It was peaceful…
"The deck is on fire…That can't…"
"Hit on flight deck!? No way, it's going to blow!""Straight above!? Directly above!?"
I wonder what happened.
"A direct hit on the flight deck…That's…impossible."
"Why is it the flight deck again?! It hurts!"
"Aah!…Stop sympathetic detonation!"
Why…?
"Akagi, I won't leave you behind by sinking."
"I cannot let the pride of the first Carrier Division be lost here…"
Why is it always like this?
"Akagi-san, If you're safe then it's fine…I'm going first…I will be waiting for your return…"
"The fire on the flight deck, it won't go out…Sorry…"
She was alone. Hiryuu was too far ahead, spared from the attack. The other two were silently disappearing under the waves. She saw it all, from the first torpedo, to the last dive bomb. Now it was her turn.
"I thought you weren't going to leave me behind…Kaga…"
The eternal flames within her still burned. Every breath was a struggle. Every movement was suffering. Her tears dissipated as soon as they flowed out, the fires being the cause.
She saw it. Their determination and bravery. Her crew felt stupid for underestimating them. She felt it. Their hatred and thirst for vengeance. Pissing off one of the greatest industrial superpowers in the world and not expecting them to return with full force was ignorant.
Overconfidence and giving up were not tolerated. Yet, they let their own pride get in the way. Expecting them to fall for the same trick twice, underestimating them.
Did she deserve this? Perhaps…but, why were they fighting again?
"Please…scuttle me with the torpedoes."
Akagi got her wish, the 4th Destroyer fleet came and under orders of Admiral Yamamoto, scuttled her.
She closed her eyes for the impact. The cold water rushing in, slowly making her float down. Strangely, she didn't feel any pain. It was quiet…too quiet.
Into The Abyss - Chapter VI
Island Barracks
Fluttering her eyes open, she found herself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, in the dead of the night. Akagi's throat tightened as she gasped for air. She never used to have nightmares about the past like this, it's usually the "run out of bauxite" or the "we are going to cut your food portions".
She needed to sleep, but simply couldn't. Tomorrow was the return trip. Tomorrow, she could see Kaga again. Tomorrow, she could eat larger portions of food again. Tomorrow was when she would…meet the Americans again.
All previous enthusiasm was lost.
She looked around the room. Hiryuu and Soryuu were sleeping peacefully. Worried about Kaga, she shifted and moved around in her futon, still unable to sleep.
Her mind lingered to a previous thought. "Why were they even fighting?"
Was it because of the oil embargo? Lands conquered? We made the first move, claiming we had no choice. Yet, we did. We could've been civil. Instead, we let jealousy and hate blind us. Then again, we didn't have free will. All our thoughts and feelings were created by the men who boarded and fought for our survival.
Sure, it was unfair, how everyone else started colonizing China, but they didn't let us set a foot on it or we would be punished. Asian countries ruled by white individuals, a strange world indeed. Who was she trying to convince? Everyone else, or herself? Was she simply trying to say it was justified?
War is blind. It does not discriminate nor exclude. Humanity was forced to put its inner-conflict aside when the Abyssals came, afraid that something other than mankind would take the seas. But still, the question arose, what exactly are they?
This war will never end if they still keep coming back. No, this war will never end as long as we exist. Even if there comes a time where we defeat the Abyssals without a casualty, humanity will go back to fighting itself, like nothing happened except they got their hands on new weapons.
Akagi sighed. She was looking too deep into this. Right now, the priority would be sleep. She thought about various things to redirect her mind. Would Kaga make the carrier her mouth-watering meals?
She finally passed out when lost in thought about food.
"Akagi?"
Kaga? No…Who are you? The voice was so familiar, yet, so distant. Someone of the long past? One lost in the waves of war? Is she beginning to forget? Who was she forgetting?
"Akagi…"
The carrier thought as hard as she could, her eyes still closed. Still nothing, nothing came to her. No face came to attach itself to that voice. She knew she had heard it once before, but…who?
"…I'm sorry."
Why? What did she do? Did Akagi do something wrong? Did this disembodied voice do something wrong? Something to offend her? She wouldn't know. She never responded back. The voice seemed to be unbothered by it. But why are they apologizing?!
"It's okay…you can open your eyes, I'm here for you."
