Rear Admiral Richard Maximilian Drake leaned back in his chair once he finished reading the after-action reports written by the flagships of his two fleets. Kaga and Shoukaku stood in front of his desk, awaiting his comments. He had called them both in after finishing his reading in order to discuss what the fleets needed to do better for next time, as well as just to summarize the events of the battle.
"So, overall, all three combined fleets were successful in completing their objectives, which means that the mission was a resounding success," Drake began, referring to Rear Admiral Genji as well as Fleet Admiral Miiro. "Still, there are some problems that need to be addressed… The primary one being our battleship situation. How long will Haruna be in the docks for?"
"Akashi said another two days at the very least," Shoukaku replied. "Her rigging was completely destroyed, and she herself suffered some bruised ribs as well as third-degree burns all along the left side of her body."
Drake cringed slightly after hearing that, though the severity of her injuries were lessened by the fact that she could be repaired at the docks with no lasting damage.
"We need another battleship in addition to Haruna," Drake concluded. "We only faced two Abyssal battleships yesterday and suffered this much damage. Right now, the only ship who can really take and give a beating to tough opponents is Haruna. You carriers can't be on the front lines for long, and your planes have to focus on the enemy air power as well."
Kaga frowned. "We can't simply procure another battleship. The only girls at this base who aren't already part of a fleet are destroyers and light cruisers."
"I realize that," Drake said, annoyed both Kaga felt the need to point out something so obvious and at the fact that she was right.
"Then what? We can't keep on sending Haruna out on suicide runs like that," Shoukaku told him, still a bit angry at Drake giving an order like that.
Drake sighed as he ran a hand through his messy black hair. "I'll figure something out… Aside from that, I didn't find any glaring weaknesses in our formation. The report says there were no other major injuries…?"
"Everyone else has fully recovered," Shoukaku reported. "The only other significant injury was Kashima, who had her arm broken by a shell. She is fine now, however."
Drake nodded. "And the resource costs you wrote down here… You're sure those are correct?"
Kaga and Shoukaku both nodded, and Drake grimaced.
"We did fine on ammo and steel, but our fuel and bauxite costs are enormous," he complained. "INFCOM isn't going to like that at all."
"Isn't it your country that supplies most of the resources to this base, sir?" Kaga pointed out. "Surely that should be helpful for you."
"Yeah, I doubt that. My superiors are going to be pissed off that I wasted this many resources and have nothing to show for it."
"But we defeated the enemy."
"Right…" Drake couldn't tell Kaga the US government's main reason for sending him to the Tokyo Branch base, which was to get Japan to lend America more ship girls.
"It seems to me that your strategy this time was simply very resource-heavy, sir," Shoukaku spoke up. "You had four ships take a long detour around the enemy, and the rest of us had to spend fuel performing evasive maneuvers while the abyssal battleship shelled us and we waited for Kaga and Zuikaku to get in position. We shouldn't always have to use this many resources, right?"
"Maybe. You're right that the detour wasted a lot of fuel, and now that I think about it, that tactic wasn't even that necessary, but our massive bauxite costs won't go away anytime soon. We had to rely on our planes to do most of the damage since we only have one battleship, so you carriers will continue to have to do the heavy lifting."
"So an extra battleship really is needed," Kaga said, agreeing with her admiral's earlier statement.
"Yeah, we'll need to do something about that. Anyway, you two are dismissed. I'll handle the rest of today's work by myself."
Shoukaku saluted before leaving, but Kaga stayed behind.
"Admiral… I wanted to apologize for my behavior during the sortie," she said once they were alone. "It was wrong of me to be so abrasive, and I shouldn't have let my emotions cloud my tactical judgement. I am sorry."
"That's all right," Drake replied, not expecting Kaga to apologize for that. "As long as you recognize what you did wrong. Make sure Zuikaku does as well, and try to get along with her. Okay?"
The stoic carrier saluted, then left the big office.
