Two days had passed since the Abyssals bombed the Tokyo Bay Base. After the attack, Drake, his fleet, and the rest of the uninjured ship girls and officers gathered in the large conference room on the fifth floor of the Administrative Building. Though no one had any solid answers as to what exactly had happened, Nagato, as Secretary Ship of the base, took the opportunity to explain everything that they did know, and to assure everyone that they would look into the situation and figure something out.

Ultimately, it was decided to contact the Sasebo Base's leadership and get their opinion on the surprise attack. While keeping its defenses on high alert, the Tokyo Base set up a video conference with Sasebo, scheduled for today.

Currently, Drake was seated in the Administrative Building's conference room, waiting for the meeting to begin. Beside him was Kaga, his personal Secretary Ship. Fleet Admiral Miiro, Nagato, Ooyodo, and Rear Admiral Genji were also present. Surprisingly, Kongou, Genji's Secretary Ship, was also in attendance, which was unexpected since she usually skipped out on these kinds of meetings.

"Still hurting from that injury?" Drake asked Kaga as they waited.

The carrier glared at him. "It healed mere hours after I acquired it. All the nurse did was put a bandage on it. I told you that it wasn't a big deal."

"I know, but I knew it would annoy you if I asked," Drake replied with a smirk.

Kaga gave him another nasty look, but before she could say anything else. The large screen in the front of the room flickered to life.

"Okay, communications established," Ooyodo said. "It should be connecting just about now…"

Sure enough, four figures appeared on the screen. In the front were the two admirals in charge of Sasebo, the IJN's main base: Fleet Admiral Umi and Admiral Hayama. The Fleet Admiral was a woman in her mid-thirties, and she had shoulder-length black hair and a pair of mischievous, twinkling eyes. She wore the same grandiose uniform as Miiro, complete with the cape and katana. Seated beside her was a young boy who looked as if he were still in middle school. He was short and had unruly black hair, and his face conveyed a feeling of bored annoyance.

Though the tiny admiral was a surprising sight, the two figures behind him were the ones who truly drew Drake's attention. On the right, standing behind Admiral Hayama, was a tan-skinned woman with white hair and a muscular body. She wore a pair of glasses in front of her piercing red eyes, and she was fairly uncovered, only wearing a short red skirt, thigh highs, and bandage wrappings around her chest.

Beside her was another impressive figure. This woman was dressed similarly to the first, though she wore an actual shirt and her thigh highs seemed to be mismatched in length. She had long, brown hair tied in a ponytail, and her gentle, beautiful eyes almost made Drake's heart stop. She was one of the most majestic sights he had ever seen, and he had trouble prying his eyes off her.

He assumed that the pair of women were ship girls, namely the two Secretary Ships of Sasebo: Yamato and Musashi. Drake had read all about their original warship lives, and he could now confirm with his own eyes that they were, at the very least, just as amazing in ship girl form as they were while they were ships. They were both exceptionally tall as well, and Drake estimated that they were about his height. At six feet, Drake was probably the tallest person at the Tokyo Bay Base. The only ones who came close to him in height were Nagato and Mutsu, and they stood about an inch shorter than he did. However, Yamato and Musashi were no doubt taller than even those two, which was an impressive feat considering the height of the average Japanese woman was about five feet and two inches.

"Hello? Is this thing on?" Umi said as she fidgeted with her camera.

"Yes, we can hear you, Fleet Admiral Umi," Miiro answered with a smile.

"Okay, good," she replied as she sat back down. "In that case, let's just get straight to business: your base was attacked a couple days ago by an aerial strike, and you have no clue where it came from."

"Ah… Yes. We suspect it was launched from land-based bombers."

Umi looked perplexed. "That doesn't seem too likely, though. We had you boys destroy all the airfields capable of striking anywhere close to Japan."

"There's always the possibility that your intel was wrong, ma'am," Genji bluntly pointed out, taking no measures to hide his annoyance.

Admiral Hayama looked upset at that, but Umi merely chuckled.

"I suppose there is a possibility, but there's also the possibility that the Earth gets hit by a meteor and we all die and don't have to worry about the Abyssals anymore, is there not?"

