Supplies were… pretty meager at the moment, but perhaps that was fair, considering they were a fairly meager base. Not every godforsaken patch of rock on the Pacific had enough room for an academy and R&D- in fact, there was little more than the docks for the ships and the supplies needed to keep them operational at Commander Miller's station. And the ships themselves, of course.
Honestly, the Commander couldn't imagine how someone managed to handle dozens of ships- he had more than a handful with the five under his command. Well, he said that like they all caused trouble; it was mainly Downes causing enough trouble for the other four and then some. The number of mornings where he was snapped awake by blast fishing was more than zero, and that was a problem all on its own.
("Yes, Downes, the fish is very delicious. That is not permission to do it again!")
Their job wasn't really that demanding either- they swept the area surrounding the island every so often to make sure that no one, Siren or Sakura, was causing trouble, along with occasionally escorting cargo ships or the like. It wasn't a glamorous station, but it wasn't like everyone could be side by side with Enterprise, watching her trade blows with Akagi…
Still, they weren't completely unfamiliar with combat. The girls were warships, after all- to fight was in their very nature, even if they had grown beyond that, into doing things for pleasure, like cheerleading.
Speaking of, the Commander was sailing with Craven today- definitely not because he found Langley's lessons grating. Not at all. He would get an even bigger earful when he got back to base about the risks of making a vanguard his flagship, but whatever.
The chop slammed into the sides of the Craven, while Craven herself seemed chipper, going through her cheer routines like they weren't sailing into a potential warzone.
"Is now really the best time, Craven?"
"There's never a bad time to be inspired, Commander!" She jumped excitedly.
"Just don't dance your way off the ship."
"I'll be fine!" She chirped. Right, the rigging. He supposed she would probably be alright if she fell overboard.
It was Langley's planes that caught the first glimpse of the enemy after a couple of days of searching. Considering that it was composed only of a cluster of destroyers around a cruiser, the Commander decided to be bold.
The moment that he gave the attack order, Craven beamed and started on another routine. "Let's~ go~ com-mand-er!" Then she started firing on all cylinders (turbines? whatever…) and immediately steamed ahead. You could say a lot of things about Craven, but she certainly wasn't craven.
Perhaps opening with a mix of dive bombers from Langley and and shells from Nevada was a bit overkill, especially with the element of surprise on their side, but the sudden, violent attack immediately shattered cohesion in the enemy fleet- a bit too easily, the Commander thought, even for a few escort ships.
A few shots were fired vaguely in their direction, but they all were wildly off the mark. What sort of chumps were running these ships? Maybe they were mass produced models? Whatever the case, they were smart enough to beat a (disorderly) retreat once Nevada's shells started landing.
Before they could start patting themselves on the back, the commander saw a small human figure floating next to a capsized destroyer. And given the way she jumped overboard, Craven saw it as well.
"Craven!" He hoped the 'get back here' was implied.
"I've got it, commander!" Apparently it wasn't.
With that, she danced her way towards the enemy convoy, skirting around exploding shells and hopping over torpedoes with a dancer's grace. After cutting straight through an oil spill, she circled around and snatched the figure out of the sea.
Wow, they were small. Smaller than Craven, even. Admittedly, the Commander was surrounded by shipgirls whose human forms tended to be on the smaller side, but none of them quite looked like they were about to totter off to elementary school. Except maybe Langley, who looked ready to teach…
Soon enough, Craven hopped back on deck, a thoroughly waterlogged little girl in her arms, who she deposited on the deck. The kid had a mop of light pink hair, but that wasn't her most noticeable trait, not by a significant margin. He had gotten used to vibrantly colored hair, but not cat ears and a tail.
While the Commander was still trying to wrap his head around that particular can of worms, the kid started sobbing. The Commander set her down on deck, but she didn't stop- she continued her panicked cries in a language that he figured was probably Japanese.
"What sort of psychopath would send a kid to war?" He grumbled to himself, fingers digging into his palms and mere moments away from blowing his lid when he looked at the kid and saw her backing away in evident terror.
He sighed. Pitching a fit wouldn't help the kid any. She was alone, afraid, and considering her shivering, probably pretty cold. "Craven, could you get the girl something to eat? And maybe give her your jacket?"