Drake yawned and swiveled his chair to look over at the rest of the office. Ooyodo, who didn't sortie yesterday, was at work as usual with communications, and Rear Admiral Genji sat silently in the corner, going over some documents. Fleet Admiral Miiro sat at his desk in the center of the room with Nagato. The battleship had been injured in yesterday's mission, but she was admirably at work nonetheless.
As he pondered what to do about the battleship problem, Drake's thoughts began to drift back to his home country.
To be honest, I doubt anyone in the government will care about my resource costs. The amount isn't that significant in the big picture, and they've got other things to worry about. Besides, this new government seems to really like the Navy… It's only been three years since they took power, but they seem all right so far.
In the year 2018, there had been a monumental worldwide phenomenon called the Great Churning, where the governments of almost every major world power were uprooted and replaced with entirely new ruling parties. All these overthrows practically happened simultaneously, leading some to believe that the uprisings were a globalist conspiracy to unite the world under the rule of a shadow organization such as the Illuminati. However, this was proven false by the fact that these new governments were all incredibly nationalistic and focused strongly on their own country's interests.
The most amazing thing about these worldwide revolutions were that they were largely bloodless. Even three years later, nobody fully understood how exactly these new governments managed to oust the previous political and military leaders so easily. Some say that the new governments merely meticulously planned out their revolutions and enlisted the help of covert specialist freelancer mercenaries, while others insist that they were assisted by an 'otherworldly' force.
Either way, old governments and political systems in countries such as the US, UK, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, and more were all done away with and replaced by these new groups. Each group differed in its composition and preferred political system; for example, America's Citizen's Council proclaimed themselves to still be a democracy, while Germany got completely rid of its old system and established the Fourth Reich under the rule of a new Kaiser. Japan also turned the imperial route and revived its cultish behavior towards the new empress, who was said to be the purest direct descendant of the sun goddess, Amaterasu.
Needless to say, the Great Churning shocked and stupefied the general population. Initially, people were just confused, wanting to know what the hell was going on. After they realized what had happened, there were protests and riots. However, the dissenters did not last long due to a combination of things.
Firstly, all the new governments handled their unhappy populations differently. In America, the people were allowed to protest to their heart's content, but once they realized that the new system really wasn't all that different from the old one and were allowed to vote for their representatives in the newly-established "House of Liberty and Freedom," which replaced Congress, they eventually stopped on their own. In countries like Germany and Russia, which adopted harsher regimes, the protestors were simply 'disappeared,' and things settled down that way. And then there was the case of countries like China, where the people basically just exchanged one politburo for another, so there wasn't much of a difference in the overall system of governance.
The second thing that caused the protests to quiet down was just the general uncertainty in the world. With so many governments changing power simultaneously, nobody knew what would happen next. How would the new governments interact with each other? Was war imminent? What about their nuclear weapons? However, in the end, nothing ended up happening in terms of WWIII. Since the new governments handled the situation calmly and prevented any conflicts from breaking out, they managed to ingratiate themselves with the populace, and they were seen as capable and calm leaders in a turbulent time.
Finally, the most important thing that shut up the dissenters: the arrival of the Abyssals.
Just around the time these new governments took power, the Abyssals appeared. They only started with minor attacks, but their alien appearance and the world's inability to counter them soon caused widespread fear and panic. However, once again, the new governments were able to get a hold on the situation. They all immediately began shoring up their navies, and they did their best to convince the population that they would defeat the Abyssals. With this new and unknown threat emerging, the general population quickly accepted the governments of the Great Churning. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures. Nobody had time to worry about how these governments managed to take power or if what they did was legal if the people were too busy wondering when the next Abyssal attack would be.
However, for this reason, there were those who suspected that the governments of the Great Churning and the Abyssals were connected. It was just far too convenient for these governments to take power and then have a new threat ready and waiting to distract the people. Though this theory may have seemed plausible at first, it was quickly debunked when the new governments began pouring a huge amount of money and resources into defeating the Abyssals. If the Abyssals had truly helped these governments come to power, why would they be attacking each other now?
