With Georgia's gang *aggressive greaser finger-snapping* :

I floated along beside the Kanmusu, holding up my chin with one hand as I slumped forward in my cockpit, I'd walked for a part of the journey, but as the terrain had become steeper and steeper, I'd given it up, hopping into Scooter so I could just coast over the terrain.

Speaking of coast...

"So you were a Coastguard boat once, huh?" I asked, more to start a conversation than anything, we hadn't spoken for miles, ever since we'd hit the rough dirt trails leading up into the mountain range.

Lao looked over, from where she was walking across from me, Chitose sandwiched between us, "I prefer 'ship' but yeah." She looked ahead, to where Robin was walking ahead of her, where the Frigate could keep an eye on her, "I actually saved a guy from a sunk square-rigger once, I think the ship's name was... Pamir? It was a damn shame, only four other people made it, most of them were just cadets too, teenagers."

I grimaced a little, before curiosity overtook me, "Sheesh... wait, what's a square-rigger?" I asked.

"She was a Barque, it's a kinda sailing ship."

"Huh, didn't realize you were that old," I said, getting a flustered reaction out of Lao.

"I'm not old!" The girl said after a moment of fish impressions.

I quirked a brow at her, "Oh yeah? When were you launched then?" I waited for a moment, "Well?"

Chitose spoke up then, "It's impolite to ask a lady's age Georgia."

"Good thing none of us are ladies then!" I grinned, before looking over at the two Ta-class Battleships present, "'Cept for the Queens over there, I guess you could call 'em ladies." Chitose gave me a flat look.

Lao finally regained her steam then, "It's fine Chitose, I don't mind, I'm younger than a lot of ships I knew," she lifted her pith helmet to scratch at her head a little, "I was launched back in 1942."

I thought back to what I'd heard people say about me, "Huh, and I was launched in-around the eighties..." I looked over at Chitose, who continued walking for a second, before noticing the silence and looking over.

"What?"

I crossed my arms, "Girl, you know what."

Chitose appeared slightly flustered, "I'm not telling you my launch-date!"

"It's because she's reaaaaly old and doesn't wanna admit it," I said knowingly, as an aside to Hakone, who was walking behind me.

"I'm not!"

"Your name literally means like, a thousand years." I pointed out.

"That's just my name, not how old I am!" Chitose slumped back, making a sigh as she looked at the sky for a second, "Uhh, fine, I was launched in..." what she said next came out as a bit of a mumble, so I cleaned my ear out with a pinky, leaning closer.

"What was that?"

"Oh for- 1936, that's when I was launched, okay?" I raised my brows in surprise.

"Whew, that would make you, what?" I did some mental math, it took far longer and with too much finger-counting than I would have liked, "Holy crap! You're like, ninety!"

She was older than my GRANDPARENTS! And they were dead!

...

Huh, I just remembered I had grandparents.

Neat.

Hakone spoke up then, filling up the silence my mini-revelation had made, "Wow! I'm only four! Well, if you count the other me, anyway, I think I've been me-me for..."

I was reassured that I wasn't a complete lost cause by the fact she used her fingers to count, too.

"About a month? two?"

I certainly wasn't going to double-check it, "Maybe... Still, Diane is definitely the youngest!" I said, nodding to the Ta, who looked uncomfortably at Robin, who suddenly found the dirt path exceptionally interesting.

"I, yes, I suppose I am."

...

Riiiight, moving on, "So, hey, talking about sailing ships, do they come back as Kanmusu?" I asked to change the subject.

"Some have, mostly just training ships though, built in-around the thirties," Chitose said, readjusting her fancy knot-scarf-thing, "We actually have a few in the JMSDF, Nippon Maru and Kaiwo Maru, they were made as four-masted Barques, though Kaiwo came back in her wartime motorized configuration."

