The Summer the Stars Fell

by Wixom

Admiral Daimlon - A young man having just graduated from the Academy, is to become the proud owner of a freshly constructed base out in the Pacific. Unknown to him, however, his starter will be a rather unique individual. The war in the Pacific is heating up, and Daimlon will be thrown into the thick of the action. Will he be ready? Or will he fall victim to the Abyssal onslaught?

6. The Tests Begin!

Author's Note: On this day, April 19th, it is a special day to me. Instead of celebrating this day as I normally do, I have decided to celebrate it by giving the week leading up to it to you guys instead. Which is why I am releasing the equivalent of two chapters in one. The previous chapters have been roughly 8,000 words, this one clocks in at almost 16,000. As such, I will include a 'bookmark' at around the halfway mark so you can read it in two sittings instead of one, and use the bookmark as a reference point to easily find your way back. Anyway, Enough stalling you guys, please enjoy reading a double length Chapter Six! Feedback of any kind is greatly appreciated!

Daimlon was peering out the window to the harbor, looking out at the beautiful morning in front of him. He had his arms crossed, and was lightly drumming his fingers against his upper arm. He was observing the beginning stages of the test preparations taking place, with targets being stacked out by the ramp near the Supply Depot. He ceased his drumming, and reached for his tablet. He sifted through it until he came across the weather report for the day. High chance of moderate rain, with wind speeds approaching twenty knots, a relatively small storm. Things appeared calm at the moment, but there were small signs of the approaching storm. The morning sky was red, a strong breeze flowed from the east, and the birds were flying much lower than usual, all common indicators of impending poor weather.

He decided to go back to his seat, placing his tablet back in his jacket pocket. He gave out a decent yawn. Daimlon was anything but a morning person, and having just finished his morning routine, he was still drowsy. He sat in silence, staring off into space as he thought briefly. His eyes squinted as he realized something was seriously wrong with his office. He reached for his tablet again, skimming to the Construction tab, and paged Nonna.

Nothing happened. He waited for at least fifteen seconds before growing impatient, pressing the page button again. Still nothing happened. As much as Daimlon wanted to spam the button, he knew she was likely busy making his life easier. He let out a sigh as he navigated to the Operations tab. He noticed a new side tab within it, labelled 'Air Patrols'. Intrigued, he decided to take a look. He was rather pleased to find he could alter the base's air patrols in whatever way he desired from this new tab, able to change duration, frequency, range, and course of reconnaissance flights. They had eight scout aircraft available, with a twenty minute service period between flights, covering a three hundred kilometer radius around the base.

After satisfying his curiosity, he put his tablet away. He calmly interlocked his fingers, resting them on his desk, as he began to think to himself.

Nonna finally appeared in her white puff of smoke. "Sorry for the delay, I was held up. What do you need?" Nonna asked after explaining herself.

Daimlon just looked at her with a blank look. "I just want to put in a requisition order for a tea maker." Daimlon said.

Nonna raised an eyebrow. "A tea maker..?" She asked in a curious tone.

"Yes. A tea maker." He said simply.

"Why do you need a tea maker?" Nonna asked, crossing her arms.

Daimlon just looked at her with a serious face. "I.. Really like tea in the morning, okay?" He explained calmly.

"Understandable, but why not a coffee maker for the mornings?" Nonna questioned.

Daimlon leaned back in his chair as he sighed. "I just don't like coffee.. That simple." He said softly, his eyes looking away from Nonna.

Nonna couldn't put her finger on it, but something was different about him. She disregarded it for the time being. "What kind of tea would you like with your tea maker?" She asked, as she prepped her clipboard, ready to write on it.

"Just give me the standard green tea. Put the tea maker on a stand over in the far corner of the room." He said as he continued to stare off at nowhere in particular.

Nonna scribbled away on her clipboard for a second or two. "It should be ready soon." She said. "Is that all?" Nonna asked, lowering her clipboard.

Daimlon looked up at her with calm eyes. "Yes. That will be all, thank you." He said appreciatively.

Nonna did not dissipate as Daimlon expected her to. She just looked at him for several seconds.

"Are you alright, Daimlon? You seem a little.. Off." She asked, somewhat concerned.

Daimlon just gave her a weak smile. "Yes, i'm fine. Just a little tired, that's all." He said.

Nonna flew closer to him, hovering only a foot away from his face. "Did you not sleep well?" She asked.

"Could've used an extra hour or two, but I'll be fine." He explained, maintaining his smile.

Nonna just smiled back at him. "Alright, just make sure you go to bed early tonight. A tired Admiral is never a good thing." She said calmly.

"Don't worry, I will. I appreciate your concern, though." Daimlon said as he readjusted himself in his seat, sitting up straight.

"No problem. See you later." She said cheerfully as she dissipated in her veil of white smoke.

Daimlon interlocked his fingers, and placed them on his desk, lowering his head as he began to think to himself. Within fifteen minutes the tea maker Daimlon requested was resting on a stand in the corner to his left across the room. Sitting next to the tea maker on the stand were six separate handle-less tea cups stacked on top of each other. He immediately got up and grabbed the tea pot, and filled it with water in his bathroom sink as it was the only sink in the building. He placed the pot back in it's place and began brewing a fresh pot of green tea.

He stood there, waiting for his tea to brew. He had his tea cup in his hand, eagerly waiting for it to finish. While he was waiting, he was still thinking to himself. On a whim, he set his cup down, and walked over to his desk. He reached for the, so far untouched, intercom system that sat on the far right side of his desk. Daimlon pressed the button down and spoke into it clearly. "Jintsuu, please report to my office. Jintsuu, to my office." He could hear the echoes of his own voice penetrating the walls of the building, as his voice was broadcast across the base through loudspeakers. He immediately released the button, and returned to his tea making station.

The tea finally finished brewing, and he poured himself a cup. Steam billowed out of it fiercely as he took it back to his seat. He sat waiting patiently, for both his tea to cool down, and a knock on the door to be heard. By the time there was a knock on his door, the steam had calmed to gentle wisps crawling from the cup.

"Come in." He said as he perked up in his seat.

Jintsuu stepped through the door gently. Her eyes perked up the way Asashio's had the day before, calmly skimming over the new additions to the office. She quickly returned her attention to Daimlon. "You..You called for me?" She asked nervously. She kept her arms close to her body, and had her shoulders slumped slightly.

"Yes, I did. I wanted to go through the schedule for your tests with you. Feel free to help yourself to some tea." He said calmly, as he waved his hand in the direction of the tea maker.

She hesitated for a few moments before gently stepping over to the tea maker. While she poured herself a cup of tea, Daimlon reached into his desk to find the official schedule for the entire week. Jintsuu had a seat, resting her cup on the edge of Daimlon's desk. Daimlon pulled the sheet out of his drawer, closing the drawer after doing so, and handed it to Jintsuu. He then pulled up the sheet on his computer to follow along with her.

"So, today, as you know, is your accuracy test. Fairly self explanatory, do you have any questions?" He began to explain as he looked over to her, to find her staring intently at the sheet he had handed her.

"No." She said gently, as she continued to stare at the sheet.

He grabbed his cup and took a sip of his tea, which he found to be an excellent cup of tea, before setting it back down and turning back to his computer. "Alright, tomorrow we have your agility test." He said as he turned back to her. "Basically, we're going to set up a course that you're going to run through while timed. The course will be lined with marker buoys laid out forming a lane, and you have to run it as fast you can while staying within the marked area, obviously a lower time is better. Any questions regarding that test?" He asked.

"No." She said, taking a sip of her tea.

"The day after that, is an adaptability test. I don't want to say much on it, but expect parameters to change." He said as he grabbed his cup of tea, but refrained from taking another sip.

"Wh..What do you mean?" She asked calmly, looking up at him.

"All i'm going to say is that you should expect more than you're told. Telling you anything more would defeat the purpose of the test." He said, keeping even the broad details to himself. He took a sip from the cup before setting it down again.

"...I see." She said simply, looking back to her sheet.

"The day after that, you will take a written exam. It will test your knowledge extensively in all forms of combat." He explained.

Jintsuu looked up at him. "H-How long will the test be?" She asked softly.

Daimlon bit the inside of his lip gently as he thought. "That's to be determined, but so far we're looking at at least five pages of questions, with each question more difficult than the last." He said. He allowed a brief pause to elapse by taking a sip of his tea, enabling her to voice any further concerns. "Any more questions on the exam?" He asked

She just shook her head gently while she continued to eye the sheet of paper.

"Very well. The day after is the unit cohesion test." He cleared his throat briefly before continuing. "It's already been determined that you will command a two person team including yourself, and Asashio. The two of you will run a firing course, and it will be up to you to optimally clear the course with the most targets hit in the least amount of time. This test is designed to get a feel for your leadership qualities as well was your efficiency as part of a team. Any questions?" He said as he placed one leg on his knee, leaning back in his chair slightly.

Jintsuu calmly took a sip of her tea. "N-No questions." She said after she removed the cup from her lips, placing the empty cup on the edge of Daimlon's desk.