Genji scowled, but said nothing more.

"Ah… Anyway," Miiro interrupted, "do you two have any theories on where these planes may have come from?"

Sasebo's Fleet Admiral sighed. "As strange as it seems, I think you might be right in assuming those bombers came from a land base. There's no other way that they could have flown to your base at that altitude and speed… Who's the highest-ranking carrier officer at your base?"

Everyone in the room turned to look at Drake, who blinked in surprise.

"Ah, the American!" Umi called out excitedly. "What was your name again…? Admiral Richard, right. Well, Richard, what do you think?"

"Er… I'm not really a carrier officer, not in the traditional sense, at least," he clarified. "I don't know anything more about planes than you do."

"Oh? That's unfortunate… Then what about that carrier next to you! Kaga, is it?"

Kaga also looked surprised at being called upon. "Well, I am not too sure myself, Fleet Admiral. I believe they also came from land, but if you truly did not miss any enemy airfields, then the Abyssals must possess some sort of mobile airfield that can submerge or hide itself some way."

"So you're saying that they have entire airfields that can submerge just like the abyssal ships themselves can?" Nagato asked.

"I don't know. It is just a guess."

"Hm… That actually makes some sense," Fleet Admiral Umi said. "If they have an entire airfield that can submerge, than us having missed it during our surveillance run is possible."

"A submerging airfield? Please," Admiral Hayama spat. His voice was higher-pitched than everyone else's, but it lacked no confidence. "If the Abyssals possessed such technology for airfields, then why not use it on the ones we destroyed? Why go through the trouble of building regular, non-mobile airfields that can be targeted and bombed?"

"And how did they manage to transport and entire airfield underwater, drag it out from the depths, launch planes, recover them, then submerge again in such a short amount of time two days ago?" Drake added.

The room fell silent for a bit as everyone contemplated the objections. After about half a minute, Umi spoke up again.

"What if it's not an entire airfield? What if it's just something that acts like an airfield?"

"... What?" Genji asked incredulously.

"I presume you all know about the Abyssal Princesses," Umi began. "They are highly-specialized, powerful, and advanced forms of the regular Abyssals. I believe there was one that we now identify as the 'Battleship Princess' at the Disaster of Tangier a year ago."

Drake tensed up slightly at the mention of Tangier, and he immediately knew which one Fleet Admiral Umi was referring to. Red eyes glowing like portals to Hell lit up his mind, and he clenched his fists. He felt sick.

"Anyway, I'm thinking that it could have been an unknown type of Princess who launched the attack," Umi continued. "It would make more sense than an entire airfield submerging and emerging, since she would be more mobile but just as deadly."

"A Princess… Yes, that does sound plausible," Nagato agreed after some thought. "So, what do we do about her?"

Umi smiled devilishly. "Sink her, of course. Since you guys don't have the equipment, our base will send over some UAVs to do more surveillance in the area. We'll spot her, and your base will destroy her."

"But why would this Princess just emerge for no reason?" Drake asked.

"We'll lure her out. You guys will take a super jet cruiser out towards the area of the ocean where we believe the planes came from, along with a carrier and submarine escort. The presence of your ship and your carrier ship girls should goad this Airfield Princess into attacking you, and that's when you'll take her out instead."

"And what if she still doesn't appear?" Genji countered. "Nothing says that she has to still be in the area, or that she has to attack any enemy ship that she sees."

"I guess technically you're right, but I doubt anything you just said is actually true," Umi replied nonchalantly, causing Genji's frown to deepen. "She's probably still in the area. She just delivered an airstrike on one of our bases, essentially catching us with our pants down. Therefore, she's hoping that, in our panic, we have some sort of knee-jerk reaction and send a fleet out on a half-assed battle plan. She'll want to stick around just in case we decide to do something stupid so she can capitalize on it. As for your second point, I'm willing to bet that she does appear when she sees our fleet. Part of the reason goes back to what I just said about her thinking that we're unprepared, but another reason why she would attack us is because we're bringing carriers. A fleet's air power is an essential part of its strength, and she'll think it's the perfect opportunity to cripple us."