Akagi hesitated, but why…? She had no reason not to look. If she looked, she would remember who the voice was. If she looked, she would see their face. If she looked, she would know why they apologized. If she looked…she wouldn't have forgotten.
Forgotten what?
"Ah, I see…It seems you refuse to look at me." The voice sounded sad and somewhat disappointed. "It's okay."
Akagi felt something warm and familiar embrace her. It sparked such nostalgic feelings and emotions. It quickly became comfortable. Wanting to melt in it, she relaxed and squeezed back ever so slightly. She felt a gentle hand stroke her hair and tears began to flow out.
"Do you remember me, Akagi?"
She had no response.
"It's okay. I'll visit you once more. It's me, A…"
Akagi took a peek. She saw long dark brown hair, a soft smile, tired eyes, but nothing else before everything faded to white. It began to move and a pillow was lifted from her face. It was her juniors, Hiryuu and Soryuu, both looking at her with concern.
"Akagi?" Souryuu called out again.
"Souryuu…? What are you doing?"
"You wouldn't wake up and you were moving around a lot."
"It's an hour before departure, you should get to the mess hall before they run out." Hiryuu said and winked at her.
Lingering emotions and memories of the dream faded, shoved to the back of her head. Akagi smiled, excited to eat, drool almost escaping her mouth in the process.
She sat up and stretched her arms. The two sisters moved away to give her some space.
"We'll go ahead." Hiryuu said
"I'll save you some food and a spot okay?" Souryuu assured.
Akagi nodded. She neatly folded her futon and made preparations for the morning. She had never been a morning person, someone like Kaga was more suited for that. She'd rather sleep all day and wake up to eat.
It was time to start the day off.
The return trip was…quiet, in a sense. Sure there was casual small talk here and here, but everyone was off thinking about their own problems.
Akagi remembered watching the live American summoning, the first-ever summoning shown to the public. Of course, they only deserve the best, and that's when she was summoned. The Grey Ghost.
Short light grey hair, a dark grey kepi dawned on her head. Neutral piercing blue eyes that looked at the camera. While she was looking at the camera for the live stream, it felt like she was looking in much deeper, like she knew Akagi was there and stared at her. Around her neck was a dark scarf, which matched her hat in color. The ends of the scarf were behind her, turning wider and more like a split cape at the bottom.
The crowd went wild when she introduced herself, and the carrier was unfazed. After that, the officials took her in for questioning and briefing.
She even heard that they had to hold everyone back from rushing onto the stage, including her own sisters. If that happened to her sister, she would probably have done the same. She stopped her thoughts.
Sister?
Were Kaga and Akagi sisters? Well, they were in the same class of carriers so technically they were. They were imported from their own class of battleship or battlecruiser.
There were so many things done wrong during the past war, but this time, Akagi wanted to make things right during the Abyssal War. As much as she was opposed to the idea, the USN sending some aid to them will come in handy, and their resources too. One of the many reasons Japan lost the war, they picked a fight while low on resources with the wrong country.
Akagi looked over to the two dragons chatting with each other. They didn't seem to be concerned about anything in the slightest.
The ocean sparkled in the morning sunrise. It was a sight Akagi came accustomed to seeing whether she liked it or not. She continued staring at her surroundings, saying nothing. Why were sorties and departures always set out so early? Couldn't she just a good night's sleep and leave when her energy was filled?
It's not like anyone gets whatever they want anyway. Putting your faith in something will only make it more disappointing when it doesn't happen. She knew that, it was something she lived by for a while.
She sighed and then yawned.
At least it was a peaceful morning.
"Ah, nevermind…" Akagi said out loud. Some of the fleet members turned to her, confused. She coughed in her fist and cleared her throat. "Abyssal fleet ahead! 80 kilometers!" She yelled to alert the whole fleet.
Today was going to be a long day.
A nice warmup. Nothing too bad, nothing too smoothly. Well, what did that Abyssal fleet expect, doing up against a couple of fleets with even more fleets just a few miles away? The base was split into fleets and then grouped with other fleets.
Akagi stretched her arms upwards. Her stomach grumbled in response.
"Why won't you look at me?"
She flinched and looked around. Everything seemed normal, nothing too out of the ordinary. But where did the voice come from?