She nodded and rushed away while the Commander grabbed the radio. "We've uh, we've got a situation."
Langley sighed over the radio. "What happened?"
"We have a Sakura prisoner."
Downes whooped excitedly. "Really?"
"Yeah…"
"Is something wrong, Commander?" Nevada asked.
"The problem is that the prisoner looks about five years old."
"What?"
At the moment, they had decided to give the girl a bit of a space as she nibbled on some chocolate. She had spooked when the others came over- somehow Downes even managed to drag Cassin along- and had beaten a swift retreat as the American ships talked about what to do.
"If High Command asks, she was never here. Are we clear?" The Commander asked.
"Yes, sir!" Most of them answered in the affirmative, while Cassin gave a mumble, which was all he could reasonably expect from her. They had all agreed that there was no way they'd leave the Sakura shipgirl to the tender mercies of the government.
"And we're all going to need to pitch in to look after her- alright?" Miller said as Downes slowly turned to stare at Langley.
"What are you looking at me for?" she squawked.
"You're a teacher, aren't you?" Downes asked.
"A teacher for carriers!" She sputtered. "Not- not actual children!"
"I promise we won't just dump all the work in your lap. Right, Downes?" The Commander sent a meaningful glance Downes' way.
"Eheh, of course…" She chuckled. "I should probably be getting back to my ship!" With that, she leapt off the Craven.
"You can get back to your ships, girls. I'll keep an eye on her." He gestured in the direction of the Sakura girl, who was watching them quietly.
With that, Nevada and Langley departed for their own ships, leaving him and Craven onboard the Craven. And…
Cassin. "Oi, wake up!"
The cat ears were pretty fitting, considering that the girl was nearly as skittish as some specimens Miller had come across. Admittedly, there was good reason for said caution, but it was still unfortunate.
Occasionally she'd start panicking in Japanese if he got too close. Most of it was total nonsense to him, but one word that he managed to pick out fairly frequently was Kisaragi.
Kneeling down to try and get eye level with her, he spoke. "Kisaragi? Is that your name?"
Her eyes widened a bit, and she responded "Kisaragi desu" or something to that effect, while nodding.
"Kisaragi? That's a nice name. I'm Commander Miller." He pointed at himself and tried to mimic her. "Miller desu."
"Miller?" The pronunciation wasn't perfect, but she was trying, at least.
She seemed like a sweet kid. He would have gone and given Akagi or Kaga or whoever a piece of his mind… if their planes wouldn't blow him clean out of the water.
Unfortunately, he didn't really make much progress on teaching Kisaragi after she learned his name, although part of that was thanks to the responsibilities of getting his fleet back to port. Still, he tried to keep an eye on the kid, just to make sure she didn't fall overboard (there was no way in hell he'd stuff her in the brig).
"Do we have anything that isn't canned?" He really didn't want to give Kisaragi military food, if there was another option…
"Not everyone recognizes how great we are yet! Soon enough, we'll have refrigerator ships stopping by every week!"
"That'll be the day." Looking at a few cans, he pulled one out. "Do kids like powdered milk?"
Craven laughed. "I don't think anyone likes powdered milk, Commander."
"What I wouldn't give for some fresh food…" he blinked. "Don't tell Downes I said that. We need those depth charges."
"Yessir." After a few moments of rooting around, she pulled out a can. "Try peaches, maybe?"
"I'll give it a shot." She tossed the can his way, and the Commander caught it before heading over to Kisaragi, who waited in the mess.
She looked at him curiously as he opened the can, and her eyes lit up as she saw its contents.
"Peaches. They're peaches." He gestured inside the can.
She tilted her head in confusion.
"Nevermind. Eat up, kid." He could see Craven hefting a sack of rice out of the storeroom. Hell, the bag seemed bigger than Kisaragi.
When they finally returned to port and headed onto the docks, Kisaragi hovered behind him and Craven, putting them between her and the alien environ she found herself in. He supposed that this would have been one of the better ways to end up in any enemy base, all things considered.
As they headed onto the docks, the Commander saw Nevada moseying on over. Langley was probably drafting a… carefully doctored report about their contact with the Sakura.
She gave him a nod before stowing away her rigging and kneeling down to look at Kisaragi. At least, she tried, considering how Kisaragi had placed herself behind Craven.