"... What if we can't sink her, and she sinks us instead?" Drake said, voicing what everyone was undoubtedly thinking but no one was willing to say.

"Are you saying you're not up to the task, then…?"

Drake bristled. "We have to be realistic. You yourself said that Princesses are extremely powerful, and she probably has some sort of escorting vessels with her as well. It's foolish to assume that victory is assured."

Umi chuckled. "Admiral Richard, I don't know how the US Navy works, but here in Japan, we don't assume that defeat is assured either. You forget that we are in possession of the greatest warships in history reincarnated as ship girls. You, presumably, are also competent enough to have been posted here, so have some confidence in yourself as well. Trust the carriers of the IJN to help carry you to victory."

Drake spared a brief glance at Kaga, but as usual, her face was a blank mask. He sighed quietly to himself as he settled further into his seat. I guess I can't say anything more. I'd be considered a coward if I continued to doubt this mission.

"So what's our strategy for the actual battle, then?" Genji asked.

Umi shrugged. "Hey, I've done all of the strategizing up to this point. You boys are all admirals; figure it out yourselves."

"Well, thank you for your insight, Fleet Admiral Umi," Miiro said, wrapping up the conversation. "We will commence this operation day-after-tomorrow at the latest, if that is all right with you."

"Yeah, that sounds fine. I'll have the UAVs sent over to assist you as soon as I can, and I'll leave the finer details of the sortie to you."

With that, the connection ended and the projector screen turned a blank black again. Nagato moved towards the front of the room and turned to face everyone.

"We should decide on who is going on this sortie as soon as possible, so it might as well be now," she announced. "Rear Admirals Drake and Genji, since you two command the most carriers and submarines respectively, I think it would be best if you two were to go."

Genji nodded. "Fine with me."

Drake nodded along as well, though on the inside, he was far from enthusiastic. If the bombing run on the base taught him anything, it was that he was clearly not yet over his fear of facing the Abyssals again.

"We should take a small force," Nagato decided. "I actually believe that the Airfield Princess may have launched her attack by herself, and that she does not have any screening vessels. Surface escorts would not help her much, and would only serve to slow her down on a hit-and-run mission. Therefore, I don't think it is wise for us to bring a large force of surface vessels while hunting her, as they will just be sitting ducks for her planes. Is that all right with you two?"

The rear admirals nodded. Fleet Admiral Miiro then stood up and addressed the group.

"I would also like to say something about the ship girls you two should take on this sortie. Rear Admiral Genji, you will of course be bringing along all your submarines. Rear Admiral Drake, though I know you have four carriers in your fleet, I think you should leave Shoukaku and Zuikaku behind and take my carriers instead."

"And why would I do that?" Drake asked. He saw no reason why he should break up his fleet, whose members had trained together under his leadership, so that he could take someone else's ship girls.

"Because my carriers are Hiryuu and Souryuu, the two remaining members of the Kido Butai. If we are to form a carrier task force, there is no better than them."

Drake felt Kaga tense up beside him, and when he looked at her, her normally calm eyes were blazing with emotion.

"... If you insist," Drake relented, and Miiro smiled and nodded.

Though he didn't really want to take along two other carriers when he had a pair of perfectly good ones that he had trained himself, Drake decided that it wasn't that big of a deal. With both Kaga and himself out on the sortie, it would be convenient to have Shoukaku stay behind and complete the secretarial duties of the day since she was already familiar with them. Also, judging by the look in Kaga's eyes, she clearly wanted to fight with the Kido Butai again as well. If bringing Hiryuu and Souryuu along would increase Kaga and Akagi's fighting potential, then maybe it was worth it.

They talked a bit longer about preparations for the sortie before heading back upstairs to the office and their own individual duties. When he got to his own desk, Drake let out a breath as he sat down in his chair.

"Kaga, go find the rest of the fleet and tell them about the sortie. I have some business to take care of here."

The carrier saluted and left the building to inform the fleet of the base's response to the Abyssal bombings, and Drake turned to the wired telephone on his desk. He picked it up and prepared to dial, but then realized he didn't actually know the number he wanted to call. He sighed as he shuffled through the drawers on his desk until he finally found a sheet of paper with the information he was looking for.

