike Japanese carriers, were capable of fighting in night battles, and she would be integral in keeping night-battling Wo-Class Abyssals off their backs.
"Those planes of yours are capable of flying at night, and it was thanks to you that the Ri-Class was taken out before she got a bead on me."
Before taking on a smug tone and remarking coolly.
"I could've totally taken then all on by myself, though."
Followed by a collective eye roll from everyone who knew her well enough, including her sisters who have had to deal with her love of night battles for a good majority of their lives.
But no one had anything to say in order to shoot down her suggestion, and Jintsuu commented on how the search on Aogashima Island might not need as many ship girls as they thought, and could thus spare more ship girls for the defense of Aogashima Island.
"Well, we need more ship girls to defend Aogashima Island and buy more time for the ship girls who are searching the island, so splitting up the fleet into a composition of 5:7 in favor of patrolling the waters isn't out of the question.
So for those who'll go on land, it'll be Shiranui, Kagerou, Kuroshio, Shigure and Arare.
Sendai and Chitose-san will be temporarily transferred over to our fleet in order to patrol and fend off any Abyssal fleets around Aogashima Island."
Everyone nodded as they understood what they had to do, but Shigure's attempt to get their attention succeeded in the form of a gurgle which caught in her throat, and she was held up by Haruna as though she were a cat, supported at the armpits and held up for all to see as the destroyer flimsily shielded parts of her chest where the makeshift bandages didn't cover as she stuttered.
"Um…
I don't think that these bandages… cover enough of my chest…
Do you think…"
Sendai noted that Shigure's condition had improved marginally as her internal repair systems had stopped the bleeding where Shigure's leg stump was, and her tear streaks had partially dried up to allow her cheeks to stretch out into what could pass as an awkward smile.
And Shiranui was the one to respond dryly, noting the lack of anything for a destroyer to cover up as she leaned on her good arm on Kuroshio's shoulder.
"What, you want a bloody sarashi to cover up your non-existent destroyer chest?
Oh, please get off your high horse, Shigure.
We're all girls here, and as destroyers, we both know that we have nothing to expose in the first place as prepubescent children."
Everyone stepped back as they covered their mouths and stretched out their,
"Ooooohhhhhh!"
After Shiranui delivered a witty retort which went both ways, and she knew it as Shigure managed something resembling a laugh amidst her tearing sobs, and Shiranui's cheeks were taut as she suppressed a smile.
Kagerou's smile widened as she remarked about something which she felt was inappropriate to say, and probably even felt a little guilty about it, judging by her tone.
"Well, Nui-Nui, when you said that, I felt like calling out 'BURNED!' or 'ROASTED'.
But considering Shigure-chan's injuries…"
Kagerou inhaled sharply through the clenched teeth which made up her smile while everyone scrunched up their faces and gave the name-ship of the Kagerou-Class a 'What the hell?' look, Kagerou shrugging in a 'What you gonna do?' manner.
Sendai raised an eyebrow at the relationship between the Shigure and Shiranui, as well as the morbid humor which was thrown around despite the rather intense injuries which Shigure had sustained, and as Kuroshio sailed forward in order to gently clasp Shigure on an unaffected spot of skin to carry her to Aogashima Island, Sendai's senses sharpened as she looked around and kept her body tensed up to respond to any Abyssal threats at the drop of a hat.
Sure, she couldn't get to go on the island to search for evidence of Abyssal activity, but if she knew that she could be of more use to everyone while sailing on the oceans and sinking Abyssals at night, she would gladly fling torpedoes at enemies all day and night to send the Abyssals back to Bikini Bottom, where they belonged.
Shiranui had discarded her boat slippers and rigging at the harbor on Aogashima Island before stepping onto land, and Kuroshio had helped Shigure do the same with the remaining boat slipper which was on her left leg.
Shiranui was currently carrying Shigure on her back after Kuroshio had checked her wound at the harbor and had soaked it with Haruna's small pot of water which she transferred from her rigging to Kuroshio's, and Shigure was quite the trooper as the water trickled down her back and must've been excruciating as it rolled over raw and swollen flesh, but as a soldier, Shigure didn't cry out in agony or do anything of the sort, internalizing all of the pain and remaining silent.
