Yet Still We Sail
Part 4
The sun was just a while away from starting to sink in the west, the girls having been with their two hospitalized friends for quite some time already. The crew of Ace continued chatting with the crew of Izumi, and it seemed like the two clicked with each other. Maiko was busy giving April pointers on how to control the gun and turret of the Easy-Eight, Lou was talking to Jane Richardson about Ace and Yuki and Sayuri were getting to know Tally more. Faye Faith and Jane Henley, on the other hand, went outside to have a, well, little break. Lou was not sure of what they were doing, but she could tell for a fact that it was probably regarding the earlier incident. Whatever that was.
"Alright Boss, April's ready," Maiko reported to Louise. "She can get in Ace and know how to work stuff. But of course," she grinned, folding her arms, "I'm the gunner. Always."
"I'm sure that standing will remain intact for a long, long time," Tuckerman chuckled. "Please don't bully her."
"I won't. And now, time for me to rest!" the main gunner of Ace declared, sitting down on the floor despite there being chairs around.
A whole ten seconds passed.
"Oh fucking damn it, is there anything to do here?" she grumbled. "Is that TV working? Where's the goddamn remote?"
"Language!" Tally admonished.
"Oh yeah, you don't like the tough stuff," Maiko remembered, grinning evilly. "But still, it would be nice to watch something. Is it the news now? Oh, yeah," she nodded, checking the clock on her phone, "it's just a minute away."
"I've got the remote!" Jane announced, pulling it from one of the drawers. She turned on the TV, and found herself a chair to watch the news programming from.
The familiar visuals of the evening news showed up on the screen, the familiar tune playing from its speakers.
Louise grabbed her cup of water to take a sip.
"Welcome to Nagasaki News Network, News at Five. This evening: Shipgirls, our Saviors from the Sea?"
Tuckerman nearly spit her drink out.
"Oh you have got to be shitting me!" Tally swore violently.
"Language!" Maiko retorted smugly.
"W-what…" Lou caught her breath.
"'Shipgirls'?" Yuki puzzled. "What's that?"
"Well, it's exactly what it says on the tin, is what I'd guess," Jane explained. "A ship that is also a girl."
"All vehicles are female," Lou commented quietly before realizing the report was about to start. "Right guys, shut up! It's starting!"
"Over the past week, the world has been ravaged by attacks from a previously unknown entity, simply known as Abyssals. As of this reporting, we still do not know anything about them, beyond their constant attacking of coastal and naval communities. Despite these brutal attacks, the world's navies are standing stalwart in defense of their homes, countering the Abyssal attacks on every front," the reporter said. Behind her, the green screen showed grainy, unstable footage of what was probably a US Navy destroyer firing its gun against an Abyssal cruiser at close range.
Even dampened through the recording and TV screen, Lou could feel something distinctly wrong about the black, sinister vessel in the distance. Why was she feeling this way?
"What are we supposed to be looking at?" April asked quietly.
"The shit video quality, of course," Maiko snarked. The expected admonishment from Tally never came. The redhead was staring at the screen, frozen in shock.
"Wait a sec," Lou blinked, noticing something concerning. "You… don't see it?"
"Of course not!" Maiko grumbled, oblivious to her commander's increasing confusion. "That ship is shooting at nothing! They're probably just fearmongering for more views."
"B-but-"
"And yet, the navies are not facing this threat alone. Almost everywhere that these Abyssals have appeared, so too have the shipgirls; a group of young women hailing from around the globe, claiming to be the reincarnated spirits of Second World War warships," the reporter continued, oblivious to the comments being made on the other side of the screen. This time, the footage was much more amateur, showing the figures of four girls standing atop the water in the distance. Despite the sarcastic gripes from her crew, Louise could tell that this was genuine footage.
The footage only remained on the shipgirls for a moment before it transitioned to being aerial shots of the various damaged cities and ships. It finally settled on a view of a familiar skyline: Nagasaki. While the city had been damaged in the attack, the real eye catcher was the schoolship docked in the harbor.
