"Commander, we have eyes on another Siren fleet," Essex calmly stated. Nanami was impressed with how collected she was, but then again, she was a veteran.

"Where and how large?" Nanami asked quietly. However every one of her companions, the destroyers being the only exceptions, looked to her with varying degrees of alarm.

"Roughly the same size as before. They appeared straight out from our harbor. She is toying with us," Essex answered. Nanami agreed, this Siren was jerking them around. When they got a chance to kill her...

"Very well, thank you Essex," she said before hanging up. Then she looked up to her companions.

"Commander?" Amagi asked the unsaid question. Nanami nodded in response.

"Who is the active QRF Flagship right now?" She inquired with the three QRF Flagships at the table.

Shoukaku piped up, "That would be myself Commander. Shall I summon our fleet?"

"Yes, we have a Siren fleet straight out from the harbor. Same size as the last fleet. That is all the intel I have." the Commander relayed as she stood up from the table. Shoukaku and Zuikaku ran off to gather their fleet.

She then turned to Mikasa, "Could you watch them Mikasa?" She was referring to the destroyers she picked up off her lap to stand. Mikasa simply nodded, but Amagi and Enterprise, and the destroyers all spoke up.

"Where are you going Nanami?" the Eagle Union carrier asked.

"Didn't we have an agreement?" Amagi wanted an explanation.

"Nanami? Wh-where are you g-going?" Kisaragi asked with a wavering voice.

Looking between them, Nanami gave them their answer, "I cannot sit this one out. I have to lead the fight alongside Shoukaku." Amagi looked quietly furious as she stood up and approached Nanami.

"Could we speak outside Nanami? Enterprise please come with us," Her voice was overly-sweet, and Nanami, for the briefest of moments, felt a chill run down her spine.

"It has to be quick," Nanami said as she followed Amagi out of the room. The battlecruiser led Nanami and Enterprise to another room and shut the door. She then turned around and nearly broke her fan over Nanami's head.

"You stubborn woman. We had an agreement, and you will stick to that agreement. Two weeks. Two weeks you must command from base. Then, once we have our battle, and only * cough cough * only then, will you command from the field," Amagi said quickly and quietly. Nanami was ducking, but more to get away from her fan than anything. Suddenly she remembered the way that Akagi had ducked in the office when Amagi yelled, and everything made sense.

"I need to be there. I need to fight," She shot back.

Amagi sighed, "Nanami, you are our commander. You are not * Cough Cough Cough * You are not a front line fighter. You fight by deciding who to send when and where. You command, we fight. Until such time as you can fight the battles yourself, that is how it must be."

Nanami thought on Amagi's words. They were undeniably true, but they also kept her from the one thing she wanted. She could order Amagi to let her go, but that destroy any trust they had built, likely irreparably. She wasn't prepared to lose an important person like that for something as small as this.

"I...I am sorry Amagi. You are right. I should be less reckless in my decision making. I did not mean to upset you all like that. I will return to the banquet," Nanami tried to retort, but ultimately ended up appologizing to Amagi. She bowed deeply after apologizing to drive it home.

Amagi smiled and stepped forward, wrapping Nanami in a hug, "You are nearly as headstrong as Akagi. You know that? Thank you for listening to me Nanami. Now you two go back, I need a moment." Nanami nodded and grabbed Enterprise's hand to pull her along before she realized what she was doing.


Behind Nanami's back Enterprise's face began to burn red, not knowing why her Commander was dragging her along. Her very cute, dressed in a kimono, Commander. Enterprise shook her head to get those thoughts out. They were warriors. Subordinate and superior. She had no business thinking like that, especially when there were still battles to fight.

As she worked through her thoughts, Nanami had dropped her hand, realizing that suddenly grabbing Enterprise's hand probably made her uncomfortable. She was right of course, but not in the way she thought. Realizing that they were no longer holding hands, Enterprise's mood dropped slightly.

Suddenly they were back at the table, leaving Enterprise very confused.

Why am I so flustered? There is nothing there. I am a weapon, nothing more, she tried to convince herself. She succeeded in returning to a calm state of mind. As she returned to the conversation, Amagi was just sitting down at the table. She was a little worried about the incredibly intelligent Sakuran strategist. She also had questions about why she brought her along for the intervention when she clearly didn't need her..

Leaning over, Enterprise quietly asked, "I understand pulling her aside like that, but was there a reason I was there?" Amagi's ear flicked toward Enterprise as she spoke, and she could not help but think of it as cute. Clearly she had not recovered as much as she had thought.

Amagi on the other hand smiled wryly as she leaned up and whispered, "I wanted someone there to prevent me from choking her if it got out of hand." She gave a light, airy laugh as she returned to her seat. Once more Enterprise turned slightly red, luckily none of the others were paying attention. Though she played it off like a joke, Enterprise was fairly positive that she wasn't joking.