The extra cans of fuel had come in handy as it allowed Shigure to burn a little more fuel to keep herself warm and overcome the symptoms of shock, and even though Shiranui had offered to lend her vest to Shigure in order to cover herself up, Shigure politely declined as she now had enough makeshift bandages covering her torso to not require Shiranui's vest, allowing her to focus on the island's geography.
Aogashima Island was quite the interesting land formation as it looked as if a mountain or volcano had collapsed in on itself and formed a caldera, so the fringes of the island possessed sharp cliffs and tall ridges while an outcropping of land on the far end of the island was where an abandoned village was located, and that was where they were headed.
Admiral Mako surmised that whatever weapons they must've transported onto the island for testing, they wouldn't have wasted time in trying to move it into the caldera, since the ridges were too steep for large and bulky weapons to be transported up and down without the risk of incurring some damage, and testing would likely be done at the village, which was built on more even ground.
The satellite photos corroborated this hypothesis this as the Abyssal signatures had suddenly popped up from the ocean before being flown over to the village, and while the intensity of these signatures indicated that something huge was being moved, never once did any of these signatures move up the ridge into the caldera, since they would risk dropping it and damage parts of the weapon in the process.
The road circumventing the caldera had a sharp cliff dropping down into the ocean on one side, while the other side of the road was filled with plants and weeds which were left unattended and attempted to reach out lazily towards the cliff-side.
A rusting guardrail shielded road users from the cliff side in a line abreast formation, having been exposed to the elements for roughly two decades and was diminishing in effectiveness due to rust.
Along the way, Shiranui talked to Shigure and shared the Abyysal readings which they picked up and what they were to expect.
"From what we were able to gather from recent Abyssal activity on the island, the Abyssals have been most active in the village on the other end of this island, and we've even detected use of 'fireworks', probably field-testing their weapons on abandoned human settlements.
That's the thing about Admiral Mako's briefing, she needs to keep it vague in order to keep the 1st Fleet in the dark about Apocalypse, and what she failed to mention was that there was a lot of movement around Aogashima Island.
Something flew onto the island and unloaded something large, which ran around the abandoned village and caused explosions with its weapons, before packing up and flying back into the ocean in order to submerge back into the depths."
Shigure lifted a tired eyebrow as she acknowledged Shiranui's secret briefing, and Shiranui continued as she had to keep Shigure occupied and not let her slip into unconsciousness, which would open up a whole new can of worms.
"This road leads to the village and circumvents the caldera which makes up the majority of the island.
And according to my limited knowledge of geography, I believe a caldera is a volcano which collapsed in on itself, which explains these ridges and sharp cliffs surrounding the bowl which made up the collapsed volcano with a small hill in the middle.
Going by the estimated size of what the satellites picked up despite the Abyssals doing their best to cover up their activities, these new weapons are roughly the size of Abyssal Beasts and are certainly larger than any humanoid Abyssal we know of thus far."
Shigure seemed to consider her words for a while as Shiranui focused on putting one foot before the other in order to double time it to the village where they would find some answers while their teammates held off the Abyssals, and the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer exhaled tiredly and only deigned to ask one question.
"I don't know, I'm too tired to think when I just had my entire back scorched by the flames of Hell before this.
I just have one question, and it's that whatever this new weapon is, why couldn't they have just plopped it on the harbor and moved it up the road which we're walking on right now?"
Shiranui considered the question, looking around at the road which they were walking on in order to reach the village at the other end of the island, noting that the road was now a single-lane road, a path which would cause a large vehicle to leave a mark of some sort on the environment, perhaps crumpling the guardrail due to difficulties in cornering or chipping off parts of the rock walls with its armor.
But no matter how far she walked, she found little evidence to suggest that this was the case, which meant that they couldn't transport the testing vehicle or weapon on these roads, because it would be too large to fit and would likely fall off the side of the road when rounding any sharp corners.
She shrugged while making sure not to accidentally smack Shigure on the chin with her shoulder as she answered bluntly.
"These roads aren't ideal for large vehicles to traverse, what with the risk of dropping it over the cliff since the guardrail would provide as much protection as a wet tissue paper in trying to stop an armored vehicle from rolling off the side of this road."
Shigure responded, Shiranui noting that her response was getting a little haggard from fatigue due to her injuries as she hypothesized.
"Here's my next question.