Daimlon looked back at his computer screen to see which test was next. "Next, we have an evasion test." He began to explain, immediately turning to face her. "Fairly self-explanatory, but you'll be asked to evade practice shells and torpedoes, possibly at the same time." He said, keeping a detail or two to himself.

"I have no questions." She stated as she looked at him.

"Good. Then we have the final test. This will mix elements of every other test into one, and assess your ability to utilize the various abilities that were tested on the fly in an actual combat scenario. It will be, by far, the most difficult test of the week." He said strongly. He looked at her with a stone cold face. "Do you have any questions on the final?" He asked.

"N-Not at the moment.. No." She said.

Daimlon paused for several seconds. He sat up straight again, removing his leg from his ankle as he did. "Good. I will now ask you to answer a couple questions." He said, as he began digging in his desk drawer again. He removed a sheet of paper with a few questions on it. The sheet had each of the test subjects with a series of numbers, one through ten, under each subject. He handed the sheet to Jintsuu, along with a pen. "I want you to rate how you think you'll do on each test. One being you think you'll do incredibly poorly, while ten is the exact opposite. Circle the number that indicates how well you think you'll perform." He said, as he relaxed and began to observe Jintsuu.

"O-Okay." She said calmly, as she began looking the sheet over, and began to think about each topic.

Nonna appeared a few moments later. She hesitated briefly. "Am I interrupting?" She asked politely.

"No, not at all. What's up?" He said as he looked up at Nonna.

"This is just your ten minute warning that construction of a ship will be completed soon." She said professionally, looking back at Daimlon.

He smiled at her. "Oh yeah, I was looking forward to that one." He said, excited to meet his new ship.

He looked back at Jintsuu briefly, only to find she was extending her hand out, holding the sheet in front of Daimlon, declaring she was finished.

"Done? Those are your final answers?" He asked, making sure she was certain about her responses.

"Yes." She said in a simple tone.

He grabbed the sheet of paper, and immediately planted it on his desk face down. "Alright, let's go welcome our new ship." He said as he stretched his arms while he sat.

"I can't join you this time, my hands are tied with test prep." Nonna explained as she checked her clipboard, scribbling on it a little.

"Understandable. Make sure you introduce yourself to her at one point or another." Daimlon advised, as he glanced up at Nonna.

"I'll be sure to do that. See you soon, Admiral." Nonna said, immediately dissipating in her cloud of white smoke.

Jintsuu began to stand from seat. "There was one more thing I wanted to tell you." Daimlon said. Jintsuu immediately stopped, and sat back down.

"What is it?" She asked as she looked at him.

"About today's test... We're expecting a storm which may hit us during your test. We're not going to cancel it, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention so it wasn't a surprise." He said softly.

"W-What will the conditions be like?" She asked as she placed her hands in her lap.

"According to the weather report, expect moderate rain, gusts as strong as twenty knots, and swells as large as two and half meters." He explained.

Her eyes dropped to the floor as she began to visualize the conditions in her head. She became visibly discouraged as she thought about it. Daimlon couldn't help but to speak up. "Don't worry, we'll apply a small boost to your score for operating in stormy conditions." He said reassuringly. He immediately slapped himself mentally.

Jintsuu looked up at him with soft eyes. "You will?" She asked.

"Of course. It wouldn't be a fair judgement otherwise." He stated, leaning back in his chair slightly.

Jintsuu gave a soft smile. "...T-Thank you.. Admiral." She said softly, averting her eyes away from Daimlon.

"Don't mention it." He muttered, just loudly enough for her to hear, as he crossed his arms.

"Now, let's go to the Construction Yard." He said as he stood up.

Jintsuu stood from her seat, holding her empty cup in her hand as she looked at Daimlon. "Um.. W-what do you want me to do with this?" She asked politely.

"Just set it in a separate stack of it's own next to the tea maker. I'll have it washed soon." Daimlon said as he started working his way around the desk.

Jintsuu set her cup upside down on the opposite side of the tea maker from the clean stack. The two of them walked out the door and headed over to the Construction Yard. The air was thick with moisture, and the clouds prevented most of the sunlight from reaching the ground. As far as Daimlon was concerned, there was no question about it anymore, it was definitely going to start raining within the hour. Walking down toward the base, Daimlon could see the test was almost finished being prepared. No more targets were stacked out on the harbor, as they were all set up properly, only their evasion parameters needed to be set before they were ready.

They patiently waited on the bench, watching the fairies tweak the targets. Asashio was also out on the water, assisting with whatever she could to help the process go along quicker. Jintsuu broke the silence. "When does.. My test begin?" She asked, looking straight ahead toward the harbor.

"After we meet our new ship, we're just waiting for a green light from Regina. Once Regina gives us the green light, you'll head out and your test will begin. Hopefully we can beat the weather." He said as he planted his leg on his knee, looking straight ahead. Daimlon and Jintsuu sat in silence for the remainder of the time.

As the sounds emanating from the Construction Yard ceased, the pair stood up and walked over to the large door. The Construction Yard opened it's doors slowly. The two brushed past the curtain that hung in front of them, stepping into the dark room.

The lights flickered on, revealing a girl the same size as Jintsuu. In fact, much to Daimlon's surprise, her uniform was almost identical to Jintsuu's as well. She had strong brown eyes, and shoulder length black hair, with small twin tails on either side of her head.

Almost immediately, he heard Jintsuu gasp audibly behind him, and at the same time the new girl smiled brightly. "Sendai!" "Jintsuu!" They both exclaimed to each other in unison. Jintsuu immediately started fast walking over to her with an enormous smile on her face, the largest Daimlon had ever seen on her. The other girl began walking to meet her, they embraced each other fully.

'Sendai, huh?' He thought to himself, making the connection between Jintsuu and her ship class. They mumbled back and forth to each other, inaudible to Daimlon, as they persisted in their embrace. Daimlon almost felt like he was intruding on something special, so he decided to wait patiently, and let them have their moment.

"It's so good to see you." Jintsuu muttered with a smile still plastered on her face. She could feel her own hot breath against the fabric on Sendai's shoulder.

Sendai raised her hand to cradle the back of Jintsuu's head. "It's nice to see you too." She said softly. "How are you doin'? Everything working out for ya?" Sendai asked with a smile on her face, speaking almost directly into Jintsuu's ear.

"I'm doing good, and i'm much better now that you're here." Jintsuu said as she began to feel tears well up.

"Glad to hear it..." Sendai said calmly. "Everyone treating you good?" She asked.

"Yes." Jintsuu responded with a slight nod.

"Good, I didn't want to get my hands dirty on my first day." Sendai murmured close to her ear, tightening her hug around Jintsuu slightly.

"Just try not to get yourself into too much trouble too quick, okay?" Jintsuu joked.

"Well, you know me. It's only a matter of time." Sendai stated softly. They stood there in silence for a few moments, refusing to let go of each other. "How's the Admiral here?"

Jintsuu buried herself deeper in their embrace and dropped her gaze to the floor, still wearing a smile. "...You'll like him." She said gently, almost in a whisper.

"Why don't you introduce me, eh?" Sendai asked softly with a smile.

"O-Okay." Jintsuu murmured, slowly withdrawing her smile. After a few more seconds of silence, Jintsuu broke off from the embrace, immediately turning to face Daimlon. "I-I'm sorry for delaying. Sendai, this is Admiral Daimlon. Daimlon, this is my sister ship, Sendai." She said softly.

"Just leave the night battles to me, Admiral!" Sendai exclaimed, raising her fist to point her thumb at herself.

Daimlon was somewhat relieved to see they were finished with their intimate moment. He immediately walked forward and stood within arms' reach of Sendai and Jintsuu. "Pleased to meet you, Sendai. You can call me Don if you wish. I assume by your comment that you're equipped with night fighting technology?" Daimlon said strongly.

"Nope, but I love night battles, and there's no one better at night fighting than me!" She said proudly.

Daimlon smiled at her. "Good to hear, I'll be sure to make note of that and get you some night battles." He said.

"You better, it would be a waste of my talents." Sendai remarked with a smile, crossing her arms as she spoke.

"I see you don't lack for confidence. What makes you so confident in yourself, Sendai?" Daimlon asked.

"Forget me. I want to know why I should offer myself to you, first. Tell me about yourself." Sendai said playfully, giving him a quick poke on the chest with a smile on her face. Immediately after poking him, she put her finger up to her chin, waiting for his response eagerly.

Daimlon hesitated for a few moments. He was completely unprepared for the question, but was rather pleased to hear it asked. Sendai was the first one to question him about his ability instead of the other way around. He gave a faint smile. "Sounds fair to me..." He said, briefly gathering his thoughts for a few moments before speaking in a proud tone. "I am Admiral Jeremy Daimlon, born in the United States, moving to Japan in my early teens, I've always strove to follow in my father's footsteps to become a naval officer. A couple months ago, I accomplished that by graduating from the best Naval Academy in the world at the top of my class. I now seek to command the best fleet in the Pacific, and bring the Abyssal forces to their knees. To do that, I will need more than just my own abilities. I'll need the finest assortment of ships that anyone could ask for. I don't need perfection, but I do need ships that constantly seek to better themselves, are fearless in the face of the enemy, and are unrelenting in combat. If you can offer that, Sendai, I extend my hand and ask you to join me." Daimlon spoke proudly, his eyes unwavering with stunning ferocity.

