Hello everyone it has been a while the reason for me taking this long to finish this chapter is simple
I recently got a new job and the new hours are a bit hard to get used to but that will pass with time
Anyway you are not here for any of that so I hope you enjoy the chapter ;)
Those who believe to know everything are the ones who know nothing
Chapter 23: Stalker
Akeno had been very surprised when the Agano actually started to engage the Tsukuba but without any support from the rest of their fleet the light cruiser was easy pickings for the battlecruiser.
To hide her face Akeno was wearing a simple yellow tiger mask with black stripes and her outfit had changed accordingly as she was now wearing a simple traditional light yellow black battle robe that went down covering her knees but hidden in her thigh holsters she had her two 1911s and over her back she had both of her blades.
Akeno simply started walking towards the bridge but that was the moment a group of fifteen girls came up on deck and froze the moment they saw Akeno "Who are you and how did you get onboard?" one of the students asked but the fear in her voice was so easy to hear.
Akeno for her part almost felt bad for them but she had to keep her emotions in check unless she wanted to paint the deck of this cruiser with innocent blood "Who I am is of no interest or concern to you. What you should be asking is why I am onboard shouldn´t it?" Akeno asked slowly drawing Tsukuba´s blade from her back its orange black blade causing several of the girls to take a step back.
Akeno started to slowly walk forward again and right through the group of students that parted before her like the sea with none of them even trying to stop her in any way even as she walked further none of the crewmembers she encountered tried anything to stop Akeno.
Akeno took things slowly on purpose but the moment she tried to get through the door to the bridge her instincts kicked in and she jumped back barely dodging a rifle bullet that was fired right through the door but the problem was that the bridge had a step staircase leading up and Akenos jump caused her to fall down the stairs.
Her body may be able to heal quickly but Akeno still felt pain and right now she was getting very pissed off as she returned Tsukuba to its scabbard before reaching under her skirt and drawing both of her pistols attaching the pistol bayonets as she did before taking a deep breath.
On the bridge the deputy captain loaded the rifle after firing through the door of the bridge as the crew had been ordered to stay at their stations due to an intruder onboard "You think that got her?" the girl asked Shirayuri who was also holding a rifle "I don´t" but before Shirayuri could fully reply the door of the bridge was torn of it hinges barely missing the deputy captain and weapons chief before crashing against the outer wall.
Everyone aside from Shirayuri was looking at the mangled door while they completely missed how Akeno walked into the bridge aiming both of her pistols at the two students holding guns "I did warn you what would happen didn´t I" mumbled Akeno more to herself but it caused all of the students on the bridge to look at her.
But one of the armed students was dumb enough to raise her gun only for Akeno to move faster than the normal human eye could see placing one of her pistol bayonets right under the girls chin with the pistol barrel right on her nose "You wish to die little girl?" Akeno hissed easily seeing the panic in the girl's eyes.
But in the next moment Akeno had her second pistol aimed at the other student who was armed with a rifle "I´m only here to finish something I had forgotten about so do not even try to stop me if your life means anything to you" Akeno warned easily keeping both of her guns trained on the two students.
Shirayuri knew exactly what Akeno meant even if the students had not the slightest idea due to the mask Akeno was wearing but Shirayuri could easily see how hard her sisters was stopping herself from simply killing the lot of them.
Shirayuri and Akeno had talked about how they were going to make the Blue Mermaids believe Shirayuri was gone after all if Akeno simply kidnapped her they would hunt her down relentlessly but there was a second option which meant that Akeno had to play her part.
Shirayuri stood on the outside of the bridge but with the door open she could still listen in on what was going on with the students and her sister but unlike the other armed students Shirayuri had a simple pistol on her belt as well which was already loaded with a magazine of special rubber bullets.
The moment Shirayuri heard the sound of a rifle and pistol firing in the bridge she shot to her feet with the pistol aimed towards the bridge but what she saw wasn´t what they had planned Akeno was bleeding from a wound on the left side of her head with parts of the mask blown to pieces and one of the bridge windows shattered.
What also caught Shirayuris attention was one of the students lying on the ground holding her bleeding shoulder with a rifle lying on the ground near her "I warned you damn it" Akeno hissed her rage causing her voice to sound slightly inhuman.
The moment Akeno saw her sister she had to grin under her mask "Found you damn assassin" Akeno hissed before raising both of her pistols aiming right for Shirayuri who knew exactly what she had to do.
Akeno fired first with a salvo of six shots that Shirayuri barely dodged but as she did so she fired three times as well forcing Akeno to dodge as well with Akeno hiding behind the rudder wheel "Oh this is going to be fun" Akeno whispered before she heard running feet getting further away and a moment later she saw the door to the bridge slowly fall closed.