If it's so big to the point where it can't fit on these narrow roads, how can it fit on a flying vehicle which can somehow take off in the middle of the ocean?"
Shiranui nodded, understanding the risk of theory-crafting without having visited the scene beforehand as she remarked.
"I don't think we should theory-craft too heavily right now, lest we try to twist the evidence to suit the theory instead of changing the theory to suit the evidence.
All we know is that they didn't use this road to transport the weapon, since it was too large and heavy to risk being damaged on such a treacherous road.
We need to go into the village in order to find more evidence and make our assumptions from over there, not from here."
Shigure nodded tiredly, collapsing onto Shiranui's left shoulder as the pink-haired Kagerou-Class destroyer focused on the end of the road which stretched out before her, the backs of Kagerou and Arare leading her on while the occasional twinkle of white on the pitch-black horizon reminded her that time was short.
"Wow.
What the hell happened here?"
Shiranui, Shigure, Arare, Kagerou and Kuroshio had reached the village on Aogashima Island, and it was absolutely devastated after some sort of explosive weapon demolished every building in sight, from buildings being knocked over to some other buildings being blown up with no rhyme or reason.
Arare walked up and inspected the destroyed buildings while Kagerou looked around and pointed at a destroyed building as she theorized about what destroyed it, noting how the debris was flung across the area in a flowering pattern, which might insinuate a strike from above which hit the building and blew it up.
"That building looked as if it was blown up by something from above, possibly penetrating the building's roof before detonating its payload.
Judging from the satellite photos which we received before this, I'm starting to suspect that they might have used a missile or rocket to hit it from above, like the V-1 Flying Bomb or something.
And if they were field-testing some sort of land vehicle for that, I'm not surprised that field-testing some sort of explosive weapon led to this level of destruction."
Shiranui nodded, testing her sore left shoulder after having Kuroshio shove it back into the socket in order for her repair system to fix the damage done to her nerves and muscles.
She knew that in the presence of a resting Shigure, Kagerou had to speak in code while referring to Apocalypse since in her mind, Shigure was ignorant of and wasn't cleared to hear anything pertaining to Apocalypse, not knowing that she had listened in on Admiral Mako's meeting and knew a fair bit about it.
Arare was looking at another building which had also been blown up after something hit the side of the building, allowing the mountain of rubble to spill over onto the road like a small landslide while leaving what remained of the second floor of the building intact, the steel I-beams and rebar sticking out from the concrete like crooked, dead fingers and bone pushing through the cold hard concrete in this garden of death.
A demolished building had been knocked over to the side and was now leaning on another building which was still standing despite taking a fair bit of damage, but was starting to show signs of crumbling and wear and tear due to the elements.
After passing by these two buildings, Kuroshio marveled at the amount of damage which was done by what the Abyssals had designed, giving Shigure an aside glance to make sure that she was out of earshot before speaking to Kagerou and Shiranui.
"Well, even though these buildings aren't exactly the pinnacle of infrastructural engineering since they're pretty old, but the fact that these buildings are blown to smithereens and gave the ruins of Dresden a run for its money means that these missiles or rockets are nothing to sneeze at.
I mean, they're built by the Abyssals, but I'm not exactly sure if they're playing by our rules anymore, so if this Apocalypse is coming, and this shit is what we're dealin' with…"
Kagerou shushed her in order to get Kuroshio to stop snowballing on with negative ideas even though her own gaze looked rather concerned, and she strolled over to where a plot of land had some sort of track imprinted on it, motioning for them to come over while looking down and squatting in order to get a better look.
Shiranui looked back to confirm with Shigure that she was going to be alright for the duration of their investigation as she left her friend in a sitting position near a piece of wall which still stood strong, and a weak nod from the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer was all she needed to turn away and take off in Kagerou's direction.
Something had flattened the vast stretches of vegetation which had populated the land, and even though these tank track marks were partially washed away by the weather, she was still able to see that the weight of the vehicle left deep tracks which weren't disappearing anytime soon.
Kagerou looked back to the leveled village, recalling the orientation of the buildings and the direction in which they were hit as she hypothesized.
"Well, I think that there's a good chance whatever tracked vehicle rode around here fired a rocket or something into the village in order to take out the buildings downrange like a shooting range.
But how could a tracked vehicle get on this island?