Sendai looked at him with a serious face. "Damn, you must rehearse that in the mirror every morning." She joked.

Daimlon was dumbstruck by her response, offering no words. Sendai smiled at Daimlon's reaction. "Relax, I'm fuckin' with ya... Though, I have to say, that was pretty convincing." She said.

Daimlon smiled back slightly at hearing she was joking around. 'She's so unlike her sister...' He thought to himself. "So are you in?" He asked.

"Hell yeah I am. Just point me at the bad guys, I wanna show you what I got!" She exclaimed eagerly, pulling her fist up in front of her face.

Daimlon raised his hands, motioning for her to slow down. "Relax, we're still building our forces and staying quiet for the time being. We will continue to do so until we get our official orders. Until then we will run expeditions, however, there won't be an expedition today due to weather conditions." He stated calmly.

Sendai just lowered her fist and gave a sigh of disappointment. "That bites." She murmured just loud enough for everyone else to hear. "Oh well, I'm sure I can find a way to keep myself entertained!" She said with a smile.

Daimlon just gave her a smile back. "Good to hear, I'd hate for you to get bored." He said sarcastically. "Come on, we'll give you the run around and show you where everything is." He said as he headed back for the curtain that hung over the entrance. Both Jintsuu and Sendai trailed behind him, stepping outside toward the rest of the base.

---

The base was covered in a veil of grey as the rain poured down. Visibility was reduced by roughly half, and the gusts were starting to get stronger. Daimlon stepped out the front door of his HQ with a solid white rain poncho on, draped over his officer's uniform. Regina floated over his shoulder, wearing a similar yellow rain poncho.

"I've already told Jintsuu to get ready, she should be in the Staging Area now getting prepped." She spoke louder than usual to talk over the roar of the rain.

"Where's the observation tower you were talking about?" He asked, speaking louder as well. The slack on his poncho was blowing in the wind as he waited for instruction.

"On the end of the fourth docking arm from here, to your left." She stated.

Daimlon looked to his left, and found the tower she was talking about in the distance. He began to trudge his way over to the tower, his feet splashing on standing water as he went. The rain beat relentlessly against his poncho, growing in intensity slightly. He soon found himself walking down the docking arm that contained the tower, which was made of steel and stood roughly fifteen meters tall. He took his first steps on the staircase, his shoes clanked on the metal staircase as he went. He reached the top to find a spacious peak, able to fit six people with ease.

Daimlon and Regina both removed their hoods as they reached the top, which was covered with a roof. Nonna and Asashio were waiting patiently for them, each wearing a colored rain poncho as well with their hoods down, blue for Asashio and green for Nonna. Normally he wouldn't want any other ships present, but he made an exception for Asashio since she was so involved with the process itself since it started.

"Commander." Asashio stated in acknowledgement.

Daimlon nodded at her, and calmly stepped toward them, stopping just in front of Nonna and Asashio. "Everything is set up properly, we're just waiting for your signal." Nonna said simplistically.

Asashio offered him a flare gun. He looked at her with a serious face. "Asashio, I want you to keep track of her score. Can you do that for me?" He said, pulling out a clipboard from under his poncho, holding it up to Asashio.

"With pleasure, sir." She said proudly as the two executed the trade. She removed the pen from the clip on the clipboard, and made a touch or two on the page before her. Daimlon gripped the flare gun and stepped forward to the edge of the tower, and observed the area around him. With only small support beams for the roof blocking small parts of his view, he could see the whole harbor from his position. He could see Jintsuu standing out on the water, only able to make out her long brown hair and peach colored uniform. Under the logic that one wouldn't be available in a real battle, Daimlon decided she wouldn't be permitted to use a poncho of her own during the test.

"You know how to score her test properly, right? Just like we discussed." He said, glaring out at Jintsuu as he spoke to Asashio.

"Of course." Asashio said as she took a spot standing next to Daimlon on his right, looking over Jintsuu as well.

"We should begin soon, I would hate to be standing out there waiting for too long." Regina said as she cleaned the raindrops off her glasses.

Nonna took a position floating over Daimlon's left shoulder. "I think Regina and I should keep track of score as well, just to make sure it's counted properly." She suggested.

"I like that idea. Go ahead." Daimlon said with a slight nod.

Regina took a spot floating between Asashio and Daimlon, clipboard ready.

"Everyone ready?" Daimlon asked, holding the flare gun out in front of him. He gripped it firmly with both hands, making sure to maintain trigger discipline. He slowly cocked the hammer back until it was locked in the ready position, making an audible click.

"Ready." Nonna stated, clipboard in hand.

Asashio just gave a slight nod, while Regina just adjusted her glasses.

"Alright, let's get started." Daimlon said.

Jintsuu stood out on the water, completely drenched from the rain that poured down around her as she bobbed up and down in the large swells. She flicked her soaked hair behind her, trying to keep it out of her face. Her hands were trembling as she stood out in the harbor. She had an obnoxious lump in her throat, her heart beat heavily, and she felt as though she was going to be sick, but she could feel a strong sense of determination pushing her on. She faced the docks, staring up at the tower, waiting for the signal to be given. She could see a couple people standing in the tower watching over her, but couldn't identify who was who.

A strong gust of wind caused her to wince with her right eye until she could shield it with her arm. The suspense was killing her, growing increasingly uneasy with each passing second. She fidgeted with her fingers, and her breathing became heavier. 'Relax. Take a deep breath' She thought to herself. The deep breath helped a little, but not much. She perked up as she saw motion in the tower. Her heart began to beat faster as she anticipated the signal. With a faint thump, she saw a small flash at the tower. A bright red flare burned a streak up through the grey sky, accompanied by the sound of a faint sizzle.

With the suspense behind her, she attempted to lock up her remaining anxiety, trying to block it out. She instantly turned a one-eighty as fast as she could, bending her knees and leaning into her turn, with a firm scowl written across her face. Her hair flung behind her from the momentum of her turn as she finished, and she raised her arms and began taking aim, completely focused on the targets off in the distance. She took her time aiming, as there was no time limit, making sure she factored in every possible variable.

She waited patiently for the swell she was on to peak. With a loud bang from her cannon, she let her first shell loose on the nearest target. Using tracer ammunition, she followed her shell all the way to the end, and watched it impact with a crash into the metal target, causing a bright spark to shine as it penetrated through. She felt a surge of determination and confidence as she smirked slightly. She quickly wiped the smirk off and continued scowling at the remaining nineteen targets before her. She took aim at the nearest target, and as her swell peaked at the top, fired a single shot at it.

There was a strong gust of wind just as she fired, and she watched her tracer veer to the right of the target due to the wind. She quickly readjusted her aim to compensate for the gust and fired another shot. It smashed it's way through the target at eight hundred meters per second. With drops of rain pouring down her face, she began to take aim at the next target. She lined up the shot, waited for the swell to peak, and released her shell. It was dead on, but the target itself veered to the right, dodging the shot.

She squinted her eyes in disbelief with her mouth slightly agape. She shook it off and put on a determined look. She lined up three cannons onto the target, one dead on, one to the right, the other to the left. She fired all three simultaneously. The target attempted to veer to the left, but one of her rounds crashed right through it.

So far all the target she had hit were in the shorter ranges, and she was working her way out of her comfort zone quickly. She lined up the next target and prepared five of her cannons at once, and fired off a single shot at the top of the swell. It missed, but it gave her feedback on how to adjust her guns. She immediately let another shot loose, only to have the shot go directly over the target as the swell it rode on dipped. She could feel her once bolstered confidence waning. She readjusted again, and fired her shot, only to have the target dodge it by veering left, slightly faster than the previous target. She felt the anxiety she caged up earlier rattle her from within as she tried to maintain composure.

She was permitted only one hundred shells of ammunition, having expended ten rounds already for only the three easiest targets, she knew she had to step it up. She prepared to fire three simultaneously again, just as she had before. She released her shots, one of them striking the target.

Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she finished the short range targets. She was now at the mid-range targets, they were smaller than the previous ones, and were less stable in the swells. They moved about more unpredictably than the others, overall a significant step up in difficulty, especially in a storm. She began to line up her guns with the target, a crack of lightning piercing the sky over the targets as she did.

Jintsuu fired off two shells at the small target, one narrowly missing while the other was off by quite a margin. She could feel her anxiety creeping back up on her as she fired another volley of two, both missing once again. Her guts wrenched violently as she began to realize the difficulty of this test. She lined up her guns, and after waiting for a brief reload, fired five shots all at once. They spread out evenly as they cruised for the target. The target reacted, shifting to the right to avoid the fire, but a round struck the outer edge of it.

Daimlon crossed his arms as he continued to observe the bright tracers scream down range at their intended targets. It was obvious to Daimlon that Jintsuu was nearing the end of her rope. He watched a full salvo of seven tracers streak right past their intended target, with no hits, as it dodged the incoming fire. He could almost see her composure shattering through her body language, as she was visibly nowhere near as calm and collected as she was when they began. She fired another full salvo, all round missing once again.