Still, in Drake's mind, the Great Churning definitely had something to do with the Abyssals and the ship girls. Both of the aforementioned groups appeared around the same time the Great Churning occurred, which could not have been a coincidence, especially considering how much of the Great Churning was still shrouded in mystery. Drake wasn't one of those people who believed that the governments and Abyssals were conspiring with each other, but he did think that maybe the new governments knew about the Abyssals beforehand, and that is why they moved when they did.
Anyway, none of that could be definitively proved, and Drake had more immediate and concrete concerns to focus on. Namely, what he would do about his fleet so he wouldn't have to force Haruna to take a massive beating again.
Standing up from his desk, Drake walked over to the center of the room, up to where Miiro and Nagato were working. They both looked up as he approached.
"Fleet Admiral. I'd like another battleship assigned to my fleet."
Miiro looked confused. "Ah… I'm sorry, Rear Admiral Drake, but we currently do not have any battleships on standby."
"I know. I meant from another fleet," Drake said. Though he was subordinate in rank to Miiro, he wasn't actually part of the IJN, so he didn't feel intimidated by the Fleet Admiral's rank. Genji's words about Miiro as well as the fact that Drake was much bigger and taller than him also made him feel as if he could be free with his demands without having to worry about a rebuke.
"Sir, you can't expect any of the other admirals to agree to that," Nagato said to Drake in place of Miiro.
"Why not? My only battleship almost sunk because she didn't have any surface support. The closest thing I have to another bulky surface ship is one heavy cruiser."
"That may be so, but you have four carriers to make up for that, no?" Miiro pointed out.
"Carriers and battleships have different uses," Drake countered.
"Ah… I do understand your concerns, Rear Admiral, but I am afraid we cannot accommodate your request at the moment," Miiro said, his gentle voice holding an air of finality.
Drake scowled. "Fine. But you'd do well to remember whose country it is that supplies the vast majority of this base's resources, Fleet Admiral."
He then turned around and stalked out of the room.
Well, that didn't work, he thought to himself as he headed downstairs.
The rear admiral exited the administrative building and walked towards the direction of the docks. The sky was a pleasant blue color, and the sea breeze sailed through the air, carrying its briny scent throughout the naval base. Seagulls called out to each other overhead, and IJN sailors milled about on the grounds below. Drake also walked past a few ship girls as he went over to the docks. The girls had all been given the day off after the successful sortie, so those who weren't injured were able to spend the day doing whatever they pleased. Drake still didn't know all their names, but it wasn't as if they were going around introducing themselves to him. Most of them tended to avoid him, in part due to his cold demeanor and icy gaze and also probably because he was an American.
After a few more minutes of walking, Drake arrived at the entrance to the baths. There were two sections: one for the ship girls, and one for everybody else. The ship girl baths contained special healing properties that allowed them to recover from injuries if they soaked in them long enough. The water was filled with steel and bauxite particles, and the microscopic class of Fairies that lived in the bodies of the ship girls used those resources to patch up any of their wounds. Of course, this process could not heal every type of wound, and so the more serious injuries needed to be operated on by mechanics or the repair ship girl, Akashi, beforehand.
Drake took off his shoes and put on a pair of slippers provided by the bathing facility, then entered the ship girl section. As he lifted the curtain and walked through the entrance, he was greeted with the sight of Mutsu bathing in one of the hot baths nearer to the entrance. When she looked up to see who had entered, her green eyes widened with surprise.
"A-admiral Drake! What are you doing in here?!"
"I'm here to see Haruna," he replied simply. "Is she in here?"
"Y-yes, but… You can't be in here!"
"Why not?" Drake asked flatly, though he knew exactly why she was flustered. "I'm the Admiral. I'll go where I please."