Akeno cursed something under her breath before giving chase however she looked at the wounded student just as she was about to leave through the door "I´m sorry none of this should have happened" Akeno spoke just barely above a whisper before she ran after Shirayuri leaving a group of confused and scared students on the bridge.
Akeno chased Shirayuri around the ship for about ten minutes before Shirayuri tried to get away on one of the skippers that were stored on the aircraft deck of the light cruiser but Akeno put a stop to that plan by shooting the launch control for the skippers.
"You really are a pain in the ass you know that" Shirayuri yelled as she was hiding behind one of the five skippers but Akeno didn´t respond in the slightest to that instead she moved down the stairs again until she was underneath the launch units and there just happened to be a very convenient rope that was hanging over the edge.
Shirayuri tried her hardest to find her sister only for something to hit her in the side of her head causing her to crash against the skipper she had been hiding behind "My job is to hunt those tainted by this world nothing more nothing less" Akeno spoke kicking Shirayuris gun out of her reach before raising her right pistol "and you just so happen to see something you weren´t supposed to" Akeno added as Shirayuri staggered to her feet.
Shirayuri stood near the edge of the Skipper platform with Akeno blocking any route of escape "Well I had a good run but there is always someone who will be better than you" Shirayuri grinned towards the darkened sky but as she looked towards her sister again Akeno had not moved even slightly.
Shirayuri knew what would be next in their little plan so she reached behind her back only for Akeno to tighten her grip on her pistol pulling the trigger halfway but Shirayuri continued her movement simply pulling a black flash drive from her back pocket that she threw towards Akeno who caught it out of midair with her free hand "You might find something interesting on there" Shirayuri grinned but in the next instant she had a blade in hand.
The blade was thrown and in the same moment Akeno fired out of reflex hitting Shirayuri right in the chest with the blade embedding itself in Akenos left shoulder while Shirayuri dropped over to the side of the ship into the sea below with Akeno hissing in pain she walked towards the edge to look down into the sea but she saw nothing.
But as she turned around she came face to face with three armed students that were shocked at what Akeno had done but in the next instant they aimed their guns at Akeno "I´m warning you I will kill you as I did with that bitch so chose wisely" Akeno growled but a fourth students stepped forward "Why did you kill her" the girl yelled.
Judging by the girl's uniform she was the deputy captain meaning she had been working closely with Shirayuri "Take a look at what´s on there before you try anything stupid I´m going to get this patched up" Akeno growled dropping the black flash drive into the deputy captains hands before pushing past the group without any of them trying to stop her.
Akeno went back onboard the Tsukuba while the rest of her fleet was still busy with engaging the patrol fleet the throwing knife hadn´t reached very deep but it still hurt like a bitch "Sorry about that but it sure made that scene a lot more believable" Shirayuri spoke up already wearing her usual clothes as Akeno entered her own room.
Shirayuri helped Akeno with bandaging the wound on Akenos shoulder before she got started on the wound on Akenos head but in that case there were some fragments of the mask in the wound that took a bit of time to remove before she bandaged that wound as well.
Akeno had made sure the Tsukuba had started to head away from the light cruiser as soon as she had made sure Shirayuri had been onboard but something wasn´t right as her carrier fleet had a ship trailing behind it with the submarine watching it ready to attack if necessary but it still worried her to no end as the ship had always kept its distance from her carriers but the reason for it doing so was completely unknown.
It took a bit longer for the rest of Akenos battle fleet to join up with the Tsukuba but two of the heavy cruisers as well as one of the Battlecruisers were slightly damaged and three of the destroyers had some very light damage while all of the submarines had no damage whatsoever.
With the battle fleet together once more they started heading towards home and about three hours later they joined up again with the carrier fleet that had lost none of their planes during the initial attack on the blumer task force but there was still the matter of the lone vessel following them at a distance.
For now though the two sisters decided to go to bed as Akeno was completely exhausted by commanding the fleet during battle while Shirayuri was just glad that she was finally back with one of her sisters and that she was away from the dammed Blue Mermaids even if her little trip had revealed a lot of dark secrets to them that they could take advantage of in the future but for now they needed their rest.
On the bridge of the Admiral Spee:
The moment they had spotted a ship of the rising sun fleet their decision was clear after all they followed their captain without much question as she had proven to them that she cared but as she called it they were a family but where she had gotten that idea from none of them really knew.
Right now the captain was taking a stroll around the ship to make sure everything was alright with the crew that is until the sun went down "Captain on deck" hollered a pretty light-skinned young girl with light blonde hair that has one section braided with pieces of hair hanging on the right and blue eyes who was named Wilhelmina Braunschweig Ingenohl Friedeburg bust most of the crew simply called her Inge or Deputy captain.
