The Minesweeper stirred, slowly coming back to the land of the not-unconscious as I kept my distance. We'd scooped her into Scooter's cockpit, so we could beat-feet from the crash zone before more zombified bozos showed up. Chitose and Lao walked on either side of the floating Rigging so as to keep the rest of us out of immediate sight as she woke up.
"Mhhhwah?" The brown-haired young girl stirred again, opening her eyes blearily as she sat up, rubbing her eyes for a moment, she looked around, "Whah? Where is-?"
She stiffened.
Before the small ship could have another panic attack, Lao stepped in, "Hey Sentry," Lao leaned over the cockpit, filling the Minesweepers view, "you conked out for a minute there, you going to be okay?" She asked gently.
Ky Hoa sniffed, looking around, "I guess," she looked at Chitose, "hi," she said, a little bashfully, before seeming to finally realize she was floating, "what is this?" she asked, running her small hands along the rim of the cockpit she was sitting in.
Chitose opened her mouth- "S'my Rigging!" I called out, from where I was trudging through the leaves and dirt with all the other peasants, "you're in my seat, so you better be appreciative!" I finished.
Chitose turned to look at me, letting Ky Hoa get a look at me behind her, "Eep!"
She ducked behind the rim of my cockpit, trying to hide from my sight.
"You are literally sitting in my Rigging," I said dryly, "if you think you're hidden in there you really, really aren't."
"Go away," came the muffled response.
"Can't, you're technically sitting inside me," I stated. Chitose gave me a deadpan look, I shrugged in response, "It's true," I defended.
...
Ky Hoa slowly climbed out of Scooter, looking about ready to bolt if I so much as sneezed.
Lao put an arm around the Minesweeper's shoulder, and started walking with her, giving the smaller ship a squeeze, "Don't worry, that's just Georgia," she tried to comfort, while sounding completely unconvincing, "She's on our side, remember the report?" she continued.
Ky Hoa was about as convinced by the words as the ship saying them was, "She's an Abyssal Submarine that's three times bigger than me!" The ship exclaimed, before continuing more quietly in a stage whisper, "I think my depth charges would just piss it off..."
That reminded me...
"Hey!" I yelled in realization, making the two Vietnamese vessels jump in unison, "Speaking about depth charges..." I started walking faster to catch up to them.
Lao put herself in front of Ky Hoa, but I stopped a good couple steps away from the pair anyway, "You blew up my eye!" I said accusingly, pointing an also accusing finger at the small ship... accusingly.
I was being accusing in general, basically.
Ky Hoa's eyes went a little crossed looking at the extended finger, "I-I did what?"
I lifted up my eyepatch, getting a small squeak from the girl as my empty eyesocket gave her a glance, "One of your traps went off in my face!" I exclaimed.
Ky Hoa looked at my gaping eye socket, mouthing inaudible words to herself for a moment, before seeming to find her wits.
The response wasn't what I expected at all, "Aww maaan, And that's all it did?!" The little ship pouted, honestly pouted! "It didn't even crack the hull!" She sulked, turning to Lao, "see? My ASW gear wouldn't do anything to her!"
Excuse me what.
"Listen here you little shiii-" I looked back at the girls, who were watching our interaction carefully, "...iiitaki mushroom!" I continued, "you cost me a freakin eye!"
It bore repeating.
"Nuh-uh, you did that to yourself by setting off the trap!" Ky Hoa said, jutting her chin out defiantly, "I put markers next to them all this time, even!" She seemed to be a lot braver with Lao standing between us, though the Frigate herself didn't seem to appreciate her attempts to rile me up.
Said Frigate tried to play peacemaker, "Come on Ky, let's not be rude to the Abyssal Princess that's three steps away from us, please?" she pleaded.
Ky Hoa just clung to Lao's skirt tighter, keeping the Frigate between her and me, "But you're here now Abbie! She won't be able to get me with you around!" She stuck out her tongue at me.
I narrowed my eyes, "You wanna bet, pipsqueak?" I started forward to give hersuch a noogie-
"A-Alright!" Chitose stepped in between us, patting the air in a becalming gesture, "I think it's time for us all to just step back and take a breath, right?" she waited a moment before continuing, "Now, I'm sure Ky Hoa is sorry for your eye Georgia-"
Ky Hoa made to speak, but Chitose gave her a 'look' and the small ship ducked back behind Lao.
"...So nothing drastic or permanent needs to be done, as I'm sure she is very, very sorry," Chitose looked at Lao, gesturing to the side with her head, Lao took a moment to get it, before leaning to the side, letting Chitose see Ky again, "Isn't that right?" Chitose asked.
Ky Hoa's expression soured, and she looked about ready to mouth off at the Seaplane Tender-
"Isn't. That. Right." Chitose repeated, expression still outwardly calm.
"hmmrightmmsrry" Ky mumbled into Lao's skirt.
"What was that?" Chitose asked, brow arched.
Ky Hoa looked over at me, "I'm sorry I blew you up," She put her face back down again, cheeks reddening.
Chitose nodded, "Good," she stepped closer, before putting her arms around the small Minesweeper in a brief hug, Lao included as collateral damage, "now that wasn't so hard, now was it?" She asked.
Oh my god, all that time around the girls had turned her into such a freaking... mombote. That's a word for it, mombote, yeah...