Mutsu blushed furiously as she sunk deeper into the baths. "But… We're bathing in here…"
"I'm aware of that," he said, then continued deeper into the bathhouse.
Most of the ship girls in there had their eyes closed and were resting, but the few who didn't squealed in surprise as they saw him strolling freely through the baths. He ignored them and continued onwards until he spotted Haruna alone in one of the large baths towards the back.
"Haruna."
The battleship whirled around, and Drake saw that her left side was still covered in bandages. Haruna's face reddened as she processed who was standing in front of her, and she quickly stood up and saluted.
"A-admiral!"
Drake couldn't stop himself from staring in shock as Haruna stood up, completely naked save for the white bandages wrapped around her portside. A look of confusion momentarily flashed across Haruna's face before she realized what she had done, and she quickly sat back down into the bath with an embarrassed cry.
"I'm sorry, Admiral!"
"... No need to apologize," Drake said, still a bit dumbstruck. "Anyway, I just stopped by to check up on you. How are you doing?"
"... I am all right," she replied once her embarrassment had died off. "I should be allowed to leave in a couple days."
Drake nodded. "I also wanted to apologize for making you take so much damage. I should have came up with a better strategy. I'm sorry."
"Oh, no, it's not your fault!" Haruna quickly said, then looked down at the water. "... It was my own incompetence that caused me to get hit so many times…"
Drake guessed that she was just being polite, so he decided not to say anything more on that point. "Whoever's fault it may have been, I don't want to risk your life like that again if I can help it. A second battleship would really help in that regard, don't you think?"
"A second battleship…" Haruna repeated, thinking. "Yes, that would be nice. I wouldn't have to draw all the enemy fire by myself."
"Yeah. Unfortunately, procuring a battleship is easier said than done, so it may take some time. But I'm working on it."
The two were then silent for a while, and Drake was about to leave when Haruna spoke up again.
"Admiral… Thank you for coming. I will try and get better soon so I can fight with you all again."
Drake smiled, his cold gaze softening. "Yeah. We'll be waiting for you."
As the rear admiral turned and left the building, he allowed himself another small smile. I didn't come here to make friends with my soldiers… But I guess it won't hurt if I do.
He wandered about the docks for a bit before deciding to go and get something for lunch. It was about 1300 hours now, and since he didn't have anything better to do besides work, he figured he might as well. However, as he traveled in the direction of Mamiya's, he saw Kaga walking around, her bow slung around her shoulder but no arrows on hand.
She saluted, and he returned it. "What's with the bow? Are you training again?"
"Yes. I thought to improve my aim and shooting speed for short-range targets, especially since us carriers may have to fight on the frontlines in the coming battles," she explained in her trademark monotone.
"That sounds like a good idea… But isn't it your day off? You're going to spend it training?"
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
"No."
"And what exactly are you doing, Admiral?" Kaga then asked. "I wasn't aware you had given yourself the day off as well."
"Oh, shut up," Drake shot back. "I was actually checking on Haruna, if you must know, so I wasn't just wasting time."
"How is she?"
"Like Shoukaku said earlier, she's still damaged. She can talk just fine, though, so it looks like she should recover soon."
"I see," Kaga said, but then a brief look of confusion flashed across her face. "Admiral, did you go into the ship girl baths?"
Drake groaned inwardly. "Yeah, so what if I did? An admiral can't even go inspect his ships anymore?"
"We are not simply 'ships,'" Kaga parried. "We are ship girls. You can't just walk into a women's bathing area, Admiral. Though some of us may not show it, we all have feelings and emotions."
"Hmph. I know that. Would I have bothered to even visit her if I didn't?"
The corner of Kaga's lips turned up in a slight smile. "No, I suppose not."
Just then, a low, whiny buzzing sounded faintly in the distance. Wearing perplexed looks, Drake and Kaga turned around and faced the bay and the horizon, attempting to locate the source of the sound. As the noises grew louder, an arrowhead formation of dark shapes emerged in the sky out over the water.