Nevada huffed. "It's not fair that she's so afraid of me. She likes y'all plenty."
"I mean, you're so tall, relatively speaking…"
"Oh," she grinned, "do you like them tall, young man?" Craven giggled a bit.
"No comment."
"Mhhmmm." She hummed. "How did you introduce yourself to her?"
"Try 'Nevada desu'?" he suggested.
He'd leave Kisaragi with Craven and Nevada for the time being. If nothing else, shipgirls could better understand shipgirl problems, he figured…
Langley had effectively remodeled one of the rooms near her own into a library- not that she had many books to fill it with. It was rather hard to get your hands on anything out here, and books without a military bent were even rarer.
With a dour expression, Langley flipped through the pages of a thin little book, scribbling some notes as she did.
"How's it going?"
"Poorly." Langley groused. "These phrasebooks aren't practical for educating a child. What am I supposed to do, ask her to surrender?"
"You'll figure it out." Reaching down, he attempted to ruffle her hair before having his hand swatted away.
"I am not a child, Commander!"
"Sorry, sorry." He chuckled and sat down. "Gimme one of those phrasebooks, would you?"
"Of course."
They spent the rest of the time until dinner quietly studying and occasionally discussing some nuance of translation or pronunciation. It was nowhere near an understanding of the language, but it was something. Both of them brought their books along- it certainly wasn't the most distracting thing ever brought to their dinner table.
By the time they had arrived Craven and Kisaragi had already settled in- it would be a hot minute before Cassin and Downes arrived. "Where's Nevada?"
"She's trying something with Spam, I think?" Right. It was Nevada's day to cook.
The Commander crumpled into his seat as Langley pulled out her phrasebook and tried to exchange a few words with Kisaragi. Keyword being tried. Still, even vague attempts at Japanese seemed to calm Kisaragi down a bit. Langley was having trouble keeping up, but kept on taking notes.
Before he could put his own phrasebook through its paces, the door slammed open. "Yo!" Downes had quite literally dragged Cassin along.
"Eep!" With a panicked cry, Kisaragi dove under the table.
Downes seemed quite put off by that, at least before Nevada stormed into the kitchen, seven plates of food onboard.
As they ate their dinner, the Commander leaned over to Langley. "Can you keep some of your planes out doing reconnaissance?"
"I always do, Commander."
"Do you think they'll try to recover Kisaragi?"
"Do they even know that we've captured her? Perhaps. It's better to be cautious."
"I can always rely on you, Langley." She flushed a little at that. "Could you maybe look after Kisaragi tonight…?"
She sighed. "Of course you were buttering me up… but I'll do it."
"Thank you. And I promise you, I really meant it, Langley."
Everyone quickly filed out of the canteen once they were done eating. There were always something to be done: keeping watch, maintaining rigging, even just getting some overdue rest.
However, the Commander was quick to realize that he wasn't quite alone.
"Am I… am I really that scary, Commander?" Downes asked, uncharacteristically timid.
His eyes lingered on her scars for a second before he looked her in the eyes. "I think she was more scared by the surprise than by you."
"Yeah, I guess…"
"Who knows how weird those Sakura ships must be? I mean… cat ears? A tail?"
Downes snickered. "Do you think they have dogs?"
"An entire zoo, probably." He grinned. "I think you'd make a fetching tiger."
"You manage to teach her any English?" The next morning, he asked Langley about her progress. Admittedly, he wasn't sure how much you could really do with a single night, but whatever.
"She knows how to ask for peaches."
"A success!" He crowed.
"Oh, it's not much…"
"Weren't you the one who told me a little progress each day leads to great results?"
"I suppose I did." She smiled, before pulling a notebook out. "Now I've noticed a few things about Kisaragi…"
"You're taking notes?"
"Of course! She's…" Langley petered off, probably realizing that shipgirls were inherently a little different from normal humans. "She's different. I've heard rumors about Hamann, but seeing Kisaragi in person… It's intriguing, she has normal human ears, along with the cat ears, but both seem to hear properly."
"Huh."
"And that's not the half of it. I'm not sure if the tail is prehensile- if she takes after cats, then probably not…"
"Hmmph. I suppose all we can do is hope that she turns out all right. We don't have a doctor here, much less a vet." He sighed.