"Five targets. mark her down for a five percent hit rate. This test is already over. When she runs out of ammunition, I want one of you two to go over to her and tell her she is to get off the water, and get herself ready for tomorrow's test." Daimlon stated, speaking to Regina and Nonna, his arms still crossed.

"Understood." Nonna said softly. They continued to watch as Jintsuu hopelessly fired salvo after salvo at the target.

Jintsuu ran out of ammunition, and she knew she had done terribly. Her heart was in pieces as it pounded away. Her insides were in shreds as she felt tears begin to well up. She stood there in disbelief as the rain continued to fall on her.

"Jintsuu." A voice spoke up behind her. Jintsuu turned around to look at Nonna wearing her green rain poncho. Nonna just looked at her sullenly before speaking again once she had Jintsuu's attention. "You scored a five percent on the accuracy test. With the boost given for stormy conditions, it was bumped to an eight percent. Daimlon would like you to go ahead and get yourself dried off and begin preparing for tomorrow's test." Nonna said, looking into her eyes.

Jintsuu just looked at her for several seconds before looking down at the water. "O..Okay." She said, her voice cracked slightly when she started to speak. With that, Nonna went back up to the tower. Jintsuu took a deep breath as she felt the dagger dig deeper into her chest. She shoved off for the Staging Area to be disarmed for the day. She was soaked head to toe as she stepped back onto the concrete, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment. Water dripped off her steadily as she walked up the steps, thinking about where she went wrong during the test.

---

[The next day]

The storm had subsided, and the sun shone brightly over the base, with calm waters as far as the eye could see. The sun hung high in the sky as it was approaching noon, and a cool breeze flowed through the humid air. It was tranquil across the base except for the buoys being laid out for Jintsuu's agility and speed test. The prep work was almost finished, all that remained were to lay down the final few dozen buoys that marked the path.

Daimlon was in his office alone, assessing data that had been gathered by Jintsuu's accuracy test. He made sure the accuracy test would be difficult, but he never expected her to only score hits on five of the targets. He scratched the stubble on his jaw as he flipped over to the page he had on today's agility test. 'Perhaps... I am being a bit harsh.' He thought to himself, realizing the course he set up would likely cause even a Destroyer like Asashio or Maikaze to struggle. While he intentionally made the tests to be too difficult for Jintsuu to pass to induce stress on her, he didn't want her to fail outright. Having her fail outright would give him no insight into her abilities, and would only cause her confidence to further disintegrate, deepening the very problem he was trying to mend.

Daimlon couldn't change today's agility test, but he could make the adaptability test significantly easier. He decided he would make it a legitimate test, easy enough that Jintsuu would have a fighting chance, but hard enough that it still strained her abilities. He put a reminder on the note sheet for the adaptability test, as the details were still to be decided.

He clicked his pen and set it down, sitting back in his seat as he took a deep breath. He turned to his computer, and started navigating through the base's systems. He opened the Construction tab, and began browsing through the various upgrades that were available to his base. There was a small search bar at the top, where he typed 'Resource'. It filtered the results down to the four unique resource generators that were found on the base. Each had to be upgraded independently, and would cost six hundred of each resource besides the one it produced. If he wanted to upgrade all four, which he did, it would cost him a grand total of 1800 of each resource.

He started doing the math in his head as he stared at his screen. 'With a rate of one resource every six minutes for every generator, that would mean ten resources per hour, which is easily two hundred and forty of each resource produced a day. Double that for the upgrades, and it would take only four days for the generators to pay for their own upgrades, everything after is clean profit.' Daimlon thought to himself. He was considering dropping production of ships in favor of improving his economy, so he could produce more ships quicker afterward. He already determined it would take a few days to accrue the resources necessary for the upgrades if expeditions went well. The fact that the upgrades would pay for themselves in just shy of four days was a major selling point for Daimlon.

His mind already made up, he decided to see what else was worth upgrading soon. Just as he went to do so, Regina appeared in the room.

"Jintsuu's test is ready, do you want me to go ahead and have her set sail?" Regina said, adjusting her glasses.

"Of course. Let me wrap up what I'm doing here and I'll meet you and Nonna at the tower shortly." He stated, looking at her.

"Right, see you soon." She said, dissipating as she finished.

He turned his attention back to his computer. He wanted to check on his expedition fleet to see how they were doing. He opened his fleets tab and examined the expedition fleet he had organized earlier in the day. They had been on the water for about three hours now, and offered no reports of enemy presence. Every girl he had, except for Lilly and Jintsuu, was listed in the fleet roster. The panel didn't offer him as much information as he had hoped. With only a small map indicating their position, and a status indicator next to each of the girls in the fleet, he was disappointed with the scarcity of information.

Slightly frustrated, he stood from his seat and started heading out the door, setting his destination for the observation tower.

Jintsuu stepped into the Staging Area to get ready for her test. She was already a nervous wreck, terrified of repeating her utter failure from the day before. Her heart was beating heavily, and felt a mild pain in her chest. After the fairies equipped her with all equipment, she set out onto the harbor. She cruised her way into the sunlight and began to examine the course that was laid out for her. Marked with small buoys, most of them were a bright orange, however, at intersections there were green buoys that ran only one direction, making it easy to tell which set of buoys she was supposed to follow at a glance.

Her concentration was broken as she heard Daimlon's recognizable voice being projected over loudspeaker. "The starting line has been marked with large flags. Head over to the flagged buoys and face away from the tower." He echoed from the tower. She looked up at the tower to see a single person standing in the middle, with two fairies floating over each shoulder. She turned away to look at the course, trying to find the flagged buoys, which she did after a brief search.

She gently pulled herself in between the two lines of buoys, centering herself as she stood in front of the two marked buoys, facing away from the tower. A few seconds of silence fell as she waited. "You are to run this course as fast as you can. You will begin when I say start, and the timer will be ticking from that moment on, stopping only when you complete one full lap of the course. If you fall outside the area marked by the buoys, a time penalty will be applied against you. If you understand, and are ready to begin, give a thumbs up. If you have any concerns about the test, raise your hand." Daimlon's voice echoed loudly through the air.

Jintsuu just chinned down as she fiercely fought her own anxiety, trying to suppress it as much as she could. She bent her knees slightly, and bent over a little to lower her center of gravity, and spread her arms out to maintain proper balance. She extended her left hand out as far as she could and gave the thumbs up.

A dreadful delay transpired, allowing Jintsuu's anxiety to begin rising up again. "Begin!" She heard, and immediately started down the course as fast she could. She quickly approached the first turn, a sharp ninety degree turn to the right. She swept her way to the left side of the lane in preparation, and slowed down just before she executed the turn. She executed her turn, increasing engine power mid way through as she leaned heavily into her turn. She was quickly approaching the border of the boundaries, but assessed that she should could get away with keeping her current engine power. She almost clipped one of the buoys as she straightened out, immediately maxing out her engine power.

She could see off in the distance the next turn would be a left turn. She slowly moved over to hug the right side of the buoys as close as possible. Once she was closer, she could see it was a one-eighty degree turn, a rather sharp one. She reversed her engines as she came close to the turn, and cut the turn sharply. She idled her engine as she rounded the corner, leaning into her turn. She came face to face with a long straight away, but found herself drifting toward the right side, and would soon be outside of the border. She angled her engines further into her turn to the left and increased her engine power to full, still leaning into the turn. She felt her stomach drop as the buoys came closer and closer. She felt a buoy brush against her arm as she finally straightened out. She lost some momentum from sliding across the water briefly, but quickly built up the speed again as she began to examine her next actions.

In front of her was a long straight away with two sets of green buoys running across the path in front. She ignored the green buoys for the time being as they didn't pertain to her yet, and looked far beyond to see another ninety degree right turn. She drifted herself to the left until she was hugging the edge of the buoys again, moving as fast as she could. She quickly approached the turn, reversing her engines. She then realized the buoys choked closer together, halving the width of the lane, just after the turn. It was too late, she couldn't slow down any faster than she already was, and executed her turn.

She turned herself almost sideways, facing into her turn at max engine power, trying to avoid going outside the boundary line at all cost. Her attempt to salvage the turn was futile, as she couldn't keep up with the bottleneck in the buoys. She slipped outside the boundary line and passed three buoys before swerving back inside the buoys. Her heart stung as she could almost feel the time penalty being branded onto her.

"Well, there's the first fifteen second penalty." Daimlon said, his arms crossed as he watched Jintsuu navigate the course laid out in front of him. He almost felt sick to his stomach knowing her time would be atrocious, as the course only got harder from there. Just as he expected, Jintsuu failed to stay within the course on the next turn, and the turn after that. He continued to watch as she struggled to cope with the course, performing worse and worse with each passing turn. She continued to try to navigate the course as fast as she could, desperate to try and make up for lost time.

He looked at Nonna to his right, who was holding on to a stopwatch. "This is... Difficult to watch." She said, seeing Daimlon look at her out of the corner of her eye.