"Hey, that's Saunders!" Sayuri pointed out, pointing at the ship on the screen.
"I didn't realize it was that bad…" Jane whispered, just loud enough for Lou to hear.
"Nowhere is more thankful for the appearance of the shipgirls than Nagasaki, and our very own schoolship, Saunders University High School. Abyssals reportedly attacked the schoolship on Monday evening, and were driven back by a concerted effort by a squadron of shipgirls, allowing the schoolship to escape with minimal damage. However, none of the shipgirls present for that battle have since made a reappearance."
The news went on to interview various staff and students of Saunders, who all gave their perspective on the attack. After three interviews, a familiar face appeared on the screen.
"Hey, it's Kay!" Yuki exclaimed.
"Yes, we can all tell it's my girlfriend, thanks for pointing that out," Tally deadpanned.
"It was like nothing I've ever seen," Kay said to the interviewer. "We were running a Sensha-do practice match when it began. Everyone just thought it was a normal, if intense storm before it hit. The shells came down as if they were lightning, and they practically blasted our practice field to bits. Some of our tanks were thrown around like they were ragdolls, and we had a couple of our members were injured. It's a miracle that nobody is in critical condition."
Kay paused for a moment as the interviewer asked her another question. "Did I see any of the shipgirls? No, I didn't. I was too busy making sure my team was safe, and coordinating the rescue of the girls who were trapped inside flipped tanks."
There were a few more interviews before the news network cut back to the news anchor. "And now, we have a message to the People of Japan, sent by the apparent leader of the Japanese shipgirls."
The screen was suddenly filled by an enthusiastic looking brunette in a rather revealing take on a shrine maiden uniform. "Hello, everyone!" She waved gaily. "I'm the English-born returnee, battleship Kongou, dess! Flagship of the JMSDF's shipgirl fleet!
"I know that the current attacks are scary. But there's no need to fear-" Kongou gestured at her chest. "-because we shipgirls are here! We are tirelessly patrolling the coastlines and protecting schoolships from further attack. Leave the hard work to us and our American friends!
"You also have a part to play!" Her forefinger jabbed at the camera while a smile as bright as a naval searchlight beamed. "Yes, you! You can help us by keeping a cool head and working with whoever's in charge to keep things running smoothly! Sure, it's not exciting as seeing action against the Abyssals, but we shipgirls can fight much better if we know you're safe while we're away. So let's work together and bring peace back to our seas, okay?" Again she flailed her arm at the camera. "Take care, everyone!"
The room was filled by a commotion as soon as the self-proclaimed battleship finished talking.
"That's it?" Maiko demanded of the screen. "You tell us that there's a worldwide war going on, and that all we should do is keep calm and carry on? While these mysterious 'saviors' do all of the heavy lifting?"
"They've already saved our lives once!" Jane objected. She looked at Lou meaningfully for a moment before turning back to Maiko and the others. "We would probably all be at the bottom of the ocean if not for their help, so we should at least give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise!"
"Well I'm sorry if this is sounding a tad bit too far-fetched for me, because it is," the main gunner of Ace retorted. "Ships that are also girls, what?"
"The news wouldn't mention them if they're hoaxes, though," Yuki commented.
"It does seem rather far-fetched," April agreed demurely.
"I think I'll have to agree with Yuki on the other hand," Sayuri joined in. "We're in Japan; things on the news are more likely than not to be factual."
"Yeah, 'cos girls with reincarnated souls of old warships being the only hope of humanity against a massive alien threat is a completely believable premise," Maiko snarked. "This isn't an anime!"
"All vehicles have spirits, it's just that they're now visible to everyone and actively helping instead of observing," Jane explained. "Miss Saunders wishes she could help more, and Izumi just wants to give Tally a hug half of the time."
"I'm not that sorry of a girl, am I?" Tally asked.