"You'd just pass her off to a vet?"
"I mean, I'd prefer check ups with both, but something tells me I'm not getting either."
"Well it's our obligation to work with what we have, isn't it?"
I suppose it is."
"By the way, I need you to take an inventory of our supplies."
He groaned, but didn't really complain. "Well thank you for keeping us on the straight and narrow, Langley."
She smiled. "Someone has to, right?"
Taking inventory was kind of relaxing, in its own way. Usually, it was something that he could pretty much lose himself in, amid piles of shells and barrels of fuel.
Of course, now that they were back from a sortie, there was a bit less of almost everything.
For a moment, he wondered what sort of shells Kisaragi would have used, before rapidly dispelling that idea from his head.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Downes until he bumped into her.
"Commander!"
"Downes." He peered down at her. "What are you doing here?"
She chuckled. "Helping you take inventory?"
"Really?"
"We've all got to, uh, do our share, right?"
"Alright then, you can count those…"
With Downes' help, things got done more quickly. He wouldn't be generous enough to say that it happened in half the time- Downes didn't exactly double the pace, even if she helped- but it was certainly less boring.
"Thanks for the help, Downes."
"No problem." She suddenly started paying a lot of attention to some shells. "Say, do you know when the next resupply is gonna be?"
"Downes…"
"I mean, if we've got extra-"
"No."
She groaned. "But it's so damned boring out here!"
"Yeah. It is." He shrugged. "But… you might be able to make explosives with guano, or something?" He wasn't sure if their station actually had any, but there were some birds, he thought…
"Eugh." Downes groaned.
"What's the matter? I thought you liked explosives."
"Not enough to pick through bat crap, Commander!"
"Yeah, yeah…"
She sighed. "Just promise me we'll see some action soon, alright?"
Keeping an eye on Kisaragi was a duty they all kind of shared. Admittedly, five shipgirls and their commander weren't exactly a village when it came to raising a child, but it was certainly a step above approaching the problem alone.
Langley was a pretty responsible, rational choice, but she couldn't look after Kisaragi all the time- Miller knew he already laid a lot of expectations on her. He wasn't entirely sure how the others would be, but the least he could do was try, right…?
After knocking, the Commander (with Kisaragi in tow) crept into Cassin's room, which was immersed in darkness, any light from the windows blocked by blinds and… were those taped up newspapers?
He blindly groped for a light switch on the wall as Kisaragi peaked out from behind him.
With painful slowness, a dark figure sat up on the bed, letting out a low groan and staring out with a doleful red eye as Kisaragi whimpered-
And the lights flicked on, revealing an unamused Cassin shielding her eyes. "I thought you were going to let me sleep…"
"You've got to keep an eye on Kisaragi."
"It's my time off, you know."
"I do know, I've just got a lot of things to worry about…"
She smirked at him. "You could stand to take a nap too, Commander."
"Duty calls, Cassin." He ruffled Kisaragi's hair before he left, hoping that she wouldn't somehow perceive this as abandonment. "Uh… sayonara?"
What followed was, thankfully, a blessedly normal day. He took some paperwork off of Langley's hands, made some decent progress with his notes on Japanese, and even set aside a bit of time for physical fitness.
"Craven- Craven please slow down…" He panted, his legs burning as he stumbled across the damp sands.
"I know you can do it, Commander, come on!" She chirped, quite literally running circles around him. "You're doing great~!"
Finally, he spotted the port in the distance, meaning that he had almost managed to circumnavigate the entire island, with some help from Craven. At the very least, she had the decency to stay on solid ground with him instead of skating ahead over the sea.
They (or rather, he) stumbled into port to find it blessedly quiet. He collapsed onto a bench and gasped for air as Craven dipped inside for a few moments, returning with a canteen, which he happily accepted. Gulping it down, he marveled at how plain water could taste so sweet.
"Thanks a million, Craven."
"No problem, Commander!" She pulled a watch from somewhere and proudly held it out in front of him. "You beat your last time!" Beaming with pride, she clapped him on the back.
"Yeah…" he grinned. "With your help."
"Oh, I'm sure you could have done it all by yourself, Commander…"
"I don't think I could, really…" he demurred, "But really, you've been a great help. You must do a lot of exercise."
