A/N
Time to answer a question. If Japan summoned an A-150 class battleship they would probably keep her stationed at Japan for home defense. She might be sortied for crucial operations and the diet, with a lot of convincing, might allow her to be stationed away from Japan but I don't see that happening.
Now, on to the chapter.
Two days after they left Okinawa they arrived at Yokosuka. It hadn't changed much since Ise was first summoned. Shokaku and herself were heading to Admiral Goto's office. They passed by more than a dozen Kanmusu on their way to his office empathizing how important Yokosuka is.
'Knock, knock.'
"Admiral?" Ise waited a few seconds before she turned to Shokaku. "Should we go in?"
"Yes." Ise stepped back and Shokaku pushed the door open. They stepped inside and looked around the office. "It looks practically the same."
"Really?" Shokaku walked over to a bookshelf and examined the books Admiral Goto had.
"Yeah." Ise sat down beside the window and looked out across the base. The door clicked and opened. "Ah, Ise, Shokaku sorry for the wait."
"We just got here sir. We've only been in here for a few seconds."
"Well, I'm still sorry I wasn't here when you arrived. I take it you are the reinforcements I asked for."
"Yes sir. Myself, Shoho-san, Ise-san, Hyuga-san, Kako-san, Oyodo-san, Yura-san, Karukaya-san, Hatsuharu-san, Yakaze-san, Umikaze-san, Wakaba-san, and Nenohi-san form the tenth fleet. Commander Shuko told us we would be under your command."
"You will not be directly under my command. Take a seat, I will explain."
"Rear Admiral Nakao is in charge of a naval base in the Caroline Islands. Three days ago I received a detailed report from him about the abyssal strength at Midway atoll. The report states that the abyssal strength on the atoll has been decreasing steadily and gives detailed information on an 'airfield princess."
"Airfield princess, sir?"
"Indeed. From the information given to us by the United States and Britain these princesses can create small islands within ten to fourteen days."
"Sir, if they can create islands why do they use naturally formed islands?"
"That is a question we don't have an answer for. Now, the admiralty is in agreement to launch an assault on Midway atoll. This is going to be a joint operation between the JMSDF and USN. If there is any resentment to the USN Kanmusu I suggest you bury it now. I'm not asking you to be friends with them just that you work with them."
"You don't have anything to worry about anything sir."
"Excellent. Your fleet will sortie tomorrow at eight-hundred hours. Dismissed."
Ise and Shokaku saluted, "Sir." They stepped out of his office and walked down the hallway. Ise turned left while Shokaku continued down the hallway. She turned right then left and turned right again before entering the room she had been assigned. She locked the door behind her and sat down on the bed and turned on her PC. It was a gift her sister had given her so she could keep in touch with her and her friends. She opened up a call, invited her, and waited. After a few minutes she sighed, turned the PC off, and left the room.
"Hello, Shokaku-san." She turned and gave a small smile, "Hello, Shoho-san."
"Shokaku-san, would you care to join me in a duel?"
"A duel?"
Shoho just hummed and slowly walked away. After a second of consideration, Shokaku followed her.
Elsewhere, Kako, Karukaya, and Hatsuharu were walking through the base. "Hey, are you three in the Tenth fleet?" They turned around and saw two destroyers along with a heavy cruiser walking toward them. "Yes. And you three are," she trailed off.
"Ah, sorry. My name is Maya third of the Takao-class cruisers." She bowed slightly, "It is nice to meet you."
Kako returned it, "A pleasure to meet you, Maya-san. My name is Kako."
Karukaya and Hatsuharu bowed before introducing themselves. "My name is Karukaya."
"And my name is Hatsuharu. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The two destroyers who accompanied Maya stepped up beside her and introduced themselves. "My name is Tokitsukaze."
"My name is Natsushio, it is a pleasure to meet the three of you."
"So, why did you want to know if we are a part of the tenth fleet?"
"Our orders stated we were to join the Tenth fleet a Yokosuka. We confirmed them with Admiral Goto and are looking for Isa-sama or Shokaku-sama."
"Well, I'm not sure where Ise-san is but Shokaku-san and Shoho-san just past us on their way to the docks. You might be able to catch them before they start training."
"Thanks. Tokitsukaze-san, Natsushio-san you can explore the base. I will inform Shokaku-sama that we are joining the fleet." They nodded and Maya walked off.
"So, do you two want to stay with us since you're new to the base?"
"We have been here before but, it has been a while. I think we can find our way around the base without getting lost." They bowed and left.
"I wonder if our fleet is going to be reinforced any more."
"I'm not sure. If we're going to be reinforced more we'll know before tomorrow."
"How much longer until we reach this room you were told about?"