"No, Izumi just likes hugs, and thinks you'd be a good hugger!"
"Well, if you can talk to these souls that much, what's stopping you from telling Ace to sit on your lap?" Ace's usual gunner retorted, unconvinced. "That spot exists for a crew member for a reason."
"A reason that's more or less useless-" Tally tried to interject, but she was cut off by Jane gasping in horror at Maiko's suggestion.
"I could never! She's not my tank, I can't just order her around like that!" Jane argued.
"Yeah, well, you just gotta ask," Maiko shrugged. "I mean, she had probably sat on the lap of Baby before and that's a guy."
"P-please don't drag my Gramps' crew into this…" Louise sighed exasperatedly.
"Next she's gonna say she can see all five of them squeezing with us," Maiko muttered loudly to herself.
"Maiko!"
"Yeah, yeah, I getcha."
"When did we start talking about Ace's old crew?" April asked. "I thought we were talking about shipgirls…"
"Oh, yeah," Maiko replied, returning to the topic at hand. "I still don't understand why you guys are believing something like that!"
"Because they're real and saved our lives?" Jane retorted.
"Give me a video editor and I bet my ass I can put together a more convincing video than that!"
"HEY!" Tally roared, clearly fed up with the arguing. "Language! If you're going to argue about this, take it outside. Heck, I don't know about Louise, but I could certainly use some quiet time right about now. So either be quiet, or please leave."
"You guys still have school tomorrow I think," Lou commented quietly, looking at a wall clock. "I think it'll be best if you guys went back to rest too. Especially after looking after us for practically half the day."
"But-" the usual gunner of Ace tried to protest.
"Maiko, relax. We'll be fine. I promise."
Lou turned to look at Tally. "We will, right?"
"Of course we will. What are we gonna do, run off with broken legs?"
"Weell," Lou reminded, "mine are fine and I'm starting to get sick of this bed, soo…"
Three girls immediately stared at her, prepared to restrain her at a moment's notice.
"I'm kidding!" the Easy-Eight commander sweatdropped.
"And yet I could still probably outrun you right now!" Tally said with a teasing laugh.
The remaining two girls stared at the redhead, alerted.
The room was silent and tense for a moment before Yuki burst out laughing. The rest of the room quickly followed her.
"Oh, man, look at us, arguing and then laughing together," Ace's loader giggled, wiping a tear off her eye. "Still, Commander, you're not actually going to climb out, are you?"
The young Tuckerman laid back into her bed in response. "Maybe later. After I'm feeling better. But for now, no; I'm tired and aching."
"Hear hear!" Tally exclaimed with a tired groan.
"Yeah, we've got to go back to the schoolship anyway," Sayuri nodded. "We are quite a distance away, mind you, the closer hospitals were occupied before you two."
"Not sure when we're gonna sail again, either," Maiko continued.
"Sooner, rather than later," Jane said with a shrug. "The ship is still seaworthy, it's just her deck and the school that were damaged. Both of those are relatively easy to repair."
"Well, we shall see the two of you another day," April said, leading the way towards the door. She bowed slightly. "Rest well, and may your injuries be healed soon."
"Yeah, thanks," Lou smiled. "Hopefully soon."
"Yeah, Ace needs you," Maiko nodded as she got up from the floor, stretching. "Funny… when we started out with 8-Ball and all I felt you didn't deserve being the commander, disobeyed your orders and even tried to usurp you in our first practice match. You remember that, obviously."
"Of course."
"Now, though…" the gunner pondered. "I can't imagine you not being around. I got the commander's spot now, albeit temporarily, but… it doesn't feel right. It's your place."
Hearing this, Louise Tuckerman gave a comforting smile. "I thought you'd be a problem when we first started, but that scolding I gave you worked wonders apparently. Now I don't want anyone else as my gunner."
The main gunner of Ace grinned. "Told you I listened."
"Okay, now shoo!" Tally said, waving the crews out of the room.