He paused for a moment. "It has to be done." He said calmly, returning his gaze to the tower of water being kicked up behind Jintsuu as she failed yet another turn.

"She looked devastated after yesterday's test... I'm worried about her." Regina said, floating to Daimlon's right with a clipboard in hand, keeping track of how many times she fell outside the buoys.

Neither Daimlon nor Nonna responded, but simply continued to watch. Daimlon wasn't paying attention to the test anymore, but was instead completely lost in thought. He wanted to cushion the blow to Jintsuu from this test, but he needed to do it in a fashion that wouldn't relieve too much pressure. He wasn't sure how to do it. Anything he thought of would make it obvious that he curved the test for her, or would be counterproductive to the entire point of the tests by relieving the pressure off Jintsuu. Jintsuu was nearing the finish line as he continued to scramble for an excuse to curve the test.

Daimlon arrived at his answer just as Jintsuu was nearing the final turns. "Lie to her. Tell her we had Asashio run the course, who only ran it three minutes faster than she did." Daimlon stated. "Mark her off for a sixty three percent." He said. He looked to Nonna, who was already looking at him with a shocked look, giving her a stone cold face, ensuring she knew he was serious.

After making sure he was completely serious, Nonna wiped the shocked look off her face and replaced it with a warm smile. "Will do." Nonna said.

Jintsuu flew past the finish line, and stopped. She immediately chinned down, assuming a grim posture, sure she had totally flunked the test yet again. Daimlon could almost feel the despair that radiated from her.

"Calculate her final time, and then sugar coat the shit out of it." Daimlon said with a smile. The two fairies consulted one another and began to tally up her total. Once the final time was tallied, Nonna set out to deliver the results to Jintsuu. Daimlon pinched the back of her shirt just as she floated outside of the tower. She looked back at him, puzzled. "This stays between us, no one else is to know this happened." He said loudly, stressing his words. He let go of Nonna's shirt as he finished.

She smiled at him. "Of course." She said, returning to fly forward toward Jintsuu. With that, Daimlon turned around and started down the metal steps of the tower to head back to his office. Regina watched him leave, a faint smile on her face.

---

BOOKMARK: HALFWAY POINT - IF YOU WANT TO STOP HERE, USE THIS AS A POINT OF REFERENCE.

---

BOOKMARK: HALFWAY POINT - IF YOU WANT TO STOP HERE, USE THIS AS A POINT OF REFERENCE.

---

BOOKMARK: HALFWAY POINT - IF YOU WANT TO STOP HERE, USE THIS AS A POINT OF REFERENCE.

---

BOOKMARK: HALFWAY POINT - IF YOU WANT TO STOP HERE, USE THIS AS A POINT OF REFERENCE.

---

BOOKMARK: HALFWAY POINT - IF YOU WANT TO STOP HERE, USE THIS AS A POINT OF REFERENCE.

---

It was dark, roughly 2000 hours, and the rest of the day was uneventful. The expedition had returned several hours after the test with only a mediocre find. Maikaze and Lilly had their daily dance sessions, Daimlon and Asashio locked themselves away in his office for the rest of the day, and Sendai took a nap as soon as she got back.

Jintsuu was completely wiped out. She got almost no sleep the prior night, too distracted by her performance on the accuracy test. She was in her room in the Crew Quarters, wearing pink pajamas as she was about to slip into her futon. She was standing in front of a body mirror that hung beside her door, bending over slightly to brush her long hair before going to bed.

There was a knock on the door, and within moments Sendai burst the door open and invited herself in. "Good evening, Jintsuu!" She exclaimed. She was initially wearing an enormous smile, but wiped it off when she looked at Jintsuu. She tilted her head slightly with a curious look on her face. "You're already going to bed?" Sendai asked.

Jintsuu paused for a few seconds at Sendai's intrusion, but continued brushing as if nothing had happened shortly after. "Yeah. I didn't take a nap like you did." She said simply, completely exhausted.

Sendai scooted over next to Jintsuu and wrapped an arm around her neck. "Hey, that's not my fault." Sendai said with a smile. Sendai ruffled Jintsuu's hair at the top. "How'd your test go today, anyway?" She asked.

Jintsuu swatted Sendai's hand away before she could cause any more damage to her hair. Completely aware of what Sendai was up to, she just sighed, and knelt down in front of the mirror. "Better than I thought. I did... horrendously bad, but still scored a sixty." She stated.

Sendai snatched the brush from Jintsuu's hand, and immediately started tending to her sister ship's hair for her. After all, that was the only reason she messed it up to begin with. "A hell of a lot better than yesterday. Relax, Jintsuu, you're going to ace the next one." Sendai said encouragingly with a smile.

Jintsuu just watched Sendai brush her hair for a few seconds. "I'll definitely give it all I've got." She said calmly.

"Well that's expected, you need to go out there and knock some socks off!" Sendai exclaimed, pointing the brush at Jintsuu through the mirror before continuing to brush.

"I can't ask for more than my best effort." Jintsuu responded, exhaustion prevalent in her voice. Her eyes felt heavy, and she was starting to struggle to keep them open. The brush running against her head helped, however.

"True... Whatever happens, I'll still be here to brush your hair for you any time." Sendai said cheerfully with a smile. She continued to stroke Jintsuu's soft hair, making sure to brush it all evenly.

Jintsuu felt uplifted, knowing that she had Sendai around now. Despite being a care free, overly energetic, and eccentric girl most of the time, she always tried to be the compassionate older sister when she needed to be. Sendai finished brushing Jintsuu's hair, and chucked the brush on top of Jintsuu's dresser. "Thanks, Sendai." Jintsuu said as she stood up.

"No problem at all. You sound totally beat, you goin' to bed now?" Sendai asked as Jintsuu turn to face her.

Jintsuu simply smiled slightly and nodded at her.

"Alright then, I'll let you get the sleep you need for tomorrow. C'mon, bring it in." Sendai said proudly, stretching her arms out for a hug.

Jintsuu wrapped her arms around Sendai firmly. Sendai returned her hug, and ran her hand up and down Jintsuu's back a little. She felt a slight bump across Jintsuu's back. Completely shocked, Sendai broke the hug and gripped Jintsuu's upper arms firmly, looking into her eyes. "You sleep with your bra on!?" She exclaimed.

"Uh, Yeah... Why?" Jintsuu asked innocently.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? Nobody does that! Nobody!" Sendai said loudly, almost shouting.

Jintsuu was a little afraid of Sendai's serious reaction over something so small. "P-People sleep without a bra?" Jintsuu questioned seriously.

"Oh my god." Sendai breathed as she rolled her eyes. "Jintsuu, that's like asking if people eat to survive! It's so obvious!" Sendai lectured. Sendai immediately started grabbing at Jintsuu's top.

"Hey, stop that! What are you doing?" Jintsuu said in a raised voice, fighting Sendai to keep her clothes on.

"Just relax, I'm helping you in your time of need!" Sendai said, struggling against Jintsuu's resistance.

Jintsuu continued to struggle for a solid six seconds before completely giving up, going limp and letting Sendai do what she wanted. She knew Sendai wouldn't back down once she made up her mind, and she really didn't have the energy to resist anyway. Sendai immediately chucked the bra to the side of the room, and even put Jintsuu's top back on for her. "Doesn't that feel so much better!?" Sendai asked with an enormous smile on her face.

Jintsuu just looked at her with a blank expression. "Yep." She said simplistically.

Proud of herself, Sendai nudged Jintsuu over to her futon, and ushered her in. She knelt down beside Jintsuu once she was tucked away in her futon. "Want me to read you a bed time story?" Sendai teased with a smile.

"If I say no, will you go away?" Jintsuu asked, looking for an answer she knew she wasn't going to get.

"Probably not!" Sendai shouted, joking around with Jintsuu.

Jintsuu just stared up at her for a few seconds. "No thanks." She said, just wanting to go to sleep and nothing more.

Sendai just gave her a small laugh. "Alright, fine. If you didn't have a test tomorrow, you'd definitely be getting that story, though." She said, speaking without a hint of dishonesty. Sendai stood up and headed for the door. "Goodnight, Jintsuu." She said as she opened the door, looking back at her.

"Goodnight, Sendai." Jintsuu said, looking at Sendai as she stood there with the door open.

Sendai flicked the light switch off, and shut the door behind her. Jintsuu rolled over to her side, and began to ease herself to sleep. She did have to admit that she was infinitely more comfortable. Despite having her thoughts occupied by the tests, exhaustion closed Jintsuu's eyes and forced her to sleep.

---

Daimlon was standing in the tower with Nonna, Regina, and Asashio, his arms crossed firmly. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining bright in a cloud specked sky. A gentle breeze flowed through the air as the sound of cannon shots rang loudly from the area. Jintsuu had just started her test, and was taking aim at some fairly large targets off in the distance. She had taken out a handful of targets, which she found strangely much easier than her accuracy test. They were larger and didn't react to her fire at all. Jintsuu wasn't in a mood to complain about it, however, as she continued to fire away at the targets with a scowl across her face.