She was wearing the black Wilhelmshaven Maritime High School uniform for officers "At ease" replied the captain of the ship with a quick salute.
She has onyx black hair and emerald green eyes while she was wearing a black and red Kriegsmarine naval shirt with a red and white scarf around her neck, black fingerless gloves on both of her hands, a short red and white naval skirt, a gray and white flower-print stockings on both legs, and black combat naval boots.
Everyone on the bridge dropped the salute and went back to what they had been doing before "What´s the situation with the Rising sun fleet?" asked Kaida Blackthorn the captain of the Admiral Spee "The carriers and their escorts meet up with a much larger battle fleet and now they have thirty seven surface ships as well as an unconfirmed number of submarines shadowing them" Moeka China reported after locking up from a tablet pc.
Kaida nodded at that before turning towards the bridge window again to take a look at the rising sun fleet as it sailed towards the setting sun "Captain if I may ask?" called the helmsmen who got a simple nod from Kaida "Why is it you are that interested In the rising sun fleet?" asked Mashiro as she slightly corrected their course.
Kaida simply nodded at that again "I haven´t told you about that did I" Kaida mumbled before looking back towards the horizon "To tell you the truth I have a very strong feeling that an old friend of mine is in command of that fleet or at least has something to do with it" Kaida explained but as she turned around all of them looked a bit confused at the least.
Kaida had to try her hardest to suppress her laughter with little to no success "I understand your confusion just make sure we have some night patrols going for the next couple of days understood?" Kaida ordered after she calmed down again and without a question their Quartermaster Thea Kreutzer left the bridge to inform everyone.
Onboard the Tsukuba the next evening:
Shirayuri was glad to be back with her own fleet but no matter what she tried Akeno just wouldn´t wake up that is until a few minutes ago when she stumbled like a zombie into the kitchen and had started preparing something for dinner.
The amount of food on the table caused Shirayuri to go wide eyed but only an hour later all of it was gone with most of it being eaten by Akeno who had a goofy grin on her face as Shirayuri cleaned the table.
After dinner the two of them just relaxed for a while until Akeno noticed that the unknown ship had come a lot closer over the night Shirayuri seemed to have noticed it as well "So what are we gonna do about our little stalker?" Shirayuri asked as Akeno got changed into a black shirt and skirt with black knee socks and black combat boots.
The next thing Akeno pulled out of her wardrobe were two shoulder holsters "Simple I will take one of our subs and board it to see what they want" Akeno answered as she took a simple black jacket and face mask out of her wardrobe before putting them on.
Shirayuri nodded at that "I will have half of our submarines stay near the ship just in case you need to threaten them" Shirayuri added as Akeno nodded before closing her eyes.
This had always been a strange thing for the four sisters whenever they decided to take a different ship out to sea the animal ears and tail on their bodies would change so now Akeno had two red gray wolf ears and a tail in the same color on her body before she took two of her pistols with silencers as well as her suppressed shotgun that she slung over her back while a simple ammo pouch that went on her belt where she already had the magazines for her pistols.
Akeno hugged Shirayuri before they separated again and Akeno left towards the aft of the ship picking up a radio with an ear piece on the way from the storage room while Shirayuri headed to the bridge.
At the aft of the Tsukuba Akeno found one of the German Type IX submarines waiting for her and with a quick jump Akeno was onboard the submarine and after a quick check the submarine dived away towards the unknown ship that had been following their fleet for several days now.
Shirayuri watched as Akeno dived away with the submarine that slowed down underwater to get behind the fleet and meet up with the unknown ship.
It took Akeno several hours until she was where she wanted to be the unknown ship turned out to be a German Deutschland class panzerschiffe or pocket battleship as some would call it but the moment Akeno tried to get a closer look the entire ship went dark as all of her lights were turned off.
Akeno decided to not take the risk right now and followed the pocket battleship for another two hours that was the moment Akeno decided to get as close as she could with her submarine and surfaced but just enough so she could get out of the command tower and over the side into a small craft.
Akeno approached the ship slowly and as soon as she was close enough she turned off her engine and took hold of a grappling hook that she threw towards the aft of the ship where it stayed and with the rope Akeno slowly pulled her small boat towards the ship until she was close enough and tied the rope to the boat so it wouldn´t drift away.
With the rope Akeno climbed onboard the ship unseen by anyone she made her way through the super structure towards the bridge only for all of the lights onboard to turn back on in an instant blinding Akeno for a few seconds.
By the time Akenos vision cleared up she found that small groups of two or three girls were standing around the ship and with her hiding behind a massive search light she listened to a group talking about something.