"Yeah yeah Miss Stuart," Maiko rolled her eyes playfully. "Catch ya around, Boss. You, with me," she called out to the redhead's usual gunner. "More things to talk about. Over food. Hey, maybe all of us can get some chow together?"
"Food does sound divine right now. And I'll make some cookies for us all once we get back to the ship," April agreed.
"You bake?"
"I do!"
"See ya!" Sayuri waved along with Yuki as they exited the room.
As soon as everyone had left the room, Tally slumped down onto her bed. "Oh god, that was exhausting. I like people, but there's such a thing as too much social interaction!"
"On the other hand, seeing them has been wholly comforting to me," Lou replied happily.
However, that kept bugging her.
"... What do you think of the shipgirl thing?"
"Well…" Tally drew the word out. "I'm starting to suspect I had a dream that wasn't really a dream."
Lou looked up, her interest very piqued. "Oh?"
"Well, I woke up in a bath. It was more like a pool than a bath, really, but Henley was there, and she called it… I want to say she called it the repair bath? Said it was supposed to fix me up after some fight, or something. You were there, too, as was Fletche- no, Faye Faith. It was something about-"
"- why the baths weren't working…" Lou interrupted and continued for the redhead, staring in shock as the details of her own "dream" suddenly became much clearer. "She asked us how much we remembered, how much we knew about the USS Evans and USS St. Louis."
"And then she showed us that she was a shipgirl," Tally concluded, staring at Lou with wide, blue eyes.
"And the pictures…" the brunette muttered. "The pictures of us…"
"The world's going sideways, and we're right in the middle of it…"
Lou was shaking. "I… w-what…"
Before any of them could say anything else, the door to the room swung open.
In came strolling Faye Faith Fletcher with Jane Henley right behind her, both of them looking uncharacteristically serious.
"Right," the blonde girl started, moving her arms akimbo, "now do you two believe us?"
Tally stared at the girl who was claiming both that Tally was a ship, and that she was Tally's big sister, as a ship. If not for the sheer amount of evidence, Tally wouldn't believe her at all. As it was… "Trips, I hate you so much right now."
"That's not a no~" Faye Faith teased.
"Fine," Tally huffed, "for whatever reason, yes I am."
"W-what am I s-supposed to m-make of this…?" Lou stammered. "M-me, a ship…?"
"Well, I imagine it's not every day someone comes up to you and says," Faye Faith put on an awful fake accent, "'yer a shipgal, Talleh!' Or Lou, as the case may be."
Despite the serious situation, Tally couldn't help but give an amused snort at the impersonation, and Louise was right there with her. The absurdity of the situation in which Faye Faith was making the joke only made it funnier!
"But yes, the both of you are shipgirls. Sorry for the way we revealed that to you. You both joined us in the battle to protect Saunders, and we thought - incorrectly - that you'd fully manifested as shipgirls," Faye Faith continued, once the laughter died down.
"Fully manifested?" Tally asked. This was totally one of those situations where she would have leaned back and crossed her arms if she weren't confined to bed with three immobile limbs.
"Yeah. Basically, as far as we can tell, Evans and St. Louis awakened temporarily because of the Abyssal attack, and then disappeared once the battle was over and you'd stepped back on land. Reports have said this isn't the only place we've seen this kind of behavior. It also means that if you want to, we can fully manifest you as shipgirls, which has both perks and downsides. And we don't know if Evans or St. Louis will awaken again without your input if another Abyssal attack happens before you've manifested."
"That didn't quite answer the question…" Lou interjected softly.
"We can wake up your ship half, basically," Faye Faith said. "If what Hornet went through is any indication of how things will go, you'll still be you, there will just be a bit of Evans or St. Louis in there as well. That side of you will be a bit more prominent while you've got your rigging out and are doing shipgirl stuff, but it shouldn't be dominant. At the same time, there's a lot about this that we just don't know about yet. It's been less than a week since the attacks started, less than a week since you manifestees made yourselves known to us, there hasn't been enough time to figure everything out."