"Not much further. It should be the fifth door on the left." They continued down the hallway and started to hear muffled voices. The voices grew louder and louder as they approached a door. Kako pushed the door open and stepped inside with Karukaya, and Hatsuharu right behind her. They walked into a moderately sized room with two couches in the middle of the room and a TV on the wall. It was on and showing a show Kako didn't recognize. Three destroyers had their full attention on it while a carrier was setting on the second couch looking at a tablet. Sitting beside the carrier was a light cruiser and she seemed to be walking her through on how to use the tablet.
Off to the left side of the room, four submarines were engrossed in something but Kako couldn't see what it was. "Hey, Kako-san! Over here!"
"Tone-san!" They embraced each other. "It's nice to meet you in person."
"Same here," Tone looked over Kako's shoulder, "And who are these two?"
"I'm Karukaya! It's nice to meet you, Tone-san."
"And my name is Hatsuharu."
"It's nice to meet you, Karukaya-san, Hatsuharu-san." She nodded to them. "Come on, take a seat." She walked over to a small table with a few chairs around it.
"So, when was this room added?"
"I think it was added fairly recently but I'm not sure."
Kako nodded and Hatsuharu spoke up. "So, on our way here I caught a few conversations and most of them were about how a new room was approved and they seemed surprised that it was built. Do you know anything about that?"
"I do. So, from what I've heard there was an idea about expanding Yokosuka but it didn't seem to go anywhere. Now, I don't know how true this is but it's what I've heard. Apparently, Akashi-san heard about this and went to Admiral Goto's office. No one knows what they talked about but four days later a construction crew arrived and started building this room. Rumors started to arise despite Goto's best effort to stop them and they transformed into Akashi-san somehow acquiring a rather large amount of money on very short notice. Basically, the most believed idea is that Akashi-san paid for two of these rooms out of her own pocket."
Kako, Karukaya, and Hatsuharu looked at her, eyes wide. "Seriously?"
"Seriously. Now, I don't know how true that is but I will say this. When I asked Akashi-san about it she was, really coy about it. She didn't confirm or deny anything but she did have this smile on her face so who knows, maybe those rumors have more truth in them than we think."
Kako shook her head in disbelief. "That is not what I was expecting."
"You're telling me," Hatsuharu muttered. She was still trying to overcome the fact that Akashi-san, of all people, might be hiding something from everyone.
"Wait, are you saying, Akashi-san, might be doing something illegal," Karukaya nervously asked.
Tone quickly shook her head. "No no! I don't think she did anything illegal but, she might have scammed quite a few people out of a lot of money." She paused for a second. "Which, depending on who you ask, could be considered illegal. I hope she hasn't gotten into trouble."
"Well, Ise-san is good friends with her and if she was in that kind of trouble, I think she would tell us."
"Okay, can we change the subject, please? I really don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Oh, sure. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry about her."
"It's fine. Thanks."
"So, Tone-san, what have you been doing since we last talked?"
"Short version, a lot."
"And, the long version?"
"Well, I've mostly been escorting convoys to and from the halfway point. The Abyssals don't raid convoys as often with surface ships but I've had a few encounters with them nothing I couldn't handle. I have had a few close encounters with warplanes and a very close encounter with a submarine's torpedo. Luckily, it was defective. I haven't gotten into any proper battles if that was what you were asking. What about you?"
"I took a nasty hit during the invasion of Taiwan and spent a couple of days at Okinawa having the damage repaired. Do you know how that campaign is going?"
"Sorry, I don't know."
"It's fine. So, after a couple of days in the baths the damage was repaired and I underwent a refit."
Karukaya tilted her head, "You didn't tell us anything about a refit."
"It slipped my mind. I had my rigging out when we were at sea. You're you not paying attention," she asked with a smile. Heat bloomed on Karukaya's face, "N-No! I was paying attention! Just, not to your rigging," she mumbled.
Kako laughed and Karukaya's face blushed redder. "Alright, well if you must know my refit increased my armor protection, added more anti-aircraft guns, and changed my six single 203 mm guns to three twin mounts. So, since we're on the topic of refits, what did yours do?"
Karukaya looked at her, surprised. "You noticed?"
"Of course I did. I'm pretty sure everyone did."
"Oh, well, my three single 120 mm guns are now two twin 127 mm turrets. My AA defensive was substantially upgraded and my 533 mm torpedoes were upgraded to 610 mm torpedoes."
"Nice."
Karukaya laughed, "Yes, it is 'nice."
"What? It's true."
"I know," she smiled at Hatsuharu-san and she smiled back.
At the docks two figures were facing each other. One was panting and had worked up a good sweat but had a smile on her face. In her hands was a beautiful, silver, katana. In front of her was her opponent. Unlike her, she was not panting but did had a small sweat on her forehead. Just like her, she was smiling. In her hands was a beautiful, silver katana; they readied themselves and attacked again.