"Planes? Is there an exercise going on right now?" Kaga asked as she narrowed her eyes at the approaching fliers.
However, her words fell on deaf ears. The only sounds that Drake could hear were the buzzing of the planes and the thumping of his heart. His eyes grew wide, and he found that he was unable to move.
That noise… I'll never forget that sound!
"Abyssals," he said quietly, his voice strained.
Kaga's expression turned horrified as she realized that her admiral was correct. "No…! But how? We just destroyed all their nearby air bases yesterday!"
Drake didn't answer, and Kaga bit her lip as the planes drew closer. Air raid warnings erupted all across the base, drowning out the buzzing with a flurry of sirens.
"Admiral, we have to get to cover," Kaga cautioned as she looked around for any nearby buildings. Damn it, we won't make it…
She turned back to Drake, but she blinked in surprise as she saw him just standing there.
"Admiral? What are you doing?!" she shouted, grabbing his sleeve. "We have to find cover!"
Drake's terrified brown eyes remained fixed on the rapidly-encroaching bombers, and Kaga cursed to herself as she realized that it was too late to run. The abyssal planes were just overhead, and the sky became dark with their silhouettes.
As the first bombs began to fall, Kaga pushed Drake to the ground, shielding him with her own body, which, unlike his, could take a hit or two from a bomber. Explosions erupted around them, and Kaga winced as something hard crashed into the back of her head. The bursting of concrete and asphalt cracked throughout the air, followed by a single extremely loud explosion. The carrier looked off to her right and saw a large, bright orange fireball erupt into the sky in the distance.
For about half a minute longer, the explosions continued, though now the thumping of anti-air fire also joined in. Kaga continued to press herself on top of Drake, protecting him from potentially lethal shrapnel.
When the bombers finally finished their run and circled back towards the sea, Kaga breathed a sigh of relief and got off her admiral. She frowned as she reached towards the back of her head and her hand came away wet with blood, but she didn't feel as if she had a concussion or anything too serious. The air raid sirens continued to sound for a few more seconds, but soon, they fell silent as well.
"Kaga! Are you all right?!"
The carrier looked up to see Akagi running towards her. Akagi appeared to be undamaged, and her golden eyes were filled with worry as she approached.
"I am fine," Kaga replied, wiping her hand on the back of her skirt.
"Thank goodness," Akagi breathed in relief. "... Is… Is that the Admiral?"
Kaga quickly turned back around to see Drake still on the ground, his normally calm face pale and sickly.
"Admiral! Are you hit somewhere?" Kaga asked as she checked his body for wounds.
Akagi grimaced as she looked into her admiral's wide, horrified eyes. "There's something wrong with him, Kaga."
"There's nothing fucking wrong with me!" Drake snapped as he suddenly lurched himself up into a seated position, the color returning to his face and his breathing stabilizing.
The two carriers jumped back a little at his forceful declaration, and Drake took another breath before shakily getting to his feet.
"I'm perfectly fine…" he insisted, though he didn't know if he was trying to convince Kaga and Akagi or himself. "What… What just happened?"
"Besides the obvious fact that the Abyssals just bombed us, I don't know," Kaga replied as she also stood up. "Unless you have some further information, Akagi…?"
The gluttonous carrier shook her head. "No. I was just outside looking for you when I heard the planes approaching."
Drake grit his teeth in frustration. "But how! What the hell was the point of yesterday's operation, then?"
"Perhaps there was a fourth air base we did not know about," Kaga offered, though they all knew that this was unlikely. Sasebo's air surveillance had been perfect in capturing the location of the small, artificial islands the Abyssals had created, so it was improbable that they completely missed one of them.
"Then could it have been a carrier attack?" Akagi wondered.
"Carriers would have been detected if they were that close to the base," Drake said. "Those had to have been land-based bombers or something if they were able to fly that high and launch from that far away."
"But that makes no sense," Kaga countered, which was unhelpful but true enough. There weren't any nearby islands that the Abyssals had built airfields on.