"Of course I do!" She grinned. "You've got to stay limber, you know? I could teach you some acrobatics, if you want."
"I'll pass."
A bit before dinner, he decided to take Kisaragi out of Cassin's hands. Coming to Cassin's door and knocking, he received no response. Not completely unexpected, he supposed, but after a few moments of waiting he decided to check in on them.
Frankly, his biggest worry was that he wouldn't find Kisaragi inside. Despite his efforts, he knew a naval base was no place for a child. With more fear than he would admit, he pushed the door open.
Lying on the bed was- unsurprisingly- Cassin, and slightly more surprisingly, Kisaragi, who had nuzzled up to the older shipgirl. They dozed away peacefully, and he couldn't help but smile a bit.
Kids needed naps, right? Something like that, especially after all the change poor Kisaragi's life had undergone recently. He tossed a blanket over the two and headed out.
If they didn't wake up in time for dinner he'd bring them a couple of plates later. He couldn't bring himself to wake them- there were other things he could do. Maybe checking in on Nevada?
"Want something to drink?" He offered.
"Yeah." He tossed her a can, which she quickly opened. "Why do you always drink with me?"
"Because Langley doesn't."
"Why not ask Downes?"
"You know…" Nevada shot him a questioning look, seeming to say that she did not know. "She's basically a teen."
"We're warships."
"Look me in the eyes and tell me that Kisaragi isn't just a scared kid."
"Fair enough..." She conceded, "But maybe you should treat Downes with a bit more respect in this regard. I think she'd appreciate it." Nevada suggested.
The time- and several cans- slipped away, the sun sinking under the horizon. Every once in a while, one of Langley's planes zipped by overhead- he almost swore the woman had figured out how to patrol in her sleep- but otherwise it was fairly peaceful, the ships sitting at their moorings as the two of them sat on the docks.
It was a nice night, the lack of any real light pollution leaving the sky positively spangled with stars, the great band of the Milky Way overhead.
"You know… I wish Oklahoma was here." Nevada stared into the inky water, thinking back to her sister.
"I wish I could have met her."
Nevada smiled faintly. "She would have liked you."
"You think?"
"Oh, she was sweet with everyone. Wasn't cut out for this sort of thing."
"Is anyone, really?"
"Well, shouldn't I be?" Nevada asked. "It's what we were made for, right?"
"What was imposed on you, you mean."
Nevada let out a long sigh. "But I do like it, Miller. I want to fight. I want to…" she petered off, crushing her can and tossing it into the sea.
"And we will. But don't think you can die on me before this is all over."
"Don't worry, Commander- I'll keep all of us safe. I promise." She gave him a winning smile.
Eventually, they had to go on patrol again- and that had rapidly become a source of anxiety for Miller. He certainly couldn't leave Kisaragi alone, and leaving one of the girls behind to keep an eye on her would mean an unacceptable (and hard to explain) loss in firepower. So…
They would be bringing Kisaragi along on their patrol. Now, Miller wasn't exactly a psychologist, but he'd have to be seriously out of it to realize how bad of an idea bringing a terrified, potentially traumatized child back to a warzone was.
But he didn't want to leave her alone. He couldn't, not in good conscience.
So she tagged along with him as he boarded his flagship for this particular operation. Nevada gave him a salute as he climbed aboard. He figured if he and Kisaragi were going with anyone, it would be the biggest, toughest ship he had. Nevada generally being protective personality wise helped as well. As he watched, he knelt down to chatter with Kisaragi about something or other for a few moments.
After a few moments Nevada laughed, and in one smooth movement lifted Kisaragi up onto her shoulders.
Kisaragi panicked for a few moments, saying something about… getting eaten, if Miller's vague knowledge of Japanese was correct? After a few seconds, she seemed to calm down a little, looking around with shock from her new vantage point- even if she still clutched at Nevada's head.
As they prepared to sail, Miller hopped on the radio, where it seemed that a conversation was already underway.
Downes chuckled. "Do you think we'll find another one?"
This entire fic was the result of that stupid craven-Craven (Craven being not so craven) pun, and I do not apologize. That, my affection for underrated shipgirls, and a bit of poking at the idea of how recruiting an enemy shipgirl might be like in practice. Might elaborate on that? I don't know.