Her dream this morning arose in her mind again. Who was the one occupying her thoughts, eating away at her focus? Being such a downer—wasn't her kind of thing. Maybe it was Kaga's.
Over the horizon she could see the base, slowly coming into view. Finally, she was going to be home.
Minneapolis was walking with South Dakota, walking to the shore after their lunch. Washington and Albacore split up from them earlier along the way. Nothing out of the usual norm they got used to.
In the early morning, they had gotten word that they had to attend classes, to brush up skills and make sure they don't dull. Back in America, they already had to go through the standardized navy and army training courses, and now they had to sit down and learn some more?
"I've always hated school…"
"Pretty sure every child does, Minne." South Dakota chuckled. "Remember that one time you met some kids and they thought you were Minnie Mouse?"
"Ugh, of course. Next time, just introduce me using my normal name, please, and thank you."
"Washington has always hated kids, and as always, I beg to differ."
"You being the kid-friendly type is weird, but I guess I can see that." she coughed. "When you're not fighting with Washington, that is." Minneapolis cleared up.
South changed the topic. "I remember hearing about how other surface ships aren't as close to their carrier as we are, or I mean—as we Americans are."
"Cause they never had only one carrier operating for a long time."
"They've been the heart of task forces for a while now, I can't believe they stopped making battleships. I guess that's a downside of the rise of carriers."
"There's a very big gap between CV and BB. BBs can tank a couple of hits, unless they're unlucky. They also can shred normal cruisers and destroyers with a salvo or two. CVs need protection. Sure, they can tank some hits, but one too many then you got a problem. But hey, they can reduce an entire fleet to scrap before we can even see them."
"Destroying an entire fleet or two…Sounds like a lot of battle stars for them."
"Yeah, they can kill off an entire fleet like…" The heavy cruiser stopped. "Like, that!" She suddenly yelled and pointed in the distance.
South Dakota looked over to where she was pointing and went wide-eyed. "Oh shit! The base is back!"
Minneapolis couldn't keep her composure as well. "Nope, nope! Big ol' bag of nopes!" She yelled and started sprint-walking away. South Dakota followed in suit and the two of them forgot about their afternoon plans.
The docks were empty, pretty quiet. One couldn't tell someone was visiting or staying at their base, it was all the same, just like how they left it. Until they heard a loud sound, and after that came dialog from unfamiliar voices.
"Crap, sorry!"
"You idiot!" a different voice yelled. "Cleveland, carry her."
"No, you do it. You guys are the ones sharing a room." The girl named Cleveland said.
Everyone saw a short girl carrying another girl over her shoulders sprint to the shore. "Minne and South Dakota already left!"
Another girl popped out of the sand next to her. "Well, that's sad. I guess Wash won't get to flirt with South—."
"Shut up tuna before I make sushi outta you!" yelled Wash.
"Cleve—." The first girl turned to someone in the back but froze. She stared at the Japanese fleet and said nothing, her face frozen. "Frick, frick!" the girl said and started running.
The second girl, the one in the sand, already disappeared to who knows where. The girl that was called Wash started to run after the first girl, leaving the last girl. Assuming her name was Cleveland, she just stared in mild surprise.
"Uh…Hi." she waved awkwardly. Akagi and a couple others waved back. "I'm Cleveland, lead of a light cruiser class." Cleveland said loud enough for them to hear. "Welp, see you later!"
With that, the girl with a visor dashed off.
"The Americans are something alright…" Hiryuu commented.
They got their gear and rigging off and split ways. Akagi was about to head to Mamiya's, although she spotted Kaga. She ran up to greet her, but she stopped in the process. Kaga was with Zuikaku, an odd pair. With them, was an unfamiliar white-haired girl. They were all casually talking like nothing was wrong, except with Zuikaku and Kaga clashing heads.
Akagi slipped back around the corner and peeked her head around it to spy on them and listen in to their conversation.
"So what's wrong today Kaga?"
"Hmph. The pot calling the kettle black, Fifth Carrier Division."
"Unlike you, I win my duels. Just ask her." the twin-tailed carrier said while pointing at the ashen-haired girl. Kaga in turn looked over in the girl's direction, waiting for a confirmation.