Here it is… INFCOM Headquarters, US Representative's Office.

Drake entered the number into the secure telephone and put it up to his ear, the dull dial tone sounding as he waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" a deep voice answered from the other end.

"Uh, hello," Drake replied, unsure of who exactly it was that he was talking to. "This is Rear Admiral Richard Drake. Can I speak to whoever's in charge there?"

"This is Fleet Admiral Cassius. What do you need?"

Drake paused in surprise. He thought that voice sounded familiar… "Sir! I don't think you ever told me that you were INFCOM's US representative, and nobody else told me anything either. I was just handed a slip of paper with the contact information."

"Doesn't surprise me," Cassius replied tiredly, clearly used to dealing with these types of bureaucratic issues. "Anyway, I'm not actually America's INFCOM representative. I've just been put here temporarily until Fleet Admiral Boston can take over, since he's the one who's actually going to be the rep."

Drake grimaced. Boston was notorious for being difficult to work with, and despite being a good soldier, he was arrogant, brash, and crude. He wondered who made the decision to appoint Boston out of all the US Fleet Admirals as America's representative on an international stage.

"You must be wondering why they would appoint Boston to such a position," Cassius said, again displaying his uncanny ability to read people's thoughts. "Truth be told, I was wondering that myself, but I'm sure the Citizen's Council has a reason. Even though he often goes about it the wrong way, Boston can get things done. There's no doubt about that… Oh, and congratulations on your first successful sortie, by the way, though I'm sure the bombings dampened the mood there. I heard there was no major damage to the base, though…?"

"Yes, the bombing run didn't do much, thankfully," Drake confirmed. "We're going on another sortie to hunt down the Abyssal Princess that launched the attack soon."

"A Princess, huh? Good luck with that. To be honest, I doubt she'll even show herself, but maybe it's better that way. As you saw at Tangier, those things are tough… Anyway, what did you call for?"

"I wanted to see if INFCOM could provide me with another battleship," Drake said, getting straight to the point.

"A battleship? As in an actual ship, or one of the ship girls?"

"Like Iowa," Drake clarified. "My fleet only has one battleship right now, so it's kind of tough to operate that way, for obvious reasons."

"I understand that, but what you're asking is ridiculous," Cassius replied, not bothering to sugarcoat his words. "You haven't forgotten your objective, have you? One of the main reasons we sent you there was so that you could send over some Japanese ship girls to the States. But based on what I'm hearing from you now, you want to do the exact opposite."

"That's not what I meant, sir," Drake hurriedly amended before he landed himself into deep shit. "I don't want you to send me a battleship free of charge. The Tokyo Bay Base has plenty of ship girls who aren't part of a fleet, so they're just sitting around doing nothing, basically. I would propose sending a handful of them over to the US, in exchange for Iowa."

"If there are ship girls just sitting around, why don't you take one of them instead?"

"They're not battleships, sir."

"Let me guess: they're all destroyers or light cruisers."

Drake frowned. "Yes… But that isn't a bad thing. The US has no screening ship girls right now, so we could actually use them. On top of that, sending even destroyers over to the US would establish a precedent for sending ship girls back to America, which could open the door to future transfers."

"Even so, if we sent Iowa to you, the US would essentially lose half its strength, including all of its heavy surface gunnery. You think operating with one battleship is hard? We would end up with zero if we accepted your proposal."

"What's Abyssal activity like in the Atlantic, sir?" Drake asked as he leaned back in his chair and twirled a lock of his black hair around his finger. "Unless there has been a huge increase in Abyssal operations in the last month or so that has somehow been kept secret from the public, then…"

Fleet Admiral Cassius sighed. "Yes, you're right that the Atlantic isn't as active as your area of the ocean right now. But who knows how long that will last? Did you forget where Tangier is located already? The Abyssals have attacked here before, and they will attack here again. We need to be prepared for that moment, and giving up Iowa is the opposite of being prepared… Besides, how the hell would I justify that move to the Citizen's Council?"