I'm usin' that.
I spread out my arms, "Wheres my freakin' hug?!" I demanded.
Chitose looked startled for a second, "Ah, right!" She stepped forward, leaning down to give me one as well.
The second she turned her back, Ky Hoa stuck her tongue out at me again, dragging one of her eyelids down in a rude gesture at me.
That little-!
I simply gave her the two-finger salute in response from behind Chitose's back as I returned her hug. Shortly after me and Chitose both were buried under Abyssal steel as the girls sans-Robin joined in. Making it a group hug.
Something told me this was the start of something between me and the Minesweeper.
Hell if I knew what that something was, but there you have it.
...
Once we were finished disentangling ourselves we got underway again, moving quickly North East as the sun climbed high in the sky.
Ky Hoa remained glued to Lao's side, and pointed out another handful of her traps as we left the area. Lao herself alternated her attention between the childish Minesweeper and Anne, who had moved ahead to talk to the Frigate over something or other.
Ky Hoa still hid behind the Frigate whenever the mangled Cessex so much as glanced at her, but she wasn't screaming anymore, so that counted as progress in my book.
Chitose had lagged behind, coming to walk alongside me as we hiked up the mountain trail. It was starting to get pretty steep and rocky, so much so that the girls used their arms to climb almost as much as their feet.
Suffice to say, Hakone was having a difficult time, what with her arm-mounted Rigging.
"Hey, ahm, Georgia, can I talk to you for a second?"
I looked over at the Tender, "Yeah?"
"I uh, just wanted to apologize," I turned to look at her as she continued, "I lost my head a little when you had that helicopter shot down," she winced as she continued, "all I could think of was that I was going to have to explain a friendly-fire incident to the Admiral, and that would have hurt our relations with the people here."
I quirked a brow, "They literally shot first, we shot last, that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned," I shrugged.
"Yes, but they weren't human-" Chitose stressed.
"And that's nice and all, but that really doesn't mean anything to me," I said, to the woman's slight shock. I took a moment to read her reaction, before cocking my head at her, "look, Abyssal, human, Kanmusu, ZOMBIES now apparently, we are all independent actors, and those particular actors decided on suicide via AA gun when they opened up on an entire freakin' fleet." I leaned back.
"But you shouldn't!" Chitose said, not angrily, but worried, "The Admiral hasn't told me everything, obviously, but I can't imagine how thin the ice we're walking on really is!" she gestured noncommittally "there's a lot of people that want you dead, Georgia-"
"Noooo, ya don't say?" I snarked.
Chitose carried on like she didn't hear me, "And if you kill humans, even if you are in the right, and the opposition gets wind of it? The Admiral could end up Court Marshalled, for falling for an obvious Abyssal 'trick', and you'd probably be labeled an enemy of the state!" She started wringing her hands, "I don't want any of that to happen!" She met my eye, "I don't want to have to fight you." She finished.
"Course not, I'd kick your ass," I said, nonetheless nodding along with her point, even as she frowned at my flippancy, I waved down any response, thinking, "look, the way I see it? No human by default is on my kill-list, except maybe Hitler, which, going by the fact the dead have been apparently rising is a distinct possibility of becoming a thing."
"Please be serious?" Chitose sighed.
"I AM!" I flailed, before leaning forward again, resting my elbows on Scooters cockpit, "Like I said, no humans are going to get blasted to atoms just because I don't like them," I thumbed back at where we came from, "Those things back there? Assuming they were human?" I drew my thumb across my throat, "They were dead the second they threatened you guys." I raised my hands patting the air to forestall her protests, "Ahpupupub! lemme finish!" I pointed at her, "If someone were to sink, say, Hakone, and they happened to be human, what would you do?" I asked.
Chitose stumbled over her words, "I, they, that is, t-they wouldn't be able to very easily. I sure she'd be able to-"
"Hypothetical situation! Girls already sunk, dead, kaput, now what?" I pressed, resting my chin in my hands as I watched her flounder.
"I-I'd take them down, and, and restrain them, then I'd-"
"Restrain them? What you gonna do, throw 'em in jail? For what? Killing an Abyssal Cruiser?" Chitose squirmed, "fairly certain the guy would get a freakin' parade for that," I finished.
"There would have to be a way to avoid it in the first place!" Chitose said.
I was suddenly struck by a bout of Déjà vu, like I'd had this conversation before, months ago.
I shook off the feeling, before gaining a fake look of wonder, smacking an open palm with my other hand, "That's it! You're a genius!" I continued, "we just prevent the guy from killing her in the first place! with a well-worded letter and this missile I just found!" I straightened, losing the sarcastic tone, "but yeah, enemies have many faces ChiChi, I'm not going easy on one over another, the Government can think what they want, if they are going to judge us? For killin' folk tryin' to kill us?" I shrugged, "At least we'll all be alive to judge, won't we?"
Chitose frowned, looking down at the ground, "I want this life to be different," she said quietly, looking up, "I came back, I answered the call, to be a savior, because humanity needed me, I..." She sighed.
"I'm not advocating the complete annihilation of all that is good and pure here, Chitose," I said, "all I'm suggesting is that we don't roll over and die for the first human that asks us to."
Chitose slowly nodded, though her expression stayed somber, "I understand Georgia, but please, for all of our sakes," She looked me dead in the eye.
"Be careful."