She sighed. "If you want to know the truth, I retreated back to shore after I got hit with some kamikazes. I declared her the winner because of that."
"Pfft. That's hardly even called a win." Kaga remarked.
"Isn't your sister coming back today, Kaga?" the other girl switched topics.
"Yes, I believe she could already be back. If she is, she'll probably be heading to the cafe."
"Seems like Akagi…"
The carrier smiled and decided it was the perfect opportunity to show herself. She turned the corner and glanced at her phone, trying to look like it was a coincidence she appeared.
"Ah, Akagi-san." It was Kaga. The three approached her, the two she was accustomed to in the front. "Welcome back." she said and let out a small smile.
"How was everything, Akagi-san?" Zuikaku asked.
"It was all fine, nothing wrong." She assured. "So who's this?" Akagi gestured to the one behind them, still keeping her smile visible.
"I'm Enterprise, a USN carrier. Nice to meet you, Akagi."
"Enterprise…?"
"Yes, that's me."
There was silence. Not unexpected, at least.
"That's you?"
Enterprise nodded. Akagi just looked confused. "You look…different."
The other carrier just shrugged in response. She looked at the American again. The white captain's hat differed from grey kepi, a white contrast instead of the entire grey attire she dawned before. That made her wonder if she had the wrong person in mind.
Akagi flinched. She saw the mysterious girl reflected into the carrier in front of her, for no particular reason. This time, she didn't say anything, just looked at smiled. Her face was darkened out. She couldn't see nor recognized her face. Everything started blurring. The carrier and the girl didn't even have the same style of hair or style of clothing and yet, she still saw it.
A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. "It's alright, Akagi."
Such warmth…
She wavered. Why did this stranger provide such warmness? How come she couldn't remember her?
"You don't need to be hung up in the past." A light hand caressed her head. "Akagi."
"Akagi…"
"Akagi-san?"
A flick from Kaga woke her out from her daze. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I think I'm just hungry." She chuckled. Her stomach apparently agreed with her as well and grumbled.
"What?!" A loud yell was heard in the distance. More followed soon after.
"Get back here!" another voice yelled.
Loud and quick footsteps were coming closer to the four carriers.
"I apologize for my rowdy fleetmates." Enterprise said and sighed.
A brown blur ran right past them and crashed into the wall instead. A frantic Arizona came running from around the corner but stopped, noticing the damaged wall. "Oh, hi." She looked back and forth from the wall and the group.
The cruiser Akagi met earlier bumped into her back. "Sorry, Ari."
"Alright, get Laffey, and let's dip." the battleship instructed. Cleveland ran over to retrieve her but couldn't before she was headbutted in the chest by Laffey. The air got knocked out of her lungs and she slipped into unconsciousness.
Laffey had her eyes completely wide, unfocused. "Well, crap." Arizona commented.
"What happened?" Enterprise asked the battleship.
"An idiot decided to give Laffey coffee."
"Ah, Scheisse."
"What are you? German?"
The hyper destroyer started running towards the dreadnought with incredible speed. With Arizona's quick thinking, she pulled the unconscious cruiser on her feet and used her as a shield to deflect the incoming ram. The battleship winced in pity for Cleveland and made a mental note to treat her later.
Laffey bounced off from Cleveland and landed on the floor. She was about to make a mad dash away but was stopped when the carrier shoved packaged bread into Laffey's mouth. That seemed to calm her down somewhat, but she was still hyper.
Except, when a video game console hit her square in the face. The destroyer went down like a sack of potatoes.
"At least handle her things with care, she'll be extra pissed if she finds out it's broken."
"Sorry." O'Bannon said as she got closer to the group. The other destroyer scooped her up along with the console and started to walk back to her dorm. Arizona, with Cleveland still in her arms, sighed and headed back too, not before giving a small nod.
"The Americans are quite something…" Akagi mumbled.
"You'll get used to it." Zuikaku said. "Their shenanigans are worse than any of those times Kongo tried to make the Admiral fall in love with her, well, at least the destroyers."
"The base is going to be pretty lively."
Zuikaku and Enterprise waved goodbye and split ways with Kaga and Akagi.
"Any plans for tonight?" Zuikaku asked the other carrier.
"Not really."