"Use the arguments I just gave to you," Drake told him, growing frustrated. "Sir… I understand your concerns. But you also have the entire European Fleet patrolling the Atlantic, so it's not as if Iowa and Saratoga are the only two ship girls on that side of the world."

"All right, fine. I will think about it, and I'll bring it up with high command. But be warned that your proposal is likely to be shot down anyway."

"Please ensure that it is accepted, sir. I only act for the benefit of my country," Drake responded, hoping he sounded genuine. "Also, I would like you to pass this on to the European admirals as well. If you can't send over Iowa, maybe one of them will be able to spare a battleship for the exchange."

"Okay. Anything else, or was that it?"

"Is Iowa there? Can I talk to her?"

Drake figured that he might as well try and convince the battleship herself if he could. Now that the warships were girls instead of just hunks of steel, they could be persuaded and reasoned with just like most other humans. If he could get Iowa to want to come to Japan and join his fleet, then that might help his case. He thought he might have a shot at doing so since Iowa seemed to like hanging around him back when he was still in America. In the days before he had flown to Japan, Drake had constantly been badgered by Iowa, who, every night without fail, barged into his room while he was trying to read over reports in order to ask him what he was doing. She would then prevent him from finishing his work by talking about how much America had changed or asking him questions about his own life. Now that he thought about it, Kongou and Iowa were actually very similar in that regard.

"Iowa isn't with me," came Cassius' reply, though Drake didn't know if the Fleet Admiral was being truthful or if he knew exactly what Drake was trying to pull and therefore purposefully prevented Drake from speaking with her.

"I see. In that case, that is all. Thank you for your help, sir."

"Right. I'll let you know if the situation changes."

As the Fleet Admiral hung up the phone, Drake wondered if anything would come from his proposal. Though he thought he dressed up his demand for another battleship quite nicely, he also knew that ship girls were a precious commodity, and that any country would be extremely reluctant to part with any of theirs. Still, Fleet Admiral Cassius was trustworthy enough, so Drake could expect him to give the proposal some more thought at the very least.

Now to call one more person just in case, Drake thought as he dialed another number, though this one he didn't have to look up.

"What the hell do you want?" a female voice groggily answered in a refined British accent.

"Lira… What have I told you about your manners? Is that any way to greet your favorite cousin?"

"Either tell me what you want now, or sod off. It's six in the morning over here, you dunce."

"So? Does the Royal Navy not make you guys wake up early or something?"

"Didn't I tell you that I'm at INFCOM now, you idiot? We have different hours than the Royal Navy."

"I just called one of my Fleet Admirals at INFCOM a minute ago, and he was wide awake," Drake pointed out.

"Do I look like a bloody fleet admiral to you? Hurry up and tell me what you want before I hang up."

"Fine," Drake replied with a frown. He then went on to explain to Lira everything he had told Fleet Admiral Cassius.

"... Have you been knocked in the head, Richard? Don't waste my time with such a stupid proposal ever again."

"How is it stupid?" Drake demanded, growing tired of his cousin's insults. "You didn't even bother to counter any of my arguments, so if anything, you're the stupid one here."

"You bloody Yank -"

Lira's sentence was interrupted by an intense coughing fit, clearly audible through the phone even though she had put the receiver down while coughing. Drake cringed a bit as he listened to the wheezing.

"... Good God, Richard. Do I really need to explain why your proposal is dumb?" Lira asked as she recovered from her bout of coughs.

"All right, I know that trading a battleship for some destroyers and light cruisers sounds bad on the surface, but -"

"It's a terrible idea for us. Just because the Atlantic Ocean isn't as dangerous as the Pacific doesn't mean that we can afford to send away our only battleship, and half of our fleet's strength."

"You're part of the European Fleet. One battleship isn't even close to half your strength," Drake corrected.

"I mean England's strength, you dimwit," Lira admonished. "We can't do it, sorry. I'm going to hang up now."

"Wait," Drake said before she could put down the phone. "Can't you help me out here? What good is having a cousin and an uncle in the Royal Navy if you guys can't even do this one thing for me?"

"Excuse me? You're making it sound as if you're asking for a little favor, when in reality, what you want is impossible. Just shut the hell up and stop talking to me."

