3rd person POV

Now Southern and Blue had searched around the rest of the base, at what they had figured out was Wake Island, but they didn't find anything really useful besides their findings at the first factory. They did fiddle around with the controls in the factories, but they had no apparent outcome. But they did find at least a few books lying around that they could read while sailing, so that it wouldn't be too boring.

Now after about two hours of them searching around they decided to get going towards Midway atoll. And the weird thing for both of them was that even if they weren't looking at the map, which they had taken with them, they felt like they knew where they were going, and that they didn't need to look at the map to get there. Now as they were sailing northeastward towards Midway atoll, with the X-class also following along with them, they didn't notice something happening at the base.

Two Ri-class, along with a Tsu-class could be seen looking through the repair shop where the X-class had been kept. They saw the wreckage and saw that the X-class was nowhere to be found.

{it is not here, Princess} one of the Ri-class now said over radio to their flagship.

{what do you mean it isn't there!?} a voice suddenly yelled back in anger, making all three cringe in response.

the Ri-class responded {I mean the X-class is not here. It looks like it broke out, possibly with help}

There was silence from the princess for a moment before she said in an angry tone {find that X-class NOW. And if you don't, then all three of you will be patrolling the Arctic for the next few years}

The three of them gave worried looks to each other at the sound of the Princess's threat

{roger that Princess} the Tsu-class now responded {we'll check the factories out next}

{I'm already checking the one to the west} the Princess stated {you check out the other one and the surrounding area}

Now the three of them responded{yes Ma'am!}

Now there was princess inside the factory that Southern and Blue had first checked out, the princess was Sunken. She was in the control room and immediately saw the papers that had been removed from the drawers. She checked the papers out and saw the three sketches, which caught her interest.

She quietly mumbled out what they said to herself, until she reached the third. The sketch was crudely drawn and only showed a large blob with four flame-like eyes, and three large tentacles at the back of it. Then she said aloud what was written about it "The Ra-class battleship, is a battleship seen commonly around The Trench. Very little is known about them, but what is known is that they are highly aggressive, even to Princesses, that they seem to be few in numbers, and that there is a possibility that they can be mass produced. It seems only powerful Princesses are able to tame these battleships, with the only known Princesses to do so, being three Trench Princesses"

She paused for a moment as she set the sketch back down onto the table. Then after a moment a red aura appeared around her whole body as she realized something "the X-class wouldn't have killed a Trench Abyssal if they helped it. But there is no body, from their report, so…" now she ball her hands into fists and gritted her teeth

"those traitors, they don't leave The Trench unless something important is happening, or… they've just woken up" now she paused for a moment when she realized something she could do, something that could help the entirety of the Abyssals, if it worked out. Then she started to laugh, but soon her laughter turned sinister. Then after a moment she turned her head and stared out at the fleet's worth of monster Abyssals in the factory, and a mad grin spread across her face as she continued to laugh.

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Southern POV, time skip 2 hours

Blue and I had left Wake Island, finding a map of the Pacific Ocean, the name of the jellyfish Abyssal thingy that was still currently following us which was called an "X-class", and a few books that we decided to take with us.

Currently we were doing a mock battle, as we had talked about it and decided that it'd be best for us to train ourselves in case we got into a battle. At the moment I was acting as a target for Blue to hit with her dive bombers. her planes were very odd, but then again, what do I know?

Her planes were large, probably about three times my size, not including my riggings. They resembled manta rays being colored black on top and white on the bottom, though their tail was longer and whip-like, they had two glowing blue eyes on either side of their mouth, which unlike manta rays, had a row of blunt teeth white. On their stomachs they carried a large bomb that was held by small arm like appendixes, and when they went into dives, they'd fold their wings around themselves and just before they released their bombs they opened up their wings, and sent their bombs rocketing down at me, while they flew back up into the sky. I was allowed to use my AA guns, because we quickly found out that despite this being Blue's first combat in any way shape or form, the way she could control her planes didn't seem like an amateur.

As Blue's planes dove on me, they let out bone chilling shrieks. The first time I heard the shrieking, I was legitimately scared, but after a while it just got kinda annoying. Apparently Blue named them 'Bansheea' after the weird shrieking noises they made.

I learned pretty fast that I could jump out of the way, bombs that I could see, but that might land me just below another bomb that would have otherwise missed me. But even with taking three hits, it didn't seem to damage me too much, or slow me down much at all either.