"That doesn't inspire much confidence in the whole idea…" Tally muttered, looking between Faye Faith, Henley, and Louise.
"My ship half…" Lou pondered to herself quietly.
"St. Louis," Henley provided helpfully. "Brooklyn-class light cruiser, St. Louis subclass. Lots of guns."
"Yeah, I'll look her up later, but… Hey, wait a minute," Louise must have realized something. She partially sat up and pointed an accusatory finger at Henley. "Your card, you were hinting that to me!"
Henley laughed nervously. "Yeah, that was me!"
"It was a dumb move, but it happened and now it's done," Fletcher said with a groan. "But we were supposed to keep things on the down-low until Kongou's message was released. Not give vague hints that will just freak our friends out more and more!"
"Sorry…"
"Nah, I was just a little confused is all," Lou reassured.
"Speak for yourself, Louise!" Tally said, finally adding to the conversation again. "The whole calling you St. Louis in the card had me very freaked out. I just thought it had all been a dream!"
"I had completely forgotten about the mentions of the ship names when we were looking through the cards, heh," Lou scratched her cheek with her left hand sheepishly.
"At least the cards I sent were just a basic well wishing from myself and the rest of food truck 445," Fletcher said. The blonde shook her head. "So, you're both pre-manifestation shipgirls. Or maybe just regular girls who also happen to be ship spirits. Is there anything you want to know?"
Tally considered the question. "The 'war' started on Monday, yet you shipgirls have all been around for years. Kay said that all of you but Hadley were here last year, Trips, and with an established food truck, too!"
"That's correct," Fletcher confirmed with a nod. "Capps, Henley and I have all been here for three years. Hadley is a relatively new arrival. The three of us are 'second wave' shipgirls. The first wave appeared about four years ago."
"I… what? You've been appearing for four years, and this is the first the world has seen of you?" Louise asked. Tally glanced over at her friend, since she shared similar sentiments.
"Kongou could explain this much better than we could. She's always the one who seems to know what's going on…" Henley groused.
"Well, she's not here, we are," Fletcher shook her head. "Shipgirls started appearing in response to the Abyssals appearing. Four years of building up their forces before this attack. We knew it was coming, we just didn't know when they were going to hit."
"So, you knew this attack was coming, and didn't do anything about it? The schoolships could have been shut down, kept to the coasts so that they're less vulnerable!" Tally demanded. "We could have died!"
"You don't think we tried? Nobody would have believed us, which is why there's a shipgirl squadron aboard each school!" Fletcher retorted. "Hell, Hornet didn't fully believe us until Monday when she experienced it firsthand!"
"Wait, Hornet?" Lou spoke up softly. "What- no, who's she?"
"Hornet… she was the Admiral's yeoman, and… well, there's no easy way to say this. Hornet is Kay's mom. When Sasebo was attacked, she did the same thing as you two, except she's a Yorktown-class carrier. Abby got slaughtered. She's pretty much how we know all of this, since she was the first to volunteer for manifestation. From what I've heard, she feels different, as a ship, but at the same time her personality hasn't shifted much," Fletcher explained.
"I'm sorry, did you just say 'Kay's mom'?" Tally asked, once again hearing and not believing. That was feeling like a bit of a trend today...
"Yep," Fletcher confirmed with a nod. "Harriet Yorktown is the Yorktown-class carrier USS Hornet, CV-8."
"Well, this is certainly awkward… I really need to not get in trouble with Kay, now…" Tally said, gulping dramatically.
"Does Kay herself know?" Louise asked.
"She does. She also knows about you two, and has promised to support whatever decisions you make," Fletcher once again confirmed. "Sachi and El have also been informed about Hornet, but not the two of you."
"Your girlfriend is good people, Tally," Henley added. "If I could take your place, I'd do it in a heartbeat… actually, if I did my hair up in a braid like you do, could I- Ah!"