"All right, fine," Drake conceded, giving up on convincing her. "Can you at least tell the other European admirals about my proposal? Maybe one of them will want to take up my offer."

"And what good would that do? I'm just a captain. I don't have a star like you do," she spat bitterly.

"So? They're not just going to ignore you because you're a lower rank. You're stationed at INFCOM, and your father is an admiral. If you're not going to even consider my proposal, you could at least tell the others about it."

"... Fine. I'll see what I can do."

With that, Lira hung up the phone. Drake sighed softly as he put the receiver down. Talking to his cousin was always such a pain, but he had to try it. At the very least, his proposal would now be backed by two members of INFCOM, so hopefully at least one of the admirals there would agree to it… Though, to be honest, he doubted that would happen.

A few seconds later, Kaga came back into his office, but not by herself. Accompanying her were Shoukaku and Zuikaku, the two carriers of his Sixth Fleet.

"I have informed our fleets of our response to the abyssal bombings, sir," Kaga said, then shifted her gaze to the carriers of the former Fifth Division. "These two insisted on speaking with you despite the fact that I explained the situation very clearly to them."

"Like hell you did!" Zuikaku yelled. "You were just being a condescending bitch the whole time, just like you are right now!"

Kaga turned to glare at her, but Drake interrupted before an argument could start.

"Stop screaming in here. Can't you see there are other people working?"

Zuikaku shut her mouth, but not before shooting Kaga a dirty look.

"Anyway, what did you two want?" Drake asked as he leaned back in his chair.

"Sir… We would like to know why we are being left out of this sortie," Shoukaku asked. She wore a frown on her normally gentle face, and her golden eyes spoke of restrained anger.

"We need two carriers to remain behind to guard the base just in case of another aerial attack. It would also be disastrous if the mission went badly and we sortied all our carriers since it would completely cripple our airpower," Drake explained.

"Kaga already explained that," Zuikaku cut in. "What we want to know is why you're taking Hiryuu and Souryuu instead of us. They're not even part of your damn fleet!"

"Was our combat performance in the last sortie lacking?" Shoukaku asked with worry.

"No. In fact, you both performed exceptionally well," Drake said truthfully, recalling how Shoukaku effectively led the main fleet and kept them together, and how Zuikaku recognized the flaw in the organization of the planes. "This wasn't my decision. Fleet Admiral Miiro was the one who wanted to sortie Hiryuu and Souryuu instead."

"Then why didn't you tell him to fuck off? Isn't that how you do it in America?" Zuikaku demanded. "He's not your commander. He can't force you to take Hiryuu and Souryuu instead of us!"

Drake shook his head. "It's not that simple, obviously. I told you that I would have picked you two if I could, but it's just one sortie. I don't see why you care so much."

Shoukaku's expression contorted into one of anger.

"Because we're tired of being sidelined in favor of the Kido Butai! We're IJN carriers too, aren't we?! Just what makes them so much better than us!" she shouted.

Drake was a bit taken aback by Shoukaku's out-of-character outburst, but he quickly recovered.

"All right, I get it. You two clearly have an inferiority complex to the Kido Butai… But you're wrong. Neither of you two are any less skilled than the carriers from the Kido Butai."

"Sorry, but your words are meaningless, Admiral," Zuikaku said. "If that's really true, then why the hell is the Fleet Admiral insisting that you take Hiryuu and Souryuu? Why didn't you bother to argue on our behalf?"

"Did you ever think that maybe the Kido Butai has something to prove as well?" Drake asked the two sisters. "Instead of focusing on yourselves, you should see things from their point of view. Yeah, maybe you two think that the Kido Butai are these four godly beings who can't be touched. But you want to know the reality of the situation? Despite their numerous achievements and accolades, the fact remains that the Kido Butai is best known for being utterly destroyed by the Americans at Midway. That's it. Everything they've ever done before that is all overshadowed by their crushing, humiliating defeat. If you bothered to look at things from a different perspective, you would see that maybe the reason why I didn't argue against the reformation of the Kido Butai was so that they could have another chance at battle, and drag their reputation out of the mud and back to the top, where it deserves to be."