"Incoming Battleships, prepare your torpedoes!" An unfamiliar feminine voice shouted over the base's loudspeakers. Just as the voice ended, several wide targets appeared that stuck up just above the water's surface, indicating they were torpedo targets. Four of them popped up at various ranges, each moving at a slow but steady speed.

Jintsuu fired off one last shot at one of the targets off in the distance before bringing her torpedoes to bear. She calculated the lead she would have to give each target on the fly. She fired a single torpedo at each target, and started waiting for hits by switching back to her cannons and letting loose on the targets off in the distance once again.

She knocked down several more targets before the loudspeakers came alive again. "Enemy Destroyers to your right, watch out!" The voice shouted, completely monotone. Jintsuu looked to her right to see that three small targets had appeared at a close range to her right. She quickly took aim and fired at all three in quick succession, burning a round through one of the metal targets. She reloaded her guns, and fired a second volley, hitting the other two targets this time.

She turned her attention back forward to see that only two of the four torpedo targets had a green light illuminating on top, indicating they had been struck by a practice torpedo. The other two targets sunk back below the surface, no longer available as a viable target. Her heart raced as she struggled to keep pace with the test's constant redirection. Despite feeling like she was doing much better this time, she felt as though she wasn't doing good either.

"Heads up, enemy aircraft inbound!" The voice shouted over the loudspeakers.

"To your left, Jintsuu, your left!" Maikaze shouted from the docks. Lilly, Maikaze, Marie, and Sendai were all cheering Jintsuu on this time as she continued to fill the air with the thick smell of gunpowder.

Jintsuu immediately looked up and to her left, sure enough to find a small flight of three aircraft coming in quickly. She readied her AA batteries, and took aim briefly. Once she was confident she would strike at least near the target, she lit the sky up with her three inch AA cannons. They were moving much quicker than she first guessed, only realizing that when they flew past her. She corrected her aim and continued firing at them, leading a little extra. She finally managed to knock one down, but the other two managed to get out of range.

"More enemy Destroyers to your left!" The voice shouted over the loudspeaker, still monotone.

Daimlon continued to watch with a slight smirk on his face. She wasn't hitting as many of the targets as he predicted, but she wasn't doing terribly, and that's all he cared about at the moment. Cannon shots continued to echo through the air as she fired on the mock Destroyer targets.

"This test was well put together, I like it a lot." Asashio stated, a clipboard in hand as she was keeping tabs on targets hit and missed for each portion of the test.

"Another wave of enemy Battleships. Prep torpedoes!" They heard the monotone voice penetrate the air.

"I agree, It's not a one sided beat down anymore." Daimlon said, continuing to observe Jintsuu launch several torpedoes.

Nonna and Regina were both helping to keep score on their clipboards. "She's barely keeping up, it's still too difficult for her." Regina said.

"That's the point, she's not supposed to pass them, remember? We want to see how she handles pressure and stress, the problem was we were laying it on way too quickly." Daimlon said, looking at Regina.

"Enemy Submarine entering the harbor, ready your depth charges!" The monotone voice shouted.

Asashio immediately looked at the paper in front of her funny. "Wait.. I don't have a submarine section on my paper." She said, a little concerned.

"Ignore it, keep track of how she does and add it in by hand. It'll be fine." Daimlon said as he continued to observe Jintsuu.

"Another enemy fleet off in the distance, ready your guns!" The monotone voice shouted over loudspeaker.

"Did you add that in at the last minute, Daimlon? I don't recall us adding any submarines at all." Nonna said, looking up at him puzzled.

Daimlon just returned her looked, a little concerned look on his face. "No, I figured you must have. Regina, was it you?" He said as he felt his heart skip a beat.

"No.. I wouldn't do that without asking you first." Regina said, adjusting her glasses.

"Regina, go check it out, make sure that Submarine isn't real." Daimlon commanded, frankly concerned. Regina dissipated in a white puff of smoke as she teleported back to the Fairy Command Center in the Fairy Quarters, the backbone of all information going through the base. He was hesitant about stopping the test, as he had didn't want to raise a false alarm in case it was some sort of mistake. "Asashio, head down the tower and go ask Marie if she slipped any Submarine targets into the test at the last second, but make sure you pull her away from everyone else so they don't hear." He said.

"Right away." Asashio said, immediately turning and bolting down the metal steps as fast as she could.

He waited anxiously as Nonna stayed to keep track of Jintsuu's score. "More enemy aircraft incoming!" The voice penetrated the air that was thick with tension in the tower.

No more than two minutes later, Daimlon could hear the metal clanking behind him. He turned to see Asashio running up the steps. "She denies altering the test in any way." Asashio said clearly as she topped the steps, breathing a little heavier than usual.

Regina popped back in through her puff of white smoke. "Daimlon, it's real. One of our scout aircraft spotted a dark shadow submerged below the water, it is currently inbound to our harbor, it will be inside the harbor within one minute." She spoke heavily with a dead serious face.

"God dammit." Daimlon said as his heart sank. He wasn't expecting it to be that close to the harbor already. It was the last thing he wanted, the Abyssals to interrupt a test of his, and one of the more important ones at that. He pointed at Nonna. "Raise the alarm and ready all base defenses, I want the harbor guns trained on the Sub's location at all times, it can't harm the base unless it surfaces." He commanded loudly. Nonna simply nodded and dissipated.

He pointed to Regina. "Go tell Jintsuu to get off the water immediately, and load all idle scout aircraft with depth charges and have them intercept it immediately." He shouted. Regina flew out toward Jintsuu without hesitation.

"Commander, send me out there, I can destroy it. I have sonar and depth charges, and I can dodge a torpedo like it's nothing." Asashio said with a heavy tone.

"I can't do that. I'm not going to put more of my ships in danger than necessary, Jintsuu will be safe soon." He reasoned, looking at her with a serious face.

"You and I both know she might be intercepted by that Submarine, it's not far at all." She said, raising her voice a little. The base's alarm was raised at that point, and alarms wailed through the sky, causing everyone not clued in to what was going on to look around curiously. Regina was busy speaking with Jintsuu moments after the alarm was raised.

Daimlon couldn't allow it. "You won't be able to scramble fast enough, by the time you set sail Jintsuu would already be safe, it's pointless." He said fiercely.

Asashio just glared daggers at Daimlon. Daimlon took a deep breath, and planted his hand on her head. "Relax, Asashio. Once Jintsuu is safe, that Submarine can't do anything to harm us or this base." He said, trying to get Asashio to calm down a little.

Nonna returned at that moment. "I've done as you said, the guns are tracking the target." Nonna said as quickly as she could.

Regina was still speaking to Jintsuu, it seemed Regina had to explain to Jintsuu exactly what was happening. Daimlon watched as he saw Jintsuu's eyes widen, stricken with a sense of fear. She nodded at Regina, and immediately started heading toward the Staging Area. It was then that Daimlon could see the small dark shadow loom menacingly into the harbor. His heart began to beat wildly as he assessed it would have plenty of time to line up a shot at her.

He saw a couple seaplanes take off from the seaplane hangar, loaded with depth charges, and begin climbing to a reasonable altitude. He instinctively ran down the steps. "Where are you going?" Asashio asked. Her question went unanswered as he shuffled down the steps. She decided to follow him, with Nonna making the same decision shortly after.

He sprinted over to the Staging Area as fast as he could. At the very least, he could pull Jintsuu to safety until it was safe to disarm her. He crashed through the front door of the Staging Area. The Staging Area was illuminated by bright pulsating red lights as a result of the alarm. He immediately saw Jintsuu coming closer to the docking area, and continued to sprint to the nearest dock. Asashio and Nonna followed shortly after him. "Jintsuu, get over here, now!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. He couldn't see the Submarine's shadow, but he knew it had to be close enough to fire torpedoes at the dock, and he didn't want to be standing on that dock when the torpedoes exploded.

Jintsuu raced into the Staging Area as fast as she could. "Grab on!" Daimlon shouted as he extended his hand. She grabbed on firmly, and Daimlon pulled her onto the dock. She was unable to stand on the concrete with her equipment on, and leaned heavily into Daimlon to support her weight. "Help me get her up the steps!" Daimlon shouted at Asashio.

Asashio wordlessly scrambled down the steps to help him. Daimlon then heard the water churn behind him, in the direction of the harbor. His heart dropped as he turned his head around. He watched the Submarine break the surface tension as it surfaced. He soon found himself staring down a Submarine. He wasn't expecting to see a young girl staring back, water pouring off her as she stood.

She had a full grey military uniform on, complete with garrison cap, and a small headpiece, with an antenna attached to the left side of her headpiece. Large torpedo tubes hung off her on either side at hip level, facing frontward. She had pale skin, and equally pale blonde hair with stoic eyes that shone a similar shade to her uniform. She stood close to them, hands on her hips as she looked at them.

"I am U-511 of the German Kriegsmarine. Please do not be alarmed." She said calmly. Daimlon was in utter disbelief. He felt Asashio take the weight of Jintsuu off his shoulder, and he took a step closer to her to examine her. Daimlon felt uneasy as he assessed the girl in front of him. Her eyes and expression were locked in a strong, stoic position, daring others to challenge her. Yet, she possessed a serene aura that was gentle, and soft, creating a tranquil atmosphere that radiated from her presence.