Henley was cut off by the impact of Fletcher's open palm with the back of her skull. The redheaded shipgirl rocked forward with the impact, but shook it off.
The youngest girl in the room chuckled at the scene, but Tally ignored her. She was too busy trying to glare a hole through Henley.
"Henley, be aware that if you try that, there will be nowhere you can hide from me," Tally said darkly. "I'm a scout, it's my job to find problems, and then direct the big guns to where they need to go. And Kay's mom is now the big guns."
"Eep!" Henley squealed and rushed to hide behind Fletcher, but it was just for show. It would take a lot for Tally to actually do that to her friend, even if said friend was very annoying and her Evil Twin.
"Aww, that's cute!" Lou grinned. "Hiding behind the big sister!"
"I'm not hiding! I'm merely using her as a shield!" Henley insisted. Fletcher rolled her eyes and stepped aside, leaving Henley to her fate. Tally took the opportunity and grabbed the nearest thing to her hand, a paper cup, and gently lobbed it at Henley. It bounced off the shipgirl's head and fell to the floor, but the message was clear.
"Bounce," Lou snickered, clearly enjoying the show. "Load high-velocity!"
"We're outta ammo!" Tally replied with a laugh. "That was my last round!"
"Perhaps today is a good day to die!" Ace's TC grinned. "Prepare for ramming speed! Well, maybe not, you're… yeah, heheh."
Fletcher and Henley exchanged looks. The blonde stepped forward with a smile. "Will hugs work in place of a proper ram?"
"Eh, sure. Why not?" Tally shrugged as best she could. Henley grinned and darted towards her bed, scooping her up into a gentle, but still bone crushing hug.
"Ack! Ribs!" Tally cried out. "I don't need any more broken bones!"
"Aw, I'm jealous…" even being smothered by her Evil Twin, Tally could hear the smile in Lou's voice.
"Offer's open to you too, Lou," Fletcher said, laughing quietly at her sister's antics.
"Aww, Faye Faith, I'll take it!"
"Good, because I wasn't really asking!" Faye Faith grinned, and pulled Louise into a hug as well. And judging by the lack of strangled cries of pain, Fletcher was giving a reasonable strength hug, not Henley's life-threatening version of a bearhug.
"T-this feels nice…" the young Tuckerman blushed.
"I've been told I give the best hugs."
"So you do. I guess that's what happens when you've got a sibling count of, uh… a hundred and eighty or so?" Lou asked, clearly guessing the value. It was too high, but only barely.
"One-seventy-four little sisters. And I love them all dearly," Fletcher stated. "Even if they are little shits half the time."
"Language!" Tally tried to interject, but it was muffled by Henley's hug.
"Case in point."
Wait, was that aimed at her or at Henley?
"I see what you mean!" Louise laughed. "Even the one that, hmm… torpedoed President Roosevelt?"
"Dee tries her best, even if she is a little clumsy. And she did right by her crew in the end. When she went down, not a soul went down with her," Fletcher stated proudly.
"Wasn't she sunk by a Kamikaze plane that was already shot down…?"
"A shot down Kamikaze isn't a failed Kamikaze!" Tally interrupted as Henley finally released her. Realization struck her a moment later, and she grimaced. "And, uh, don't ask how I know that, because I don't know."
"I suck at naval stuff, but I did read a bit about the Willie Dee," Lou replied.
"Her name is Dee," Faye Faith corrected. "And while that did happen, yes, she tries her hardest, harder than a lot of her sisters, and that's all I can ever ask for."
"You really are a good big sister!" the young Tuckerman grinned, before blinking and staring off into space. "... Have we met before? Beyond Saunders and all."
Fletcher released the hug and shook her head. "I can't say I've ever met you before you came to Saunders, Louise. Though, I did sail with St. Louis during the Guadalcanal campaign. That might be how you're recognizing me."