Satellite shows that the Abyssals haven't heavily renovated Aogashima Island as heavily as they did with Ogasawara Island and Guam due to its proximity to Hachijo Island and Japan compared those other islands, so they couldn't have transported whatever left these up the roads we just walked."
Kagerou continued on about how a tracked vehicle coming on this island didn't make sense, the three Kagerou-Class destroyers and lone Asashio-Class destroyers now being cut off from the entire world thanks to the isolated island's unique environment and the lack of illumination via the moon.
"I mean, the road which we used to access this village seemed a little too narrow to fit a tracked vehicle, especially the single-lane corners with the steep walls on one side and the nigh-useless guardrails on the other, it would mean that guardrails should be crumpled due to their attempt to turn the corner without dropping off the cliff side.
If I recall correctly, I don't remember such conspicuous indicators of a tracked vehicle being driven across those roads, if the width of these tracks are to be believed."
Shiranui gave her opinion, reminding them of their own little classified briefing before the day of the sortie where a declassified version was given to the Combined Fleet, and the mysterious signatures which they had picked up.
"Well, in our secret briefing with the Admiral on the 13th, remember how some sort of signature flew up from the ocean and unloaded another Abyssal signature on the island which likely caused all this?
Due to the lack of runways on the ocean, I think it might be an Abyssal helicopter which was built as a part of Apocalypse in order to transport the tracked vehicle here.
It doesn't seem entirely impossible for them to do that."
Kuroshio lifted an eyebrow, uncertain of how helicopters were capable of lifting a fully armored vehicle as she asked her sisters.
"Wait, I'm not entirely sure if helicopters can lift tracked vehicles, even though I understand that helicopters have come a long way ever since the Kayaba Ka-1 Autogyro…"
But Arare pointed out something which she had learnt after reading up on what the greatest machines of today could achieve.
"Actually, that's entirely possible.
The Mil Mi-26 Helicopter, which is made by the humans, can lift an entire plane.
A tracked vehicle wouldn't be out of the question, especially since the Abyssals specialize in technology which works after surfacing from the ocean.
They might've surfaced near the island, waited for the motor to kick into high gear with flotation devices to keep both helicopter and vehicle afloat, and lifted off to head for the helicopter landing pad on this island."
Kuroshio lifted an eyebrow as she observed the meek Asashio-Class destroyer and inquired good-naturedly about how she knew of that tidbit of information.
"No shit?
How'd you know of that, doesn't seem like the kind of thing which would seem relevant to anything we do."
Arare shrugged as she looked away, elaborating as she felt a little embarrassed at everyone's attention focusing on her, since even in the Infiltration Fleet and amongst her sisters, she was the quiet wallflower who never said much and mostly kept to herself.
"I read those 'World's Fastest Planes' or 'World's Best Tanks' lists quite often to find out how humans push the limits of what's possible, and I remembered that the now-defunct Soviet Union produced some insane vehicles, like the Mil Mi-26 Helicopter and the Antonov An-225.
Besides, it's the age of the internet, which makes these things easier to discover and learn, and with Apocalypse looming in the distance and the sudden interest in recreating human vehicles ala the Flying Dutchman, I thought it was best to find out a little more whenever I can."
Lifting an eyebrow in order to accept her teammate's interest, Kagerou pointed in a certain direction as she consulted with her map of the island and the orientation of everything relative to their current position.
"Alright, so the tracks lead from over there, where, according to the maps we have of this place, I believe the heliport is located."
Kuroshio looked around at a building off in the distance, pointing at how that building was simply smashed apart as a cavern was carved through the building, and the deeply-imprinted footprints which led up to it.
"Well, whatever this weapons is, do you think it's capable of charging that building and knock it down like that?
That doesn't seem like the work of any vehicle, so what gives?"
Kagerou stood up and strolled over towards where the building was, and Shiranui was starting to become a little worried for Shigure's well-being as she strolled over to the wall where she left Shigure, which was quite a ways back.
She made sure to leave Shigure behind at an area of the village which was completely trashed save for the lone wall where Shigure leaned on for support, because Shiranui felt that completely demolished buildings were slightly safer than partially demolished buildings, as it was asinine to not expect the latter to come crashing down unexpectedly after their structural integrity was compromised.