Daimlon swallowed the lump in his throat as his heart continued to pound away in his chest. She continued to stare at him with a completely blank expression, awaiting his response. "Uh. Hello, U-511-" He started to speak before being cut off.

"Please, just call me Yuu." she said in the same calm manner as before.

"Alright, Yuu, what brings a German Submarine to this base?" He asked her, finally getting a handle on the absurd situation that just played out.

"Can you.. Let me.. Back in the water?" Jintsuu asked Asashio behind him. Shortly after, Daimlon could hear Jintsuu being placed back on the water.

"You are Admiral Daimlon, right?" She asked, not moving a muscle.

"That's correct." Daimlon responded.

Yuu continued to maintain eye contact with Daimlon, that cold but calm stare still sending mixed signals to him. She didn't say anything, and slid closer to the dock, standing right in front of Daimlon as she unzipped her jacket, reaching into it. She withdrew a small wad of papers stapled together, rolled up tightly. She offered the roll of papers to Daimlon wordlessly. It had a string tied around it to keep it from being opened.

Daimlon took the papers from Yuu gently, untied the string, unrolled them, and began reading the contents of the pages. It was an official letter from the Grand Admiral.

'Admiral Daimlon, standing before you now, as I'm sure you're aware, is U-511 of the German Kriegsmarine. However, she prefers to be called Yuu from what I'm told. She is being transferred to your base, and is to operate under your command starting from the time you read this letter. She is the first German ship to be sent to us as foreign aid, considering the situation in the Atlantic is far better than our own in the Pacific. If things go well, we can likely expect more ships to arrive to the Pacific through foreign aid, especially as the Abyssals are pushed back in the Atlantic. However, the sea lanes leading to the Pacific are closed by heavy Abyssal presence, having Yuu slip by undetected was a gamble at best, so don't expect much more until the sea lanes are opened.

Daimlon finished the first part of the page. He could feel Yuu's stare burn into his very soul. He glanced up at Yuu. She stood with her body angled off to the side slightly, showing Daimlon her left shoulder, while she continued to look directly at him. She had her left hand on her hip as she waited for him to finish reading. It made him uncomfortable, but he continued to read the words that filled the page in front of him.

Yuu is now under your command, Daimlon, treat her as one of your own and make sure to keep her safe. With that said, I have your first set of official orders for you to execute. I understand your forces aren't yet adequately built for battle, but we need you to move out sooner than expected. Five hundred kilometers to your east, there is an Abyssal outpost, home to a fleet of Destroyers, and Light Cruisers. This island is to be referred to as 'UG Island'. Their base is somewhat small, but they're pumping out Destroyers that are being sent out to disrupt our supply lines. Your orders are to terminate this base, along with as many enemy ships as possible. There is no deadline on this task, however, the sooner you can destroy that base, the better. Included in these papers are details on the island, including defenses and garrison. I trust you will have the base nothing more than ashes soon. I look forward to your mission report on the operation, and I hope a status update on Jintsuu comes included with it. Good luck Daimlon.

He finished reading the front page, and flipped to the next page. The rest of the four pages contained all the information he could ever want on both Yuu and UG Island. He immediately saw that Yuu had been in service for over a year, and had almost ninety confirmed kills, most of them transport ships. He looked up at her, impressed by her service record. She hadn't moved a muscle from her previous pose. "Eighty eight confirmed kills, that's impressive." Daimlon noted aloud. Yuu just continued to stare at him as if Daimlon's compliment didn't mean anything. "So you understand you're being transferred, right?" Daimlon questioned, making sure she knew.

"Yes." She said simply.

Daimlon paused for a moment before speaking. "Very well then, it's nice to meet you, Yuu." Daimlon said, extending his hand for a handshake.

She looked at his hand for a few seconds. She, instead, offered a firm salute. Daimlon shifted to give her a salute instead. "It's nice to meet you as well." She said calmly.

They dropped their salutes. "Go ahead and get disarmed, I'll have someone show you around. You too, Jintsuu, your test is over for today." Daimlon said, looking to his right at Jintsuu on the tail end of his sentence.

Yuu nodded at him, and slid into one of the docks, beginning the disarming process. "D-Does that mean... Today.. Didn't count?" She asked, curious as to what was going to happen since her test was interrupted.

"No, you will be scored only on what you completed, anything that was supposed to occur afterward won't count for or against you." Daimlon said, looking at Jintsuu. He returned his attention to Yuu

"You really gave us a scare, Yuu. Why did you approach a friendly harbor, that had no idea you were coming, submerged?" Daimlon asked her, watching as the fairies removed her torpedo tubes slowly.

"I was instructed to arrive at this base undetected. There was a Destroyer just outside the harbor, so I dove to avoid detection. I apologize for not surfacing sooner. It was my mistake." She said calmly.

Daimlon took a deep breath. "Don't worry about it, everything's fine now." He said as he started walking up the steps behind him, brushing past Asashio on his way. It was then that he noticed that Nonna was no longer there, and the base alarm had been silenced.

Yuu stepped onto the concrete, still soaked with water. She no longer had her torpedo tubes at her hips, and had her headpiece removed with antenna. She only had her uniform and garrison cap remaining. She stood only slightly taller than Asashio on solid ground. She pattered her way softly up the steps behind Daimlon, making eye contact with Asashio, but not acknowledging her. Shortly after, Jintsuu stepped onto the concrete of a different dock, and walked up the steps. Asashio just couldn't move, and stood there staring at the water at the edge of the small docking arm she stood on.

Daimlon opened the front door, and stepped outside of the Staging Area to find Nonna in front of a small crowd, consisting of the rest of the girls.

"What happened, Admiral?" Maikaze asked, immediately taking note of Daimlon's exit from the building.

"Is everything okay?" Lilly asked just as Maikaze finished.

"Hurry up and tell us!" Sendai shouted.

Daimlon was bombarded moments after leaving the Staging Area. He simply sighed. "There was an unforeseen arrival. We thought an enemy Submarine had penetrated the harbor, but it turned out to be a friendly Submarine." He said loudly. Just after he finished, Yuu walked out, water still dripping off her uniform and hair onto the concrete beneath her feet. "Everyone, I would really appreciate it if you all help me welcome Yuu to our base, she was transferred from Germany, and is here to stay." He announced. Yuu didn't say anything, and just continued to look at the group with her blank stare.

"What kind of name is you?" Lilly asked innocently, looking at her intently.

"It's short for U-511, her real name." Daimlon stated, crossing his arms.

"That's awesome!" Lilly said with the brightest eyes.

"Nice to meet ya, Yuu!" Maikaze shouted with a smile on her face.

Sendai gave her a smirk. "I like your outfit." She said.

"Thank you, I hope we can all work together well." Yuu said calmly. Jintsuu then walked out and joined them, Sendai immediately gluing herself to her hip.

Daimlon took a step forward. "Alright, then, let's show Yuu around and give her the tour." He said.

"Alright, let's go!" Maikaze said, grabbing Yuu by the arm and leading her around, heading toward the Crew Quarters. Lilly followed shortly behind Maikaze.

"Actually, I'm going to help Jintsuu study for her written test tomorrow." Sendai said as she walked away with Jintsuu, heading toward the Crew Quarters

Daimlon followed behind them as the whole group walked toward the Crew Quarters, Nonna flying close to Daimlon's shoulders. "What do you think?" Nonna asked.

"About?" Daimlon asked, looking at Nonna.

"Yuu." She said.

Daimlon looked forward at the girls in front of him. "I think this gift from Germany will go a long way." He said, a smile crawling onto his face. "Also, don't think your actions went unnoticed. I know you kept everyone outside of the Staging Area while I talked to Yuu, and I appreciate that greatly." He said, looking at Nonna once again.

"I also turned off the alarm, and ordered those float planes you scrambled to land." Nonna said, proud of herself.

Daimlon just smiled as he faced forward again. He offered up his fist to her. "Keep up the good work." He said simply. If Nonna hadn't stopped everyone from entering the Staging Area, chaos would have ensued and getting a firm grasp on the situation would've been a nightmare.

Daimlon felt a small impact on his knuckle from Nonna giving him a fist bump, her fist significantly smaller than his. "I'll try." She said with a smile on her face.

---

The group showed Yuu around the base, Sendai and Jintsuu peeling off at the Crew Quarters to go to her room to help her prepare for the written exam tomorrow. Maikaze and Lilly left about halfway through to start their dance sessions, and Nonna left early to help clean up the harbor, clearing all targets before the next day's expedition set sail.

Yuu and Daimlon were in the final building of the HQ, his office. "That's pretty much all you need to know. Any questions or concerns?" Daimlon asked, looking at Yuu. She looked around the office, her blank stare being worn the entire time.

She turned to look at him. "No." She said simply.

"Alright then, you're dismissed. If you run into any problems, or have any questions, I have an open door policy. Feel free to drop by at any time." He said, walking behind the desks to his chair, taking a seat.