"Hmm…"
Tally looked between the two for a moment, doing her best to sit up after Henley's attack hug. "Wait… so, are Lou and I both remembering things we should, by all rights, not know? I've never seen a Kamikaze before, but I knew that just shooting them down isn't enough."
Lou pondered for a moment. "I just feel like I've seen Faye Faith even before Ace was even discovered by the Gendarmerie... I don't remember anything particular, though. There's also something else I don't seem to be getting, either… a person or so…?"
She scratched her hair. "... Nope. I don't know what that was about."
"St. Louis mentioned Helena right before she passed out after the battle. That might be it," Fletcher suggested.
"Helena…?"
"St. Louis' younger sister. They were close, before Helena was sunk."
"Jesus…"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Well, I'll have to go read up on St. Louis soon then," Lou commented. "Funny how the name aligns with a lot of things..."
"Huh," Tally huh'd. "That is weird."
"My name, the home of my family's main branch, how the city itself was named after a French king…"
"Lots of weird coincidences in life," Fletcher said with a shrug. "We generally just blame MSSB and move along."
Lou slowly cocked her head to the side in confusion. "MSSB…?"
"Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit!" Henley answered cheerfully.
"Language!" Tally once again interjected, to everyone else's amusement. Louise even went so far as to chuckle!
Fletcher smiled, and then looked out the window at the setting sun. "Well, we should probably get back to the ship as well. Capps and Hadley will probably stop by to say hello tomorrow. It was nice to talk to the two of you!"
"Is it already that late?" Tally asked, letting her disappointment ring through.
"Yeah, it didn't even feel like an hour had passed…" Lou agreed.
"Time flies when you're having fun," Fletcher said with a shrug. "Oh, and before I forget, sorry about your phones. As far as we can tell, yours is at the bottom of the Pacific, Louise, and yours got shredded with your tanker jacket, Tally. We're working on getting you replacement ones."
Tuckerman blinked, remembering the mystery of her phone's whereabouts. "I'm sorry, what?!"
"We tried to call it, but the line was dead," Henley explained. "And since nobody else knows where it is, our best guess is it was either lost or destroyed during the battle."
"I see…" Lou replied dejectedly. "My phone…"
"Sorry."
"And my phone is just… gone?" Tally asked.
"Yeah, we found roughly half of it in the ruins of your jacket, which we also have a replacement for. It'll be waiting for you back at Sensha-do, once you're up and moving," Fletcher said. She waved at the two bedridden girls as she shoved Henley out of the room with her other hand. "But we really should be going now. I'll see you around!"
"Later, sis!" Tally returned the wave.
"See ya," Lou waved as well, briefly glancing at Tally.
"Finally, some peace and quiet!" Tally exclaimed as she fell back in her bed, again.
"Uh-huh…" Lou agreed as she lay down as well. "You're calling Faye Faith your sister already?"
"What?" Tally asked. "No! I said 'laters!' I'm not calling her my sister. We're friends, not… we're just friends."
The denial rang hollow in Tally's head. She knew that Faye Faith was still just a friend, if a weird one who was determined to break her understanding of the world. To call her a sister was far too forward for their relationship, and yet… and yet the denial still rang hollow. Was she just friends with the shipgirl, or was there an actual familial relationship?
"I guess we're both still trying to take it in," Louise commented.
"It's hard to believe. Between hard and impossible, really. I mean, come on! Shipgirls?" Tally exclaimed, once again really missing her ability to gesticulate with more than one limb. "If I hadn't seen Faye Faith jump onto the water with my own two eyes, I'd never have believed it."
"Same," Lou nodded. "... I hope we'll wake up tomorrow and this madness turns out to be an elaborate joke put together by everyone. Better yet, an elaborate dream; it's entirely possible. But considering our previous fainting, I don't think this is one… Should I slap myself to check?"