Though now I could see and hear two more Banshees diving towards me, my AA was lighting the sky up heavily trying to shoot them out of the sky. Then suddenly the two planes pulled skyward, but they didn't drop their bombs. I could notice that Blue's planes stopped the attack completely, I thought that she just decided that training was enough, so I started making my way back towards her.

"Southern, one of my scouts found something" she stated when I got into earshot, but suddenly her voice sounded more somber than usual "but… it doesn't look good"

"Mm? What is it?" I asked as I now take up sailing besides her.

"A battlefield, I can see Abyssals sinking into the ocean, ones that look like the ones from the factories, the ones that attacked me and the Southern Trench Princess. There are also warships, but they look super futuristic. But… there's one Abyssal that seems alive, but heavily damaged"

Without hesitation I say "alright then, let's head in that direction, to help this Abyssal" then I smile at Blue, though I can't really tell what her reaction is *Is it me or is Blue really hard to read sometimes?* I think to myself.

Though now Blue actually countered what I said "and how do we know that this Abyssal isn't hostile to us? The last time I saw Abyssals like I'm seeing now, I got attacked. I don't think it would be a good idea to veer off from our destination"

There was a few seconds pause before what I thought to say "well like you said, that Abyssal is heavily damaged looking, and we aren't. Though I mean this Abyssal might be able to help us you know? Or she might be like us, wandering around looking for guidance like us" then after a moment I add "besides, even without the map I can oddly tell where we are and where we need to go"

There were a few moments now of silence, as Blue slowed down slightly and she seemed to think. Then she let out a sigh "I have that feeling as well you know. Hmm alright, let's go check this out. But if we get attacked, don't get mad if I say I told you so"

I smiled at her again and sped up in front of her slightly, then turned around "so… which direction is this Abyssal in?" I ask.

"This way" she says as she now turns northward. I soon started to follow, along with the X-class towards where Blue said the damaged Abyssal was.

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Time skip 3 hours

Now it seemed to be a few hours, though it was hard to tell how long exactly without a watch. Our journey was quite uneventful, we did talk to each other about what we had found in the books we got from Wake Island. Most of the books we had taken were apparently fiction, so we couldn't actually take anything out of it that were actual facts, but some stuff was useful. Though we had found we had a shared interest in the romance genre, and we started talking about the books we were reading. It finally made the hours that went by not be incredibly boring and awkward.

Once we reached the place where Blue had scouted out, we found no apparent remnant of Abyssal warships, but we did find massive warships. Red and black their hulls reach about 10 or 15 meters above the water's surface, and that's not even counting the actual superstructure. There were three of these massive ships, two of them seemed to be slowly sinking, while the third just seemed to float with the waves.

"What are those?" I say stunned as we sail past them.

"I don't know" Blue responded "the damaged Abyssal is this way" she now said, as we turned to sail westward.

The journey from there wasn't as long as before, as we could see the Abyssal on the horizon. From where we were we couldn't tell what they looked like, but we could tell they weren't sailing and were just floating on the ocean's surface.

As we got closer we could see what looked like a smaller monster Abyssal that looked like a slug, with someone lying unconscious on its back. When we got within about 10 meters from the Abyssal, we could see the slug-like thing move. It looked up at us and we could see it didn't have eyes, only a large mouth with blunt, white teeth that was in a toothy grin; It growled as we came closer. We could also see the person lying unconscious was a girl, and from what we could see she was in a white dress, but we couldn't see how she looked exactly because she was lying on her stomach.

We stopped about 7 meters away from it. We looked at each other, before I started to approach cautiously. It started growling again as I approached "Whoa whoa, we don't mean any harm to you or her" It continued to growl as I approached, with me slowing down the closer I got "we can possibly help her, if you let us" I said as I was now about 2 meters away from it.

Its growling continued for a few seconds until the growl turned into a whimper, which soon became completely silent. Even with its current state I could see it was looking at me expectantly to see how I could help its master. I approached the Abyssal girl again and flipped her over onto her back to see what she looked like.

She had shoulder length white hair, she wore a white dress that was torn in places, and had two black metal cuffs on her wrists, with chains that went several centimeters before seeming to have been broken. She also wore a black metal crown on her head, it was devoid of any gems. I couldn't see her eye color because she was unconscious, but I could see multiple bruises around her body, definitely from the fight.