Noting that Shigure gulping down air as she bit down slowly on a chocolate-bar-sized ration which was provided to them courtesy of Haruna shortly before splitting up to head for Aogashima Island, Shiranui slowed down as she approached the destroyer, looking away from her leg stump as she commented.
"We've found some tank tracks and have come to the conclusion that some sort of powerful helicopter, likely created as part of Apocalypse, transported some sort of rocket launching vehicle onto this island and blew it to kingdom come.
There also seems to be some sort of building which was knocked over, not through explosive power but through sheer physical force, and I believe I saw some animal footprints leading up to it.
And while I wish to visit the site where the evidence is located, I don't want to leave you behind unattended, and I'll bring you over to a closer location so that I can reach you quickly if anything goes wrong."
Shigure nodded, looking thankful for Shiranui's thoughtfulness as she displayed a tired but genuine smile, Shiranui's eyes narrowing at how the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's face was looking rather wan and her skin was caked with sweat as the burn injury and the missing leg took its toll on her.
Admirable, yet so foolish.
" … Thank you.
Please be gentle with me."
Before her doey, innocent eyes widened and she raised her arms like a child in order to allow Shiranui to carry the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer on her back.
Her cheeks colored a little at Shigure's wording of her request, and she squatted down in order to carry her friend on her back as she felt the warmth of the Shiratsuyu-Class's bare torso pressing against her back, Shigure's tired sigh sounding out in relief as she exhaled into Shiranui's ear while she hugged Shiranui from behind.
Add that to the fact that Shiranui was holding her by the butt in the piggyback pose, and it felt rather soft in her gloved hands…
Shiranui's blush intensified tenfold as she shook those naughty thoughts from her mind, feeling extremely hot on the inside as she blamed the visit to her Admiral's room/love nest for making her think such lewd thoughts, lowering Shigure down on another wall as she commented.
"Look, I have to leave you here so that we, the Infiltration Fleet, can talk about sensitive matters without an outside presence forcing us to speak in code.
I'll return for you and fill you in later."
And she had to look away from Shigure's grateful smile as she turned away and shook the blush from her face before jogging and meeting up with her Infiltration Fleet teammates at a relatively large clearing of land.
She slowed down her jog just as her heart dropped upon seeing the gigantic, circular footprint of an elephant which was about four centimeters deep, along with the four stubby toes which elephants had as she heard Kuroshio's steps slow down behind her, looking down at the footprint of the Beast as she gently laid down her booted-up laptop and knelt down to feel the soil where the Beast had stepped on, muttering.
"Kagerou, help me get the depth of the footprint.
I'll test the soil, and Shiranui will estimate the diameter of the track at its furthest points."
Kagerou nodded as she knelt down and leaned into the small pit which was the footprint as she stuck the tip of her index finger into the bottom of the footprint and estimated its depth while using the length of her finger as reference.
Shiranui stood over the two of them and looked straight down at the footprint while doing calculations in her head, slowly ambling around the footprint in order to minimize the chances of an error popping up in her measurements if she was to only view the footprint from one point of view.
She called out her measurements,
"74.3 centimeters."
While Kagerou wiped the dirt from her gloves as she followed suit.
"Depth's about 4.32 centimeters."
And Kuroshio typed in those numbers as she spoke out loud in order to keep her sisters informed of how the calculations on the laptop was going to play out.
"Well, thank goodness we have some internet access here, we can search the average size of an elephant to base our calculations off of.
Accounting for the toughness of the soil, recent weather patterns throughout the last month and the very generous assumption that an elephant's weight is distributed almost equally amongst its four legs, we only need to wait for a while to allow the laptop to account for errors, we'll get a good estimate of this Beast's size.
How did it get on the island, though?"
That question went unanswered as Shiranui stepped into the remnants of the smashed in building, marveling in fear and awe (but mostly fear) at how something could body slam a building into the current state it was now, debris replacing the blood which was splattered around the corpse which was the destroyed building.
Shiranui inspected the damage and estimated that the building was a little over three meters tall, and while she was no expert on animals, she was quite sure that elephants certainly had the body build in order to achieve this feat, although their flesh-and-blood bodies couldn't handle the stress of such an impact.
The ceiling had already collapsed after an Abyssal Beast had charged what appeared to be a shop which had been vacated decades prior, and the damage done was critical to the structural integrity of the building, as pillars were knocked over and couldn't hold up what would have remained of the shattered ceiling.