Akagi was heading to Mamiya's with Kaga in tow. The stoic carrier tagged along to pay off her large bills. She was happily eating like there was no tomorrow. It had been so long since she ate a decently large meal again, well actually only three days. Kaga only grabbed a small snack and drink to keep her company while watching.
"Kaga-san."
"Yes, Akagi-san?"
She said nothing as she smiled and held a spoonful of curry out to Kaga. The other sighed. "C'mon, try it!" she said as the spoon still hung in the air in front of the other carrier.
Kaga sighed again and leaned in and ate. Akagi just smiled at this.
"You can sometimes be so childish."
The carrier just giggled in turn. She ate a couple more bites while Kaga sipped her glass. "An indirect kiss with Kaga-san.~" Akagi said, low enough so Kaga could hear her.
Kaga almost spit out her drink but instead, choked on it. After some coughs and glasses of water later, she glared at Akagi. In response, Akagi just giggled again. "Would you like another one?" Akagi smugly grinned.
"I'll pass."
She continued to eat until there was a pretty tall stack of bowls and a satisfied stomach. The two were about to head out but a small American destroyer kept them in their seats, intrigued.
"Do you guys do take-outs?" the short blonde asked Mamiya.
"Yes, what would you like?"
The smaller sheepishly looked at her and apologized. "It's a big order."
"What kind of ship would this be for?"
"A carrier."
The other nodded. "Ah, understandable. As you can see over there, carriers have a rather large appetite." Mamiya said and gestured towards Akagi. She blushed and looked to the side.
The American began listing food preferences and the amount needed as the supply ship wrote them down on a notepad.
Some time passed and the ship came back with a bunch of food wrapped to-go. They watched as the small destroyer tried balancing everything without turning it to its side or crushing it. She successfully made it out of the story and almost started running but remembered not to drop or spill anything.
The supply ship and carrier chuckled as they watched the small girl's dedication not to ruin the food at all while the other carrier didn't change.
"What a loyal destroyer." Akagi said and smiled.
"She's like that destroyer. What was her name again? Bucky?" Kaga observed.
"Ah Fubuki? You're not wrong."
Hammann ran as fast as she could without dropping anything. She ran into a lot of people who, thankfully, saw how much food she was carrying and moved out of the way for her. There was a close-call, where she almost crashed into a wall or two because she was barely able to see over the stack. She was able to safely and without any casualty, got to the baths.
"Yorktown!"
The carrier looked at the entrance and smiled. "Ah, Hammann." The little one ran up to her, gleaming. "That's a lot of food." was all that came to her mind.
"They said it's normal for carriers as well. You also said you were hungry!"
"Thank you so much." she gently smiled. "But what about you? Aren't you hungry?"
"No, don't worry about me! I'm fine—." she said—or about to say before her stomach growled and argued with her instead. Her face turned very red. Yorktown held out two of the food containers to Hammann, still keeping her smile.
"T-Thank you, Yorktown."
The two ate their food, Yorktown downing more than half the stack before Hammann finished one. The destroyer got up to throw away all the cardboard containers but was stopped by the older once again.
"No need, Hammann. It's okay, I'll throw it away later."
"B-But you're still injured!"
"I've recovered enough where I can safely walk around. Besides, I just want to talk with you."
"If that's what you want…"
Yorktown gently patted her on the head. "Where did Essex go anyways? I haven't seen her since yesterday."
Hammann put a hand to her chin. After a while of silence, she thought even harder. In the end, she just shrugged. "Maybe she went off to stalk your sister?"
The other chuckled at that statement. "Not far-fetched, yes, but she's more civil than that."
A knock echoed throughout the bathhouse. The destroyer rushed to peek out at who might be visiting. She was met with a long white-haired woman. "Hello."
"Hi, are you here to see Yorktown?"
"Yes, is that okay or is she still tired?"
"It's okay. I'm fine, come on in." Yorktown called out from behind them.
The destroyer opened the door and closed it behind the woman. "Sorry for the mess, I'll take care of it right now!" she exclaimed, semi-embarrassed.
"No, no. I'm not bothered by it or anything—." she said but was cut off when Hammann had already taken everything and left to throw it out. That left the two of them by themselves.
"As you know, I'm Yorktown. Who are you?" she started.
"I'm Shoukaku, nice to meet you Yorktown-san."