Though now I became aware of blue besides me when she leaned down and placed an ear over the Abyssal. Then after a few seconds she leaned back up "she's breathing at least'' she stated as she looked over her body "but… I don't think there's much that we can actually do, besides making sure no more harm comes to her"

"Hmm, well then we'll have to do that. We can bring her along to Midway" I say "We might even find supplies there that can help her, along with our main goal"

Blue just nodded at what and said and turned towards the slug thing "will you come with us? We'll make sure no more harm comes to you or your unconscious master here"

The slug thing just lightly growled, though it seemed not to be in a threatening way, and seemed to nod its head.

"Alright then, let's turn Northeastward" I now say in an excited tone.

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Time skip 3 hours

Now after traveling for quite a while, we finally saw the unconscious Abyssal started to wake up. When we heard her groaning slightly, we stopped sailing and looked at her.

She groaned more as we saw her trying to sit up on her monster riggings. I walked towards her to help her up, but as soon as I touched her she pulled away from me, and her riggings sailed backwards. She seemed alert as crimson red eyes stared at me, then at Blue.

"W-who're you?!" She yelled at the top of her voice.

"Whoa Whoa whoa" I say as I wave my hands "we won't hurt you. I'm Southern War Princess and this is my friend Blue Flame Princess"

The girl still seemed on high alert as she looked at the two of us "whe- where are we?!" She yelled again "are you taking me to one of your bases to torture me for merely not following your urges?!"

"Wha?... no we aren't gonna do that!" I say.

"What? What are you talking about?" Blue now says as she sails slightly closer to the Abyssal.

"Don't come any closer!" The Abyssal yelled, as we now saw the slug thing open its mouth to show two hidden cannons.

"Whoa, Whoa whoa!.. how about we just calm down and discuss this peacefully?" I ask, trying not to start and all out fight with the Abyssal.

"And why should we?!" The Abyssal yelled "you Abyssals from the plains are all the same! You try to 'talk' but you just mean to harm! Even though we Northern Trench Abyssals don't even try to harm you!"

"Northern Trench Abyssal?" Blue says slowly.

"You got it all wrong" I say "we're Trench Abyssals as well. And we don't mean you any harm"

The other Trench Abyssal just stared at us for a moment before yelling "and why shouldn't I believe that you're just lying?!" Then when she said that the X-class tapped her on the shoulder, which caused her to jump backwards again. She looked shocked when she saw it and for a moment seemed calm "no way… an X-class..."

"Oh uh… that? It has been following us for quite some time, since we found it in a base we searched several hours ago" I say quite casually.

Now the Trench Abyssal looked back at the two of us wearily for a moment before taking a deep breath and sighing "alright… I'll believe you… an Abyssal from the plains wouldn't get an X-class to follow them willingly" now she seemed to calm down a bit, but still seemed alert "so… where do we start?"

Now Blue asked "Well… who are?"

"I am Xia, a Xi-class standard aircraft carrier" she stated calmly.

"Alright… why were you attacked? I saw it from one of my scout planes a while ago"

"You were watching?" Xia asked before she seemed to slightly grit her teeth "it was the Abyssals from the plains. They asked if I and my group were willing to join up with them, but…" now she seemed to hesitate for a moment like she suddenly remembered a ton of bad memories "but they betrayed us, and called those weird alien things to help them" she paused for a moment before her eyes went big and she started to look frantically around the area "Wait! Where are they?!" She turned back to us and jumped to her feet "did you find anyone else besides me at the battlefield?!"

Blue and I stayed silent for a moment before we looked at each other then back at Xia. I shook my head and in a voice that was full of pity, I said "no… there was only three massive ships there, and nothing else besides you"

Xia seemed to freeze for a moment, her face went blank, before we could see tears coming from her eyes. She collapsed to her knees and covered her face with her hands. When she did this we came closer. At first I hesitated to try and comfort her, I could see Blue was the same way, but then I could see Blue resting a hand on Xia's shoulder. Now Xia was sobbing at what I guessed were her lost companions, as that made the most sense to me.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Blue said, but her normal calm and collected voice had turned to a more somber and caring voice.

Xia just continued to cry for a few moments, it seemed that we thought that it'd be best for her to stop on her own. Then after a while she stopped crying, but something different surrounded her body. I could see her clenching her hands into fists, and I could barely see that her teeth were gritted tightly. A growing sense of anger seemed to consume her.