"Why do you think our captain decided to have a night guard all of a sudden?" asked the first girl "No idea really but with us following that unknown fleet it makes some sense" the other girl replied giving Akeno all the info she needed as she continued on her way towards the bridge.
Akeno had to hide several times from one of the patrols and the closer she got to the bridge the more patrols seemed to be moving around causing Akeno to get slightly frustrated until she finally was just above the bridge and through an open door Akeno could listen to what was going on inside.
The bridge crew talked about what their captain wanted with the Rising sun fleet which confused Akeno a bit until she remembered the flag that all of their ships had to honor the clan before the conversation turned to simple gossip about what was going on onboard causing Akeno to sigh slightly as she decided to wait for a bit longer.
At some point someone entered the bridge and a few moments later several pairs of footsteps walked away so Akeno decided to take a quick look there were only two girls on the bridge one who looked like the deputy captain and the helmsmen behind the rudder wheel.
But just as Akeno pulled her head back up something illuminated her for just a second before someone yelled "Alarm Feind an bord" and an alarm started blaring throughout the entire ship.
Akeno started running towards the aft of the ship as fast as she could just for a patrol to spot her on the way cutting off her escape route "Shit" Akeno cursed as she ran the other way and for several minutes the crew chased Akeno around until Akeno hid in a room somewhere in the middle of the ship.
Whatever was in the room Akeno didn´t care as she looked around for a way out and right there on one of the walls was an airway that connected to the upper deck so Akeno removed the cover and climbed inside replacing the air vent cover before slowly climbing upwards.
Akeno took things very slowly but just as she looked down through another vent cover that showed her a simple changing room her heart froze for just a second as the vent was guarded by three students.
That is until two of them left for some reason causing Akeno to grin dropping without a sound Akeno got behind the student and with a simple move Akeno drew her pistol and fired.
The student hissed in pain as the simple tranquilizer dart hit her on the neck before she dropped to the ground only for Akeno to catch her and slowly place her down.
After she made sure the student was sitting on a chair while leaning against the wall she took a quick look out of the door before slowly moving towards an outside door only for said door to slowly open.
Akenos training kicked in and she moved up a dark ladder waiting for the students to move on from her hiding spot and only a few seconds later a group of five officers walked by the ladder but Akeno stayed still until their voices faded down the hallway.
Akeno went down again and out of the door it had started to lightly rain outside but that didn´t bother her so she continued towards her small boat but just as she arrived at the torpedo launchers several flood lights turned on blinding Akeno who hid behind an anti aircraft mount.
"Surrender now you are surrounded there is no way to escape for you" yelled someone over the sound of the rain as Akeno tried to see anything through the bright light only for it to suddenly shut off confusing Akeno until she heard the very familiar sound of guns being loaded nearby.
Akeno slowly looked behind her only to find a group of fifteen girls standing in a half circle around her, all of them armed with old MP40s while a few of them were holding K98s.
Just to make sure Akeno looked back towards the ship only to find the same scene there with students aiming guns at her "If you have any weapons drop them now we do not want this to escalate" the same voice yelled over the rain.
Akeno gritted her teeth before sending a simple radio message to her sister to not attack before she slowly took hold of her two pistols and placed them on the ground along with her shotgun "Step away from your weapons with your hands raised and get down on your knees" the voice yelled this time so Akeno complied.
But the moment she was about five meters away from her guns something hit her between her shoulders causing her to gasp in pain as she collapsed only for her arms to be roughly pulled on her back and restrained before she was roughly pulled up by her shoulders.
"Get her to the brig I will inform the captain" the voice from before simply said as Akeno was hauled to her feet being pushed towards a door and after that the group went down several staircases and doors until they had reached a door with several metal bars apart of the door frame bringing Akeno inside while locking the door behind them which upon her eyes was a simple room that had nothing in it other than a bed, a toilet behind a door, a window with metal bars to prevent escape, and a sink.
Akeno was pushed towards the bed were she landed and just as she got up again she saw the group of students who had escorted her to the brig open the solid steel door to the room and lock it behind them leaving her in an almost completely dark room
With no other option right now Akeno laid down on the bed with her back resting against the wall it wasn´t that her bindings were impossible to get out of or even uncomfortable she just didn´t want to right now as even if her hands were free she had no way out of the cell so she would play along for now.
On the bridge of the ship:
Kaida had been informed by Minna that the crew had captured the armed intruder and locked her in the brig for now "I will deal with her in the morning for now have everyone get some rest I will take over the bridge with Thea in two hours for the rest of the night" Kaida simply ordered before Minna left the room to carry out her orders.