He pulled out the papers Yuu had handed him earlier, wanting to go over them in detail. He started going over them, but soon became distracted by something. Yuu wasn't leaving, she was just standing there. He looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'm awaiting assignment." She explained simply, looking at him.

"What do you mean?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.

Yuu paused for several moments. "In Germany, officers would always give us jobs to do during downtime. On my previous base I worked in the Supply Depot." She explained in her calm tone.

"You're free to do as you please on this base for the time being. We'll assign jobs later if needed, but for now everyone can take it easy. If you want to work in the Supply Depot, then go right ahead." Daimlon said.

Yuu paused again. "I see. I will do what I can in the Supply Depot then." She stated, turning around to head for the door.

Daimlon didn't say anything as she headed out the door. He simply went back to examining the papers before him, until Nonna entered the room in a puff of white smoke.

"Daimlon, what are we going to do about Jintsuu's test today?" She asked, holding the scoring sheet in her hand.

Daimlon leaned back in his chair again. "Just score her for what she completed, the rest doesn't count." He said, looking up at her as she floated.

"That simple, huh?" She asked, scribbling on her clipboard.

"Yep. Is the harbor cleaned up?" He asked.

Nonna continued to scribble on her clipboard for a few seconds before responding. "Yes, it's all finished. How's the written exam coming along?" Giving Daimlon a return question.

"Haven't even started yet." He said, mentally kicking himself a little.

"It's already starting to get late. Will you be able to finish in time?" She asked, scribbling on her clipboard as she continued to score Jintsuu's test.

Daimlon crossed his arms. "I should. Where's Asashio? This is the first time she isn't here to help with making a test." He pointed out.

"I got her test score results from her a few minutes ago, she was in her room by herself." Nonna said.

"Is she okay?" Daimlon asked, slightly concerned.

"She told me she was fine when I asked her, but I doubt she would be honest with us if she wasn't." Nonna said as she continued to grade Jintsuu's test.

Daimlon sighed. "I guess she's tired or something. No big deal." Daimlon said as he sat up in his seat.

A few moments of silence fell between them, with Nonna's writing the only sound in the room.

"Alright, Jintsuu's test score comes out to a seventy, dead on." She said.

Daimlon paused for a few seconds. "A tad higher than I'd like, but it'll do." He said as he scratched his head.

"Want me to tell her something different?" Nonna asked.

"No. I want to be honest with them as much as possible." Daimlon said heavily. Daimlon was always big on honesty, only lying when he felt it absolutely necessary.

Nonna smiled at him. "Good to hear." She said. Ding! The sharp sound came from her. Nonna looked down at her clipboard and scribbled on it a few times, looking at it intently. "Daimlon, ten minutes until your construction is finished." She said.

Daimlon completely forgot he had issued a construction project that morning. He dumped the same amount of resources into the construction, and received a seven hour timer. "Right. I forgot about that." He said, laying it flat.

"A little too honest." She said with a teasing smile.

Daimlon stood from his seat. "Relax, seven hours is a long time to forget about something." Daimlon reasoned. "Shall we?" Daimlon asked as he walked out from behind the desks.

"Let's go." Nonna said excitedly.

The two of them made their way over to the Construction Yard in the afternoon sun. They passed Maikaze teaching Lilly how to dance, and stopped by the Supply Depot to make sure Yuu was doing okay, which she was. Daimlon decided to stop by and check on Asashio to see what was up with her. Daimlon and Nonna approached Asashio's door. They gave a few knocks, and after a short delay, Asashio opened the door.

"Yes, Commander?" Asashio asked, looking up at him.

"I was just concerned you weren't in my office helping with tests like you usually did. Everything okay?" He asked, slightly concerned about her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just needed to wrap something up in my room, I'll be there to help later, sir." Asashio said confidently.

Daimlon knew he had nothing to worry about with her. "Alright, whenever you're ready, just stop by." Daimlon said with a smile.

"Of course. See you soon, sir." Asashio said as she closed the door.

Daimlon slowly shifted to head back for the front door. "See? No big deal." He said, looking at Nonna.

"I was just a little concerned." She responded as she floated next to him.

They started walking toward the front door to the Crew Quarters. As they passed Jintsuu's room, they heard Sendai's muffled shout from within. They couldn't make out what she had said as the walls were thick, blocking most of the sound. Daimlon contemplated poking his head in to see what she was shouting about, but he decided not to. He continued walking toward the Construction Yard. Nonna just gave a small laugh. "What's so funny?" Daimlon asked with a slight smile.

"Sendai. I think she's a good fit for Jintsuu." Nonna said.

"Agreed." Daimlon responded. He then stopped in his tracks just before the door as he thought for a few moments. "Can I ask you something? When those two first met, they both knew who the other was at first glance. Why?" Daimlon asked, looking at Nonna.

Nonna stopped shortly in front of him, and turned to look at him. "Ships are imprinted with a strong connection to their sisters. They immediately recognize each other, have an extensive knowledge on one another, and share an unbreakable bond. Some sisters are closer than others, but most sisters are together whenever they can be." She explained professionally.

Daimlon smiled widely. "So.. Sendai should know a lot about Jintsuu's personality and past... Correct?" He asked.

Nonna just paused for a moment as she realized what Daimlon was up to. "Well, yeah, Sendai would know a lot about Jintsuu's personality and behavior. However, she has no insight into her past." She said.

"Good enough for me." He said simply as he turned back around and stepped over to Jintsuu's door. He waited a few moments before knocking on the door. He could hear the mumbles of them talking, unable to tell what they were saying. He knocked three times loudly. "Coming!" He heard Jintsuu's muffled shout from within.

There was a short delay before Jintsuu fumbled with the handle, and opened the door. She looked at him with wide eyes, putting her hands up to her chin as she did. "U-Uh.. What is it?" She asked nervously, afraid she might have done something wrong.

Daimlon just looked past her into her room, seeing Sendai kneeling at the table, looking back at him. "Sendai. Come here real quick." He said. Sendai instantly got up and walked over to stand behind Jintsuu.

"What's up?" Sendai asked with a smile.

"I want you to stop by my office before the end of the day. Understood?" He said powerfully.

Sendai widened her smile at him. "No promises, okay?" Sendai said.

Daimlon assumed she was just joking around with him, and turned to face Jintsuu. "Now. Your test results just came in." He said, pausing briefly.

"Well, How'd she do!? Spill it!" Sendai shouted excitedly, moving closer to Jintsuu, eager to hear what Daimlon had to say.

Jintsuu visibly tensed up, clutching her arms tighter. "You scored a seventy percent. Not bad, but you can do better than that." Daimlon said heavily.

Jintsuu released her built up tension, relieved to hear she did okay at least. Sendai was ecstatic. "Fuckin' right! Good stuff, Jintsuu. Gimme some skin!" Sendai exclaimed as she tore Jintsuu's arm away from her and held it up for her, giving Jintsuu a high five with her other hand. It made a muffled smack as the two gloved hands made contact.

Jintsuu just pulled her black arm sleeves back up, as Sendai's forced high five tugged them down a little. "I-I'll do better next time." Jintsuu said, refusing to make eye contact with Daimlon.

"Good to hear. I look forward to it. Sendai, make sure you stop by, don't forget. It's important." He said, pointing at Sendai to let her know he was being serious.

"Got it, If not I'll stop by tomorrow morning, I'm about to take a nap." Sendai said with a smile.

Daimlon just paused for a second. "Why are you going to take a nap?" He asked.

"So I can be awake for night time, of course!" Sendai exclaimed.

Daimlon just sighed. "Alright, tomorrow morning at the latest." He said reluctantly. A brief pause fell between them "Alright, that's all I've got for you. You can resume what you were doing." He said before starting to walk away.

"See ya tomorrow, Daimlon!" Sendai shouted. She immediately closed the door after saying that.

Daimlon felt like he was just manipulated to give her more time, but brushed it off. He continued to walk closer to the door, where Nonna was waiting for him. She assumed her position next to him as he walked out the door, heading toward the Construction Yard.

Nonna was floating next to him with an obnoxious smile on her face, which Daimlon took note of. "What are you smiling about?" He asked as they continued walking.

"Nothing." She said, still smiling as she looked at him.

Daimlon just raised an eyebrow at her before looking forward again. "Don't lie to me, what are you smiling about?" He asked, trying to get a response out of her.

"I told you, it's nothing." She said, looking forward with her smile.

Daimlon sighed. "If you say so." He said, irritated she wouldn't tell him what she found amusing. They continued walking in silence, Nonna wiping the smile off her face not long after, and eventually arrived at the Construction Yard. The door was just beginning to open as they reached it, just in time for the reveal. Daimlon brushed the curtain aside and stepped into the dark room.

The lights flickered on slowly, and revealed a small girl slightly taller than Asashio.

She had free flowing shoulder length black hair, and stunningly bright blue eyes. She had a warm smile on her face, and seemed easily approachable. She wore a black top and skirt, with white and red at her collar and ends of her sleeves.

She widened her smile as they made eye contact, and spoke first.

Her voice was soft and pure. "My name is Shigure of the Shiratsuyu-Class Destroyers. Nice to meet you, Admiral."