"So none of us knows anything," Drake concluded angrily. He then turned to his left to see one of the buildings on fire in the distance. "Either way, we should check on the damage to the base first. The gunners and anti-air systems are on high alert right now, so hopefully the Abyssals won't take the risk of launching another attack."
The carriers nodded, and they followed him as he walked back towards the Administrative Building, which was the central command center of the base and therefore the most important structure there. On their way there, Drake saw craters in the ground created by the abyssal bombs. As he got closer to the building, he noticed a pair of IJN sailors, one on top of the other and a huge slab of pavement crushing them both. They were clearly dead, and dark blood seeped out from underneath the smashed-together bodies like sauce from a saturated sandwich.
Flashbacks to the city of Tangier rushed into Drake's mind, and he quickly averted his gaze. His heart beat rapidly, and for a brief moment, he felt lost, as if he were back in the city. He tried to think of something else, but his brain unhelpfully recalled the sounds of the abyssal bombers overhead, and he was immediately transported to the USS Freedom's Sacrifice on that fateful day. He recalled the nauseating lurching of the ship as the bombs hit, threatening to drag him into the abyss at any moment.
Drake stopped walking suddenly, trying to regain his balance. Kaga and Akagi whirled around with concerned looks.
"Admiral… Are you sure you're all right?" Kaga asked, a slight hint of worry creeping into her voice.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Drake insisted as he pulled at his collar and gathered his bearings. "Let's go."
Luckily, the Administrative Building itself was unharmed, though there were a few near-misses that tore up the road and sidewalk around the edifice. Drake and his carriers entered the building and found Nagato, Ooyodo, and Fleet Admiral Miiro all standing in the lobby as the frightened employees huddled around them.
Miiro turned to look as Drake entered. "Ah, Rear Admiral Drake. I am glad to see you are safe."
"What just happened?" Drake asked.
"We don't have a clue," Nagato answered as she crossed her arms and frowned. "We've come to the conclusion that those bombers must have been land-based, but we took out all their nearby airfields in yesterday's operation. There is no way that we simply missed an entire airfield, let alone a fully-completed one."
So they don't know either… "And damages? Were any important buildings hit?"
"The bombing just happened a few minutes ago, so it's difficult to assess damages right now," the black-haired battleship said. "But even so, it looks like we were lucky and escaped any significant damage to our base. A munitions building and one of the ship girl dorms were hit, but the latter shouldn't be a big deal because the bomb only partially collapsed the building, which normally wouldn't be enough to kill a ship girl. As for a general casualty count, we don't have any estimates as of yet."
Well, I know that there's at least two, Drake thought as he remembered the grisly sight just outside of the building.
"All right, then. Unless I'm needed here, I'm going to check on the rest of my fleet," Drake announced.
Nagato nodded. "The repair and firefighting crews should already be arriving, so there isn't much for us to do at the moment. We will let you know if the situation changes."
Drake and his two carriers walked back out onto the streets of the base, and the rear admiral sighed under his breath as dust and the smell of smoke drifted into his nostrils.
"Do either of you two know where the other ten members of our fleet are?" Drake asked, turning to Kaga and Akagi. "I know Haruna is still in the baths, but I want to confirm the status of everyone else just in case."
"We gave everyone the day off, so they could be anywhere," Kaga said.
"Admiral!" a loud voice suddenly called out, and the trio turned to see Suzuya running towards them.
"Admiral! I was afraid you'd been killed!" the heavy cruiser cried out as she grinned at Drake.
"Why would you assume that I died?"
"Er… I don't know. I just thought it'd be a dramatic thing to say at a time like this."
"Well, since you're here, go check on Haruna in the baths. Make sure she's all right, then report back to me."
"Yes, sir!" Suzuya saluted before running back off in the direction she came.
"Okay, eight more to go…" Drake muttered to himself. "So you guys don't have any idea where the others might be?"