"Ah, an unexpected twist. Still, nice to meet you."
"I hope you can forgive us for our past mistakes. We've both know our nations didn't do…the best of things."
The older carrier shook her head. "All is well, do not fret. While I am fine with your company, I believe you need something from me?"
"I have something to give you and yes, I want to know something." Shoukaku handed Yorktown a plain white envelope. "Orders, from your Admiral. Since I was already headed here, they thought I might as well give this to you."
The American took the envelope and opened it. She quickly scanned through it. "Yikes." she unintentionally blurted out and grimaced.
"That bad?"
She shook her head. "Not the best, but not that good." she sighed. "This is going to be a long few months for us." Yorktown pulled a 180 and placed her smile back on her face. "Anyways, what'd you come here for?"
Shoukaku fidgeted her hands. "If it's okay, can I know more about you and your sisters?"
Yorktown looked at her as if not expecting something close to that. "Sure, but why?"
"You three gave us the hardest time during the war. I've always wanted to know what kind of people fought us and what you were like. I've seen Japan's grief, their losses, and wavering hope but I want to know what America was like, more specifically, our rivals."
"Rivals?" she repeated.
"Yes, as I said, you three were the ones who gave us the hardest time. Zuikaku and a lot of other carriers saw you like that. While our nations are the main ones fighting, we were the ones who were clashing the most."
"I guess that makes sense…So what do you want to know?"
"Were you all the same as you were back then as of now?"
"Most of us, yeah. Some girls reverted to how they were like before the war or before something happened to them. A lot of us stayed the same. Some of us, completely changed…"
Shoukaku thought back to yesterday. "Arizona already told us that Enterprise was shy back then—." she was cut off for the second time today before she finished.
"Ah yes, E. Poor girl. Hornet and I were surprised but it didn't come unexpectedly. Hornet stayed the same. As for me, I just tried to protect everyone. Now I feel like a mom telling her daughter's friends funny childhood stories."
Shoukaku smiled. "I understand. I tried to protect my sister too."
"Perhaps it's our older-sister instincts." Shoukaku agreed with that statement. Zuikaku was almost the same age as her and yet, she saw her as someone who she needed to protect. Maybe it was because Zuikaku was that important to her.
The Japanese carrier took a pause and started thinking about questions she wanted to ask. "I don't know why, but I want to know more about the past Enterprise."
"My, my, our Little E has managed to seduce a girl over here already? She's grown up so fast…"
"N-No, no. It's not like that!" she sputtered out. "I mean, I've heard she's gone through so many changes. I do also want to know more about Hornet too!"
Yorktown chucked at her enthusiasm. "No one wants to know about me, just an old hag." she said dramatically. She wiped an imaginary tear from her eye.
"No, no. It's not what I mean! It's not like I don't want to learn about you, I do but…" Shoukaku started speaking quicker and quicker. "Idowanttolearnaboutyou. I'msorry Ididn'tmean forittocomeoutthatway, I'msorry."
"Woah calm down, I'm just teasing you." She made a mental note to lay off the teasing. Shoukaku blushed out of embarrassment.
"It's strange y'know?" Shoukaku looked back at her, confused. She continued to add context to make it clearer.
"Being summoned. For one second you're sleeping quietly. Then the next you're awake, cold, have a human body, and in front of a bunch of random people!" she fumed.
"Getting used to a human body was hard and strange, to say the least."
"Thinking about all this logically, how did we even exist?! Where did the Abyssals come from? Why were we called back just to fight some deep-sea aliens? Why are we connected?! Boom boom some humans put something in the microwave for too long and a shipgirl pops out or something? Did someone spill their drink on a piece of important lab equipment and now we're here?" she ranted.
Hammann had already come back a few minutes ago but stayed outside the door, listening in on their conversation. She felt it was wrong to eavesdrop but still did it anyway. All was well until Yorktown started to rant. The little destroyer sighed and went in to save the other girl's brain cells and hearing.
Yorktown stopped and changed her attention to Hammann. "Welcome back Hammann."
"Yorkie, I think that's enough socializing for today. Sorry, er…"
"I'm Shoukaku."
"Okay, Soukaku." She mispronounced her name by accident. "Sorry to cut you short, but Yorktown is going to go crazy."