"Nah, checking all five senses should do the trick," Tally suggested. "I can see the details in the ceiling tiles, hear the buzzing of the medical equipment, feel the coarseness of my casts, smell the antiseptic stuff that hospitals are known for, and taste… saltwater?" the scout blinked and double checked the taste. Yup, that was saltwater.
"Saltwater?"
"Yeah, like ocean spray. It's weird."
"... So do I."
"I miss the days when the world made sense, and the strangest thing I had to deal with was Jane talking to my tank," Tally complained.
"I missed the most important thing being the Winter Cup…" Lou sighed sadly. "Both of us training together, going through strategies, arguing about getting new tanks…"
"New tanks that we still don't need, no matter how much I want a Hellcat!"
"And I'm telling you, we'd benefit greatly from an upgrade!" Lou retorted.
"An upgrade that only makes us stomp the other teams in the league even harder? Look at Maginot or Waffle! They can't even stand up to us now, and you want to make our team even more powerful?" Tally asked.
"On the other hand, look at Kuromorimine and Pravda! And Saunders can be far better than merely the all-money-no-skill Sherman-spamming stereotype people think that we've been lowkey perpetrating!" Lou defended herself. "Even Alisa agrees with me!"
"All money no skill Sherman spam? And getting better tanks to stomp even more would fix that stereotype how?" Tally countered. "Look at Kuromorimine. They don't win because they're consistently good, they win because they bring Königstigers and other heavy tanks against Chi-Ha-Tan!"
"That's why we need a substantial counter against said King Tigers, IS-2s and any other heavyweight, overpowered likes! It's not by our choice, it's by pure necessit-" Lou suddenly stopped for a few moments before laughing wholeheartedly. "Look at us, arguing like things are back to usual now!"
Tally sighed heavily. "It's like Faye Faith said: just blame MSSB and move along."
"Uh-huh," Louise made an unconvinced noise before shrugging. "Anyway, yeah, you can see I'm in Eagle Company for a reason after all, heh."
"Yeah, you freaking tryhard. Not everyone wants to win harder like you do. Can you imagine how boring Sensha-do would be if we just brought a fleet of Pershings and rolled over everything in our way without challenge except against KMM or Pravda? Because that's certainly not what I signed up to play Sensha-do for!"
"I'll never replace Ace, mind you! And I didn't sign up to face Tiger after Tiger after Panther after King Tiger after Jadgtiger after Jadgpanther after Tiger in Ace either!"
"You've got it easy! At least Ace has a gun that can hurt those tanks! Izumi has 37 millimeters and a dream."
"That's true, but still… Well, at least we Eagles do flanking and assault, so we usually do hit their sides or rear. But if they turn and angle… yeah, it's over."
"Okay, but you know what? We shouldn't build our team just to counter Kuromorimine. Nobody likes fighting them anyways. Pravda we can face on an even footing, St Glo's is probably better than us skill-wise, but our tanks make up the difference. Ooarai is Ooarai. Everyone else, we already beat handily enough."
"Yeah, but I call my idea 'insurance'. Look, it's just, like, what, five Pershings for Yankee, a nice lot of GMCs for Eagle and you guys in Turkey are getting cute Chaffees! Most of our M4s will still be active, it's not like we're going to get a Pershing-spamming team like All-Stars!"
"Of course not. We'd need a siege mortar, too," Tally joked.
The door slammed open, startling both girls. Faye Faith Fletcher poked her head into the room, and glared at one then the other. "It's late, go to sleep you goobers. And Yankee Company is best, just as it is."
Just as suddenly as she had appeared, Faye Faith disappeared, closing the door behind her.
Silence.
"She's out of line, but she's right," Tally stated simply. "And we really should shelve this for another day."
"Yeah, but we're not done with this discussion," the annoyingly stubborn Tuckerman nodded with a slight frown on her face. It soon broke into a smile, though. "Business as usual, huh…"
"Business as usual. Good night, Louise."
"Night. I'll still be up though; still too early for me… Right, no phone..."