"We could check the restaurants since it's around lunch time," Akagi suggested, her sentence punctuated by a large growl from her stomach. The carrier blushed and chuckled sheepishly.
"... Well, that's a good starting point, I guess. Let's go."
As they made their way towards the restaurant area, Drake noticed a small trickle of blood on Kaga's neck.
"Kaga, are you injured?" he asked, pointing to the back of her head.
"Hm? Oh, it's nothing. It is merely a superficial wound."
Drake felt a pang of guilt as he realized that she must have gotten hurt while protecting him from the bombs and shrapnel. "Still, you should get that bandaged. We'll go to the repair docks first."
"Admiral, I told you that I'm fine," Kaga protested. "Don't underestimate the strength of a Japanese aircraft carrier."
Drake glanced at Akagi, who seemed a bit worried, but since she didn't say anything, he assumed it was fine. After all, it would take a very heavy hit to seriously injure a capital ship.
The three continued walking, and when they got to the plaza in the base that housed most of the restaurants, they saw that the patrons were milling outside. Most of them were ship girls, but there were a few sailors mixed in. The plaza and restaurants themselves were untouched by the bombs, and most of the girls were either standing around unsurely or talking urgently among themselves.
Drake scanned the crowd for anyone in his fleet, and he spotted Fubuki the same time she saw him.
"Admiral!" she called out after separating herself from a small group of destroyers who were dressed similarly to her.
Upon seeing Fubuki and their admiral, Amatsukaze, Yamakaze, and Yahagi also stepped out of the crowd and walked over to Drake and the two carriers.
"Sir, I am glad you are safe," Yahagi said as she saluted.
"What happened? That looked like an Abyssal bombing run!" Amatsukaze exclaimed, her golden eyes filled with worry.
"That's exactly what it was," Drake confirmed. "Anybody here know where the rest of the fleet besides Suzuya and Haruna is?"
"We're here too, sir," Shoukaku said as she and her sister emerged from another part of the crowd.
Drake nodded. "So we're just missing Sendai and Kashima, then…"
"Hey, aren't you going to explained what the hell just happened?" Zuikaku demanded. "How did the Abyssals get their planes this far?"
"Nobody knows," Drake replied, shaking his head and frustrated that he couldn't give a better answer.
"And casualties? What of the damage to the base?" Shoukaku asked.
"We don't know that either. As of now, it looks like the most damage they did was blowing up a munitions building and hitting one of the dormitories."
"W-what? Which one?" Yamakaze asked.
"I don't know," Drake said again, slightly annoyed that they kept asking him questions he didn't have the answers to. "Nagato didn't seem too worried about it, so I assume you girls can survive something like that."
"That really depends on the situation…" Shoukaku said quietly.
Drake sighed. "Well, I can't -"
He paused as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and her turned to see Kaga leaning on him. The carrier quickly removed her hand and looked away.
"S-sorry. I just felt a bit dizzy."
"All right, we're going to the docks," Drake decided, though Kaga frowned at that. The rear admiral turned to the rest of his fleet. "All of you, meet me in my private office in the Administrative Building. Shoukaku knows where it is. I'll be there soon, so tell Sendai and Kashima if you see them on the way."
As the fleet saluted and headed off in that direction, Drake began leading Akagi and Kaga to the docks.
"Admiral, I am fine. It isn't necessary for you to take me to the docks," Kaga insisted once again.
"Better safe than sorry. Do you need me to carry you there?"
"N-no!" Kaga hurriedly replied, a slight blush spreading across her face. "I can walk myself…"
Smirking a little at the carrier's embarrassment, Drake continued back in the direction of the baths and docks. As they walked, they noticed that the streets of the base were filled with a large number of IJN sailors and damage control personnel rushing around. Firetrucks and ambulances could be heard in the distance, and the shouting of men ordering each other around filled the air.