"Thank you, and it's okay." She stood up to leave and waved at the two.
Yorktown waved goodbye back. "Come again! Next time, you tell me about your sister!"
"I will. Nice talking to you!"
"A word of advice!" the American shouted when she almost closed the door. "Never, I mean, never, get Enterprise drunk!"
Shoukaku already closed the door. She was confused at the older's statement but carried on with her day.
"C'mon E! Tryy it." Hornet yelled and tried to shove a bottle into her sister's mouth.
"Hornnnett. Stop bullying our sishter." Yorktown slurred, drunk.
The middle sister awkwardly sat in between the two drunk shipgirls. Battleships South Dakota, Washington, and Arizona sat across from them. Arizona was semi-drunk while Dakota was already wasted and Washington very drunk.
"I think that's enough alcohol for today, maybe the entire month."
"The month is almost over already." Washington sleepily said.
The waiter came around again to clean up. "Do you need anything else?"
"Can I just have water?" Enterprise said.
"Okay, anything else?"
Hornet spoke, "One cheeseburger. Yorkie what about you?" She wasn't drunk enough to start slurring her speech but drunk enough to still be not in the right state of mind.
"Sushi…and fries." she answered.
"Got it." The waiter was writing down the orders when Washington nudged her. She turned her attention to the battleship.
"Replace that water with the hardest god damn vodka you have." she said low enough to not be overheard by Enterprise.
She looked at her concerned. "Isn't that illegal?"
"It's okay, I'll take responsibility." she reassured. "Plus it's not like we can get drunk after one glass. That girl just needs to lay low."
The other hesitantly obeyed and crossed out the water to be replaced for vodka. She left to fulfill them.
"Isn't that the vodka that got SoDak wasted after one drink…?" Arizona whispered.
"It's whatever."
The worker came back and placed the food down with their respective consumers. She shakingly placed the glass of vodka in front of the carrier. "Enjoy…"
Yorktown and Hornet ate their food at a steady pace. Enterprise already drank her glass. Arizona and Washington looked at each other.
"Can I order another one? For some reason, it just makes me thirstier instead."
The server nodded and left. She came back with another glass and the cycle repeated. On the third refill, she came back with four glasses of vodka, unbeknownst to Enterprise. After she finished those, Arizona took one of the glasses and filled it with South's vodka bottle, which was still almost full. She offered it to her, seeing if she would notice.
Enterprise took the cup and still drank it. She stopped. "Wait…" The waiter wanted to quickly leave but was frozen in place.
"Don't blame her." Washington gestured to the waiter. "It was my fault."
Hornet decided now was the right time to shove a beer bottle into the mouth. Being weakened by the vodka, she didn't resist.
South Dakota shot up from the table. "Ha, ha! We got the Grey Ghosto drunk!" she announced to everyone and everything in the vicinity before she hit the table again and passed out.
"Why?" was all the carrier said to this.
"You need to learn to relax." Arizona responded.
"You can't juuust carry us all the time." her older sister interjected.
"Let loose every once in a while sis." Hornet and poked her.
Enterprise sighed. "I'm going to use the bathroom and get some air." She stood up and left.
"Mission success!" Washington shouted.
Moments passed and she hadn't come back yet. Of course, Yorktown being Yorktown but drunk started being worried and a mess. Some more time passed and still nothing.
They heard an explosion, which is probably a normal occurrence for the Americans. The three of them, excluding South Dakota and Washington, rushed out to see the commotion. The two carriers found their sister dawning her old outfit and kepi while blasting her guns at Ranger who was out practicing her night-fighting.
"Enterprise, stop! What are you doing?!"
"Come closer!" the other sinisterly said. "Come on, have a taste of my secondary guns!"
"What the hell?! E, you're drunk!"
"The only thing getting dunked is you. Have a taste of German Engineering!"
"You're not German! You're an American!"
Yorktown blinked. "Why are there fireworks?"
"York, go back inside." Arizona said.
"Hey! If you're German, I challenge you to a drink-off since you loove beer so much!" Hornet challenged.
"Oh, you're on you Yank!"
"Then let's go, you bootlicker!"
Completed: February 21, 2021
A/N: Sorry for the late update. Lunar New Year is a pretty busy time for me, and writer's block keeps bugging me.