Everything, from metal shelves to overhead lights had been trampled upon by whatever came in like like a wrecking ball, left warped and smashed on the floor alongside the debris and rubble which surrounded her.
Turning back as Kuroshio called out,
"Shiranui-nee!
It's done!"
She skulked back to her sisters as Kuroshio displayed the laptop screen for them to see, and Shiranui had to admit, she was a little unnerved at the results which were shown on-screen as it showed the estimated size of the elephant Beast in comparison to an African elephant and a battleship ship girl.
And the elephant Beast outsized both the African elephant and the battleship, standing at what Shiranui saw was about 5.8 meters in height.
Estimated weight was around or even more than 20 tonnes.
That was… big.
Kuroshio looked down at the laptop screen as she tried her best to reassure her sisters that these calculations were arbitrary since they didn't have all the details, so the actual size was likely a little smaller than estimated.
"W-Well, 'fore you think this looks entirely hopeless, a lot of factors weren't taken into account and would make us believe that the Beast is larger than it actually is in real life."
Shiranui nodded, accepting the disclaimer which Kuroshio put forth as Kagerou sighed and concluded their quick search of the island in the dead of night, looking rather tired after staying up the entire night despite being essentially superhuman.
"So, let's recap.
Judging from what we've observed thus far, there seems to be a tracked vehicle, which was likely transported by helicopter onto this island, which fired missiles into the abandoned buildings in the island's village.
And for some reason, a supersized elephant-esque Beast somehow appears on this island and rams through buildings with relative ease.
Joy."
Kuroshio used her laptop's camera to snap some photos of the scene from several angles, Kuroshio looked at the clock on her laptop as she commented on how time flew and how they had to regroup with the Combined Fleet and whoever was going to be their backup fleet.
"Well, we've gotten enough pictorial evidence of what they're up to, and since we're short on time and need to regroup with everyone else, we should get going.
If we manage to make it back to the harbor and sail back to the Combined Fleet, we should be able to make it back in time to allow Shigure-chan to dock.
I also think Arare-chan and Shiranui need to take a dip due to your afflicted shoulders, since you've been carrying Shigure-chan on your back the entire way up, an' it's gotta take a toll on your shoulder, right?"
Shiranui nodded as she looked away, flexing her shoulder and finding that her shoulder was even more sore than ever, even though she had done her best to lean forward while carrying her friend so that Shigure's weight would be supported mostly by her back and not her arms.
Kuroshio closed her laptop as Kagerou took charge of the situation, shooting Shiranui a concerned look as she ordered them to get off of this island as soon as possible so as not to spend a second longer in Abyssal waters.
"Look, we've gotten our evidence and formulated several hypotheses from everything we can find, and even though it's a moonless night which allowed us to enter Abyssal waters without too much fuss, we need to leave.
I'll jog down with Arare and get the boat slippers ready, Kuroshio, finish up your business here, and Shiranui, get Shigure and leave with Kuroshio.
We'll meet you back at the harbor."
Nodding, the members of the Infiltration Fleet went their separate ways as Shiranui jogged over to where Shigure was, becoming a little concerned about whether Shigure was going to suffer from hypothermia or whatever despite ingesting some fuel earlier in order to keep her body warm in the moonless night's slightly frigid temperatures.
But she was secretly glad to find a relaxed Shigure look up at the sky before noticing Shiranui's approach, waving in order to greet her as Shiranui gently scooped up the disabled destroyer off of her feet and slung Shigure over her back with relative ease, remarking.
"We've got to get off this island as soon as possible.
We've collected quite a fair bit of information regarding what they've been doing here in the past month, and we need to go before the Combined and backup fleets suffer any more casualties.
I'll fill you in along the way, but do you feel anything wrong with your body after being left alone for so long?"
But all she heard was Shigure giggling to herself as she chose to comment on something which she never thought to notice all this time.
"I'm alright, Shiranui-san.
And I apologize for changing the topic so abruptly, but have you noticed the stars?
They look so beautiful…"
Shiranui stopped as she pulled her neck to the side in order to give Shigure a sideways glance as she warily asked.
"Alright, is this interest in stars some sort of euphemism for how you're not going to make it?