When they got to the docks, they headed to the main hospital, which was run by a staff of doctors, nurses, mechanics, and headed by Akashi, a ship girl whose main duty was repairing other injured ship girls.
The hospital itself wasn't very big and only had two floors, but today, it was packed. Drake watched as a nurse with a stretcher rushed a sailor with his arm blown off past him, and there were a good number of sailors with minor injuries seated in the hospital's waiting rooms. Akashi was nowhere to be seen, so Drake assumed that she was busy helping the human doctors.
"Admiral?"
Drake turned around to see Kashima standing in the lobby.
"So this is where you were. What are you doing here? Are you hurt?" Drake asked.
She shook her head. "No. The light cruiser dorms were hit by one of the bombs, so I was just helping with some of the injured."
"Were there any significant injuries?"
"Thankfully not. Just some minor scrapes and bruises. A few broken bones were the worst of it."
Drake nodded. "I see… Is Sendai here?"
As soon as he said that, Drake felt someone slap him on the back, and he turned to see Sendai grinning heartily at him.
"Admiral! You were looking for me?"
"Yeah. I just wanted to make sure my fleet was still in working order. Also, I told the rest of the fleet to meet in my private office in the Administrative Building, so you two should head there as well. Do you know where it is?"
Both of them gave him clueless stares.
"Fine, I'll take you there myself, unless you need medical attention first or something."
"All right! Let's go!" Sendai cheered. She then turned to two girls sitting some distance away. "Naka! Take care of Jintsuu!"
"Okay!" the girl who presumably was Naka called out. She was seated beside a ship girl with long, brown hair and a gentle expression who was bleeding from a wound on her right shoulder. Both of them wore similar uniforms to Sendai, so Drake assumed they were sisters.
Drake then turned back to the two carriers. "Akagi, make sure Kaga gets that wound fixed and then meet us in the Administrative Building."
As he prepared to exit the hospital with Sendai and Kashima, three people entered, causing Drake to stop. The unusual trio of Kongou, Rear Admiral Genji, and Suzuya strolled through the sliding doors.
"Admiral!" Suzuya called out. "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Rear Admiral Drake," Genji greeted curtly. "I see you're still alive. Where did those airstrikes come from?"
Drake shrugged. "Don't ask me."
"Are you not a carrier officer? I would expect you to have a better understanding of air strikes from sea than the rest of us," Genji said gruffly.
"You'd be wrong, since I'm no carrier officer. I can't even fly a plane."
Genji frowned as he glanced at Kaga and Akagi. "Then why the hell did - forget it. I suppose that doesn't matter anymore. Carry on with whatever you were doing."
"Hellooooo, Admiral Drake!" Kongou shouted before he could hurry out of the building. "Good job surviving, desu!"
"Right…" For the past couple weeks, Kongou had constantly sought out Drake in her free time, wanting to practice her English or ask how America was like. Since Drake was naturally quiet and cold, he was the polar opposite of the energetic battleship, so it was a bit tiring having to deal with her so much.
"Oh, that reminds me," Suzuya interjected. "We checked on Haruna, and she's doing all right. None of the bombs hit the baths."
"Good," Drake nodded. "We're going back to my office in the Administrative Building now. I'm sure the Fleet Admiral will call a meeting there soon enough anyway, and I just want to have everyone in one place for now."
On his walk back to the Administrative Building, Drake recalled the initial moments of the airstrike. He clenched his teeth as he remembered how he had frozen up and trembled like a coward. Fuck…! How could I be so weak?
"Admiral… Are you okay?" Suzuya asked nervously. "You look like you're about to tear someone's head off."
Drake quickly realized that he was snarling at nothing, so he returned his expression to its usual cold but calm mask.
"Sorry. I was just thinking about something."
Thinking about how pathetic I am, he added mentally. If that's how I'm going to act whenever I'm close to the Abyssals, then what will happen when I need to be part of an actual battle…?
His brown eyes hardened. Now that I'm in command of two fleets… Will I just end up killing more people with my incompetence?