Are all these Sakuran women crazy?


"Enterprise, is something wrong?" Nanami asked after noticing the carrier being silent for some time.

Enterprise's head snapped up and she spoke after a second's pause, "I am just...lost in my thoughts a little. I will be fine." Mutsuki who had just finished her dessert and was eating candy reached into her pocket.

"If you eat this it'll make you happy," the little destroyer exclaimed while holding out a single wrapped hard-candy. Enterprise stared for a moment before smiling and taking the piece of candy.

"Thank you very much Mutsuki," she expressed her gratitude by patting the dog-eared girl on the head. Mutsuki beamed and Kisaragi looked on enviously. Seeing this, Nanami gave her headpats as well.

"You've been good tonight too Kisaragi-chan," She praised the other destroyer. Kisaragi pushed her head into Nanami's head, turning the headpats into head pets. Nanami smiled, but at the same time was worried, the poor girl's hair would be a mess after this.

As they sat there and talked, a trio of Sakura girls came up to introduce themselves. The first was Akashi, the cat-eared girl with green hair so long It dragged on the ground. She was a repair ship, and ran one of the two specialty shops on base. Her golden eyes had a glint of mischief in them that made Nanami think she would have to keep an eye on this one.

Alongside her was Shiranui, the soft-spoken deadpan destroyer. She was also the mechanically bunny-eared shopkeep of the other specialty shop on base. She had short black hair that covered one of her dark red eyes. Most interestingly she had a series of purple wisps that seemed to orbit her.

The third part of their trio was Yuubari, a fox-girl light cruiser with long black hair and large ears. Her large, fluffy tail changed from black to white closer to the tip. Her talk about experiments and testing piqued Nanami's interest, and she promised the fox that she would talk to her again soon. After all, Nanami was an engineer. They might have more in common than one would think.


Before anyone else could introduce themselves, Nanami got another call from Essex.

"Shoukaku reports the enemy has been eliminated. However, she also reported several casualties," Essex reported, and Nanami's blood ran cold.

"Thank you Essex, I'll be at the moorings to meet them," Nanami responded quickly before hanging up. She looked down at the destroyers who were very nearly asleep and turned to Mikasa.

"I am sorry to ask this of you again, but can you look after the destroyers again? I will not be back tonight," she asked the battleship. Misaka nodded her assent, and Nanami handed off the two destroyers on her lap.

Next she turned to the others, "I need all four of you to follow me. I am acting as Commander now, not Nanami." All four of them stood almost immediately. Nanami saw Hiei on the other side of the room, but decided she didn't have time to tell her. She would have to apologize later. Instead, she located Akashi.

"I need your help Akashi, we have incoming casualties," she told the repair ship.

"Commander needs Akashi for repairs nya? Akashi will help nya," Akashi affirmed. Bringing her along, Nanami went back to the group.

"Amagi, I need to change. I will explain on the way to your room," Nanami said, turning for the door without waiting for a response. Amagi walked slightly faster to reach Nanami's side.

"Shoukaku's fleet took out the Sirens, but they suffered casualties...plural. No word as to severity, or how it happened, but I want to be at the docks when they come in. If they need help, we will give it," Nanami briefed the women following her.

Hearing this, they all began moving slightly faster, Akashi was falling behind the group due to her short stature. So, much to Akashi's chagrin, Enterprise picked her up and carried her under one arm.

Once inside Amagi's room, all pretense of modesty flew out the window. Nanami undressed in front of everyone as quickly as possible. Kaga and Akashi saw her scars for the first time, but neither said anything about it. Nanami managed to get the kimono off rather quickly as it was a lot easier to take a kimono off than it was to put one on.

Enterprise meanwhile looked the other way while undressing. Nanami tossed on her uniform haphazardly when she was down to her undergarments. It didn't have to be perfect. It just had to cover her. She may end up shedding a layer anyways if she has to at the docks. With both of them changed, they all ran out of the Sakura dorms.

"Enterprise, head to the Eagle Union dorms. Make sure that Vestal is awake and ready to take patients at the infirmary. Once that is done, meet us at the docks," Nanami ordered, and Enterprise handed Akashi off to Kaga, and split off without question or comment.

Akashi was still nonplussed at being handled like she was, "Unhand Akashi nya!" Her cries were ignored for the sake of speed. It took the team only a few minutes to reach the docks at their pace. They were there ahead of time, probably by ten to fifteen minutes, but that was better than being late.

So they settled in on the docks to wait for the arrival of the wounded. Nanami did not want to think of the possibility of dead. After ten minutes, Enterprise returned to the group with a large orange object slung over her shoulder.

"Vestal is headed to the infirmary. She will be ready to receive wounded. And I brought this," she stated as she dropped the orange object to the ground. It was a stabilizing stretcher for moving critically wounded persons. Hopefully there would not be anyone wounded badly enough to need it. There were other stretchers on the pier, but they were more standard types.

