Chapter 8

After an hour of practice shooting, Fubuki decided to teach them advanced maneuvers since they appeared to have the basic maneuvers down since they were able to navigate through the storm. This additional training also lasted for an hour. Just as they decided to head back however, Fubuki noticed a group of figures approaching them. She didn't know who they were but she wasn't gonna wait and find out, "is everyone ready to head back now," she asked?

"What's with the rush Fubuki?" Z-4 asked, puzzled about Fubuki's sudden urge to rush.

Before Fubuki can prepare to respond, Bismarck points in the direction Fubuki was looking, "I think I know why." As everyone else looks in that direction Fubuki could make out that they were abyssals, she was getting confused that she was seeing them this far away from front line, "why are they coming here, they are way too far from the front line and we didn't give any possible indications of our presence," she thought. But then she remembered what they were just doing, "perhaps all the practice salvos I had everyone do somehow give away our position," she thought conclusively.

"What should we do now," Z-3 asked looking at Fubuki?

"Well," Deutshland started, "we better decide quickly because they're shooting at us!"

As shells exploded around them, Fubuki tried to weigh her choices: if she had them retreat into the storm to lose the enemy they could survive but might not be willing to go back out to continue training, but then again if she were to lead them into battle their inexperience would result some of them getting damaged if not sunk completely, and while they could gain battle experience they could be fighting their former comrades and friends and she doubted any of them would be willing to do that.

Fubuki looked at Z-4, she just smiled at her, "I'll gladly follow you, whether it be to battle or not," she said proudly. Smiling back at Z-4, she looked at Bismarck, who just smiled and nodded.

Now knowing what to do, Fubuki readied to fight before yelling, "alright everyone, anyone who's willing to fight follow me, everyone else head into the storm and back to base and wait for us." As she set course to face the abyssal fleet, she looked around and saw that all the other girls had joined her, none of them decided to leave the battle area.

Graf Zeppelin spoke on behalf of the other girls, "if we're gonna get our friends and comrades back, we can't just keep running away, especially not when someone like you is so willing to train and lead us."

After Zeppelin's words sank in, Fubuki realized what she meant, even though she was a foreigner they just met, they accepted her for who she was, they didn't just accept her, they looked up to her especially the other destroyers. Steeling her nerves for the fight Fubuki came up with a plan she believed would work, "ok," she started, "let's try and attack from three separate points, Z-1, Z-2, and Konigsberg will attack from the left side, Prinz Eugen, Z-3, and Z-4 will attack from the right, while me and everyone else will provide supporting fire in the center."

"Are you sure this plan will work?" Bismarck asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Fubuki answered assuringly. "It's mainly just a few cruisers with destroyer escorts," she explained. Turning to Zeppelin, "Zeppelin have your fighters strafe the enemy ships, that should help distract them and make it easier for us to sink them," she advised. Before everyone split off she gave one final piece of advise, "one more thing everyone, try to focus on the cruisers since they have the majority of the enemy's firepower, keep moving in a randomized pattern to help prevent enemy shells and torpedos from hitting you, good luck everyone and stay safe ok."

Everyone gave a final "yes, ma'am" and split up into their assigned groups. As Bismarck and Deutshland unleashed their barrage on the enemy fleet scoring a few hits, Z-4's team also began to attack, with Z-3 and Eugen firing in the enemy cruiser closest to them while Z-4 attacked a nearby destroyer. On the other side, Z-2, Z-1 and konigsberg decided to focus their combined firepower on any enemy ship they saw and agreed to attack, resulting in them sinking several enemies in a single combined salvo. As Zeppelin's planes launched and began strafing several of the abyssals Fubuki was glad things seemed to be going well for them at the moment. Of course the abyssals wouldn't go down easily they were also shooting back, a shot managed to connect with Z-3, she yelped in response.

"Are you ok?" Fubuki called out.

Z-3 quickly gave her a thumbs up and shot at the abyssal that shot her damaging it before a shot from Bismarck finished it off. "It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would," she commented. "It kind of feels like getting smacked by a hot hammer the size of someone's head," she elaborated.

No less than a hour after the fight began all the abyssals were eliminated with only slight damage done to some of the iron fleet ships. Everyone cheered and hugged each other with joy and relief. As Fubuki looked at them all with pride and joy, they all turned to her and shouted, "three cheers for Fubuki!" Fubuki blushed from the seemingly heroic acknowledgment they were giving her.

However a sudden warm but strange feeling began to engulf her. When the feeling felt like it was radiating from her whole body the cheering stopped and everyone looked at her. Now silent, everyone heard a slight low pitched hymn that came from Fubuki. Wondering why everyone was looking at her like that, Fubuki was about to ask before seeing a dark red glow on her arm and hand. Quickly looking to her other arm and noticing the same glow, she then looked at her reflection in the water and gasped in shock. Her whole body was covered in the strange red light, the brightest spots were her eyes, it was as if a sheet of the red light had placed over them. While her eyesight wasn't actually affected, it did give her a slightly unnatural presence.

Bismarck soon started to approach Fubuki with on of her arms outstretched, "Fubuki are you ok?"

"I…I don't know," Fubuki answered shaking, "what's happening to me?"

"It's ok," Bismarck says, placing a hand on her shoulder, "it's nothing bad, there's a book back at the base where you can fully understand what's going on, ok."

Fubuki nods, and they all set course south back to base.

Author's note: Hey guys, just to give you all a quick heads up now, as soon as this episode ends, I'm gonna put the series on hiatus for a little while (I know it might be a dick move, I'm sorry T-T), but don't worry I'm working on the beginning of something else, if you like girls, if you like tanks, and if you RTS sci-fi, then I feel you'll really enjoy this. I'll let you all know again at the end episode as well.