"It'll be alright Xia" I said. Though now I approached her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. I didn't feel close enough to her to out right hug her, but I still wanted to comfort her the best I could.

She stopped covering her face and we could see tears still flowing down her cheeks. Then in a quiet voice I could barely hear her say "if only I were stronger, they would still be alive" when she finished saying that, I saw a red flame swirling around her eyes. It wasn't like in the metaphorical sense, there were actual flames swirling around her eyes.

I looked in wonder for a moment before the flames disappeared, and her eyes stared in my direction. The only thing I could see was sadness, the sudden anger seemed to have vanished from her.

"I… I'm sorry… I jus-" Xia choked out.

"You don't have to be sorry for that" I say as I stare at Blue and see a somber expression, before I stare back at Xia "we understand that you lost someone important and you are sad about that"

Now she sniffled slightly as she choked out again "I-I didn't just lose someone… I lost everyone!" Now she broke out into tears again and acting on some kind of old instinct, I hugged her and tried to comfort her.

By now Blue was also nearby but had seemed to let go of Xia's shoulder. I didn't look up at her much, but from the little I could tell, she felt sad for Xia as well. Though now as I held her I rested a hand on her head and gently rubbed her while saying "yes, I understand, you can let it all out we won't mind" after I said that Xia kept crying for some time. I stayed calm and comforted her the best I could. it felt like I was taking care of a child, but to be honest, I didn't mind it that much.

Though now after several minutes went by she seemed to slowly stop crying and calmed down. When she had gotten to the point that she was just sniffing I patted her head and said "are you feeling better? Or do you need more time?"

"A- a lit- little longer please" Xia responded in between sniffling, as she now looked up at me with tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

"Alright then" I responded as I smiled back at her and continued to comfort her the best I could.

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3rd person POV, location 530 kilometers southeast of Midway Atoll

A massive fleet of ships could be seen sailing slowly northwestwards, to Midway. It was a fleet of ship girls, currently having their ships out while sailing. The fleet seemed to me a mixture of American and Japanese ships, with the majority being American ships. Several dozen Destroyers, light cruisers, and heavy cruisers surrounded five carriers, with two of them being Japanese, and four battleships, with one being Japanese.

Enterprise stood atop her flight deck and stared up at the night sky, which was clear and filled with stars, she was in a kind of trance. She didn't even notice as her elder sister Yorktown walked up beside her.

"Beautiful night, isn't it?" Yorktown said, now Enterprise was snapped out of her trance and looked at her sister.

"Yeah… it is" Enterprise simply said as she looked back up to the sky. There was a moment of silence between the two as they enjoyed the beauty of the night sky. Then after a while Enterprise spoke "the coming battle will be a major one no doubt. I fear not all of us will make it out"

Yorktown let out a light sigh and said "don't worry about that right now Enterprise. I'm sure everything will be alright in the end" Enterprise let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes as she thought. Though now Yorktown spoke again "hey it's getting late, we should go to bed. Tomorrow is going to be an important day"

Enterprise opened her eyes and stared back at her elder sister before nodding "alright then" she said as she started walking towards the superstructure of her ship "goodnig-" before she could get her entire sentence finished. She was suddenly spun around and pulled into a sudden hug by Yorktown.

At first she was surprised, but soon hugged back, as it was actually quite rare for her to hug anyone, even her sisters. Right now she enjoyed the hug, but she worried what might happen to the Fleet, as memories of the past Battle of Midway returned to her in flashes. She worried that the same thing would happen but that they would lose more ships than before. But right now she was just trying to enjoy the hug while she could.

Though now Yorktown pulled away slightly, which caused Enterprise to do the same. Yorktown smiled and said "Goodnight, Enterprise"

"Goodnight, Yorktown" was Enterprise's response before she disappeared into her superstructure.

Yorktown now sighed as she turned back to look in the direction of Midway Atoll "why?" She said aloud to herself "why do I feel that this will be a repeat of that terrible battle so long ago?"

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Author's note:

To answer the question of a guest "When will the Azur characters meet or interact with their Kancolle counterparts?!" I don't know in terms of chapters, but I will say I already have a few ideas for their interactions. But that will be for later!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy! And I'll see you in the next chapter!