"Thank you Enterprise. I am glad to have your quick thinking around," Nanami thanked the carrier and went to stand beside her. Enterprise blushed slightly at the praise. Luckily for her, it wasn't visible in this light. Akagi started to grumble, but Nanami spun around and glared at her so hard that she flinched. Within another few minutes they came into view, and it did not look good.

From long distance it looked like 3 non-ambulatory casualties, likely minor injuries among the rest. As they approached the shore, Nanami tore off the top layer of her uniform and took a running dive into the deep harbor water to assist. The rest of the group was too stunned to move for a moment.

Meanwhile, Nanami swam up to one of the girls hauling a wounded comrade on her own. She looked wounded herself and was having trouble. She looked at the girl she carried, she was beaten up pretty badly, but nothing looked particularly life-threatening. The pair of them looked very similar.

The one capable of movement was in what Nanami assumed to be her rigging. It was impressive as it looked like part of the ships original hull shrunk down on either side of her, connected at the base of her back. Each side had a number of dual gun.

However the most impressive thing about the rigging is that it allowed her to glide over top of the water, but it had clearly taken some damage. She was listing and dragging one side in the water. This was made worse by the other woman hanging off that same side.

Noticing her uniform, brown hair, and ears, Nanami realized this must be Takao's sister. The other one bore a striking resemblance as well. She doubled her efforts to reach the woman.

"I am Nanami, I am here to help bring your sister in," Nanami told the one still able to move. Normally she wouldn't make an assumption like that, but she figured she needed to be quick.

The moving one replied, "I'm Atago, please help me, This big sis doesn't think she can make it the rest of the way herself, and my poor little sis Choukai..." She trailed off as she faltered and nearly fell. Nanami nodded and pulled the other girl off of Atago's rigging as gingerly as possible

"Get to the pier and be ready to help me get her over the top of the ladder," Nanami ordered the older sister. Nodding she sped off a little faster with the extra weight off her rigging.

Meanwhile Nanami wrapped one of her arms around the girl and spoke to her, "I have you now Choukai. I am going to get you to safety. If you can hold on, do so." There was some movement from the Choukai, who slightly tightened her grip on over Nanami's shoulder. Her rigging was a mess, but it didn't seem to weigh much, so Nanami didn't worry about it.

She just pushed through, swam all the way to the pier and then shifted the woman so she was in a fireman's carry. It normally was not good to shift around a casualty this much, but this was a special case, so she broke a few rules.

The ladder was 20 feet tall, but Nanami ascended it slowly and steadily, doing her best not to jostle Choukai. Her arms were ready to give out two-thirds of the way up the ladder, but she perservered. Once she reached the top, Atago was there to take her sister to the stretchers.

Nanami dropped to the ground on the edge of the pier. She was exhausted from pulling Choukai that far. She breathed heavily, panting and trying to will her limbs to move. She only stayed like that long enough to regain some ability to move.

However, in that time she noticed the reinforced steel dock building. The damn thing was an eyesore on the waterfront, and she didn't even know what was in it. Whatever it was had to be pretty dangerous if they needed the equivalent of battleship armor on the sides of the building.

She decided at that moment she would figure out what it was when she could. It was her base after all, and if she couldn't find out, it was insanely above the paygrade of anyone on the base.

Getting up, she saw that all the girls were out of the water. Akashi was treating one of the girls on the stretchers as others carried the two stretchers. Shoukaku, partially ambulatory, was supported as she walked to the infirmary. Nanami felt rage well up inside her, one of the only emotions she was very familiar with.

These damn Sirens! All they do is destroy and take and hurt. When we find the Siren behind these attacks...I will tear her apart slowly, with my own hands, even if I have to create a new tool to do it, Nanami thought darkly, her hands shaking.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her chest, and most ofnthe fight went out of her. Luckily the infirmary was close to the waterfront, so Nanami raced there after picking up her uniform.

Meanwhile Enterprise and Amagi were stunned.

"Amagi, did she just do that? That was a heavy cruiser with her rigging still attached, right? She hauled her through the water...then up a ladder...on her own?" Enterprise asked in disbelief.

Amagi meanwhile recovered much faster and motioned for Enterprise to follow her.

"Yes, that was Choukai. Enterprise...You should see something when we are done here."


A/N: Thank you all for the reviews and responses to the questions in the last Author's Note! I am deeply moved by all the reviews you have managed to produce for the fic.

On the topic of burnout and health. I appreciate your concern for my health, however, I write when I can, and I just happen to be in a reasonable headspace recently. That said, I will likely be taking a break for a today(11SEP2020).

As someone who has trained in combat rescue swimming, describing it was actually kind of difficult. I know how to do it, but I have never taught it. Many aspects of it are difficult to portray without visual examples. Also, swimming with a body is actually really hard.