Lao hummed in thought, "We still have one, a training Barque, stuck moored near Hanoi, her name's Lê Quý Đôn, she was a training ship for the Vietnamese Navy, back when there was one, but she's waaay too young to be anything more than a hull. I know there's an Italian one who became a fashion supermodel, her name's Amerigo something-or-other."

I snorted, "A fashion model? Really?" I said incredulously, honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised, I'd YET to see a genuinely 'ugly' Kanmusu, still...

Lao gushed a little, "Oh man, she is SO pretty, here, I think one of my crew has a poster..." She looked up at our knowing expressions, "One of my crew is a fan, okay? It's not mine... don't look at me like that," She hauled out the poster, smoothing it out before looking at it, "Oh! Vespucci! That's her name, Amerigo Vespucci." She handed over the poster for us to look at.

It showed a painfully beautiful woman, soft, light-brown curls framing a perfectly symmetrical face, she was smiling while wearing an outfit that, while showing a fair amount of skin, honestly was probably less risque than her combat gear probably was. I still felt this wasn't the kind of poster you should have in public.

I held the poster sideways, cocking my head, "Damn." I glanced back and saw Hakone and Anne looking at it too from behind us, eyes wide.

"Wow... what kind of wood is that?" Hakone asked.

"It looks like Teak," Chitose said, "looks like she just had her planks replaced in this."

I handed the poster back, wondering where the hell the girls saw wood, "Still, seems like a bit of a silly career for a Kanmusu, don't you think?" I asked, floating forward again.

Chitose shrugged, "Well, sailing ships arent exactly fit for combat duties, right? Even if they COULD fight, it would take them ages to get anywhere. It's why most of the ones who've come back were training ships at some point, I think, ah, most took up teaching professions anyway, so I guess there's some credence to it..."

"Upside is that they are pretty self-sufficient, they don't eat up nearly the supplies we do, don't need fuel either, though if the wind's against them they are kinda stuck," said Lao.

"That never seemed to stop Cal-" Robin started, before flushing and looking down at the ground again, which saved her from tripping over a root, "Oh! I'm sorry, please, forgive me."

I floated a little faster, to catch up to the Tu-class, "Nono, continue, you know a sailing ship?" I asked, once I'd come up next to her.

She nodded, not quite meeting my eye, "I know of one, yes, her name is Caleuche."

"Huh, sounds French," I said.

Robin squinted a little in confusion, "I do not know what that is, but she is an Abyssal... I think."

"She one of Jersey's Hime?" Lao asked, "You didn't mention her before," she said, sounding somewhat accusatory for some reason.

Robin shook her head, "No, she is not, she came and went as she pleased, we tried to block her at first, but Hime-Jersey told us to stop bothering the third time she bypassed us." Robin shivered a little, "There was always something... off, about her. She could disappear and reappear in a flash, and her sails always appeared to be full, no matter if there was any wind, and during any of Jersey's violent episodes, she would simply stand and let the attacks pass through her." She gulped a little, "she was not nearly as violent as Hime-Jersey, in fact, I don't think I've ever seen her in combat, but we all feared her just the same, no matter the smiles she would give us.

I smiled at her, "Well don't worry, all that's behind you now! Stick with me and you won't have to deal with any more crazy Himes!"

Robin looked at me with a look of resignation, for some reason, "Of course, Hime-Georgia."

It took me a bit longer than I liked to get it, "Hey wait a minute no-" I was interrupted by Lao, who darted forward, and caught both me and Robin from behind, halting us suddenly through sheer surprise.

"Don't. Move."

I froze, as I suddenly noticed the glint of a taught wire, pulling against Robin's new shins. I carefully moved my head, my one eye following the path of the now visible wire as it passed under me, presumably caught on one of Scooter's fins below, before leading to the tree next to me.

At the base of the tree, where the wire led, was a small pile of pop cans... wait...

"Are those... depth charges?" I asked softly, so as not to accidentally jostle anything.

Lao just silently nodded, eyes searching the ground frantically as Robin and I slowly backed off of the tripwire.

We were soon doing the same.