I'm not exactly well-versed in literature, so if this is some fanciful way of saying your last words…"
Shigure let out a single exhausted laugh before looking back up at the sky, speaking about how this island must've been quite the place to live in before the war.
"No, although I'm thankful that you're so concerned about me.
Look up at the stars.
It's quite the view, especially since we're out on the ocean and there are no signs of civilization for miles, which allows us to see them in all their glory.
It must've been quite the experience, to be able to live in such a quiet village and be provided with a view by Mother Nature."
Shiranui sighed at how Shigure was more interested in observing natural phenomena rather than getting medical attention, but she continued her hike as she shifted Shigure's weight on her back before looking up.
The view was nothing short of spectacular, and Shiranui now slightly regretted not looking up at the sky much earlier on as she had missed out on the myriad of minuscule stars shining down upon them.
And even though she was no astronomer, she was at least proficient enough in using the stars for navigation to be able to identify several of the stars which prevented them from navigating the island in pitch-black darkness, and Shiranui could at least appreciate the beauty of nature whenever they presented themselves.
She could hear Shigure sound a little afraid of what happened to her in their last battle, but was happy that everyone came to her rescue and prevented her from suffering a prolonged, fiery death which no one would wish upon their worst enemy.
"I admit, I was afraid that Chitose-san would die or even sink because of the incoming medium-caliber shell and torpedo, and that's why I jumped in front of her to body-block them for her.
But I think I understand what others are talking about when they say that life's worth living, especially since we're now seeing the world in a whole new light, and I think that this view is one of many which I would never get to see if I were killed in the line of duty.
I'm sorry, Shiranui-san, for making you worry about me."
Shiranui blinked, and she could feel the remorse in Shigure's voice as she continued, staying silent in order to allow her friend to express herself.
"I think that I should protect others only when I'm certain I'm not going to be worse off than the ship girl who was going to be hurt in the first place.
And I inconvenienced you after sustaining so much damage, you must be exhausted and tired of doing all the heavy lifting, in this case literally…"
Shiranui considered her words before shaking her head slightly, taking care to watch her steps as the road's incline shifted erratically, snaking along the caldera and allowed them a view of the dark ocean and pitch-black horizon.
Finally, she answered.
"Well, after some thought, I suppose I can come to the conclusion that you might have some sort of compulsion to help others, and it's pretty much terminal.
Chitose-san isn't capable of fighting in night battles with her planes, while you can use your torpedoes in the night to devastating effect.
And yet you chose to save her instead of yourself.
So, critical thinking skills when the sun goes down, nil.
Any sense of self-preservation, nil.
Odds of staying in one piece long enough to even receive Kai, much less Kai Ni?
Well, I wouldn't be so rude as to say nil, but you're certainly heading down there."
Shigure sweat-dropped and was looking a little glum about Shiranui's observations, but Shiranui managed to cheer her up a little by looking away so that Shigure couldn't see her slight blush as she continued.
"But, even after all that, I would still carry you.
You're my partner and my friend, and even if you're a new one, I'd still want to protect you.
You aren't experienced enough to look out for yourself, so I'll watch over you alongside your fleet and your sisters.
God knows you need it with the kind of storm which brews around you and the injuries which you sustain in place of others."
Shigure giggled again, nodding as she rested her chin on Shiranui's left shoulder and commented on how Shiranui was a lot more caring than she let on.
"You know, Shiranui-san, you're a lot more caring than you let on.
I think that despite putting on a strong front in order to keep others at bay, I think you're the kind of person who has a small circle of close friends whom you'd willingly die for, right?
I think that's pretty endearing, in my book."
Shiranui exhaled through her nose as she threatened good-naturedly,
"You know I can drop you at any time, right?"
As she heard Shigure whisper into her ear, certain that Shiranui wouldn't carry out her bluff as she wasn't the kind of person to do that.
"I don't believe you'd do that.
You're my friend."
Shiranui nodded, starting her summary on how they theorized that missiles or rockets were used to demolish the village's buildings while likely being moved around via a tracked vehicle, how some unexplained animal tracks which they found in the dirt belonged to an elephant Beast who towered above any living land animal, and ultimately, how these things were likely a part of Apocalypse, which was a world war against an enemy whose full capabilities they weren't entirely sure of.