Shoukaku and Zuikaku stared silently at the ground after Drake's speech, and though Kaga's face remained an impassive mask, her fists were tightly clenched at her sides.

The rear admiral spoke up again. "As I said before, I don't consider any other carriers to be better than you two. I trained you both myself, and I feel bad about leaving you behind. But you have to understand that sometimes, there are more important things than your own personal feelings."

"... You're right, sir. We apologize for our rudeness," Shoukaku said as she bowed, prompting Zuikaku do do the same, albeit a bit more reluctantly.

"Er, you don't have to apologize," Drake said sheepishly as the two carriers bowed. "Just make sure to look after the base and the fleet while we're gone. You'll both get plenty of chances to sortie in the future, so don't worry about that."

The two carriers bowed once more before exiting. Drake sighed as he went back to his paperwork. Kaga sat down next to him and also started on some paperwork, and though she was just as silent as usual, Drake began to wonder if his words had offended her.

Eh, whatever… It's not like anything I said was false.

"Admiral… Thank you for what you said."

Drake was a little surprised that Kaga was thanking him for that. He turned to look at her, but she hadn't lifted her golden-brown eyes from her paperwork, though she was blushing slightly.

He grinned to himself. "You're welcome."

The two spent the rest of the afternoon in a comfortable silence, finishing the day's paperwork.

The night breeze was cold and bitter, and the black sea churned uneasily under the Airfield Princess' feet as she sailed through the open waters. Her long white hair spread out behind her as the wind blew, and though she wore little in the way of clothing, she was protected from the night air by her own internal combustion processes as well as the intense heat emanating from the monstrous jaw that was part of her rigging on her right side. An deep red light shone from within the creature's jaw, a dimmer shade than the color of the Princess' eyes. A massive cannon rested atop the jaw, and two large airstrips jutted out from the Princess' rigging on either sides of her.

"Henderson, do you read me?" a female voice sounded in in the Airfield Princess' head through the wireless communication system they used.

"I do. What do you want?" the Airfield Princess, known as Henderson, replied.

"You know exactly what I want. The Council has ordered you to return to base."

Henderson smirked. "The Council? Last time I checked, I was also a part of the Council, was I not?"

"Which is why we cannot have you remaining out in the field for extended periods of time, especially if it is for no reason."

"Oh, shut up. I don't need you lecturing me."

"... Apparently you do. You must be low on fuel by now, right?"

Henderson frowned and bit her lip. "I have enough."

"Enough for what?"

"They're going to send a fleet out here soon. That, I'm sure of," Henderson replied as her red eyes scanned the dark horizon.

"How soon?"

"I don't know. Tomorrow or the day after, probably, since their planes have trouble flying at night."

"And you are sure of this? Or are you just going to sail around, wait for a fleet that isn't going to show up, waste all your fuel, and then force us to send one of our fleets to escort you back?"

"Don't use that tone with me," Henderson snapped. "I know what I'm doing, thank you. Now leave me in peace."

To her pleasant surprise, the feed cut out, allowing Henderson to enjoy the sound of her own sailing without having to deal with her nagging comrades.

I just know those idiot humans are going to send another fleet in order to hunt down the culprit behind the bombing of their base, the Airfield Princess thought to herself as she smirked. With any luck, they'll assume that it was some sort of carrier task force that attacked them, leaving them unprepared to fight a Princess… But even if they do know whom they're going up against, they stand no chance against me.

Deciding to give up on her search for tonight, Henderson stopped sailing and slowly began submerging. Though most Abyssals could operate underwater, they were much faster on the surface of the ocean, and their weapons were almost completely ineffective under the sea unless they were of a submarine class. Henderson figured that nobody would show up tonight, so she assumed it was all right to lay low and resume her post tomorrow morning.

The ship girls… They will come, she decided. And when they do, I'm going to sink them, along with their pathetic human masters… How disgusting. Those warships were given a second chance at life, and what do they do? They spend their newfound sentience spilling more blood, just as they did in their past lives. Humans truly do care for nothing other than violence and eliminating their enemies. That is why they must be wiped out.

The Abyssal Princess submerged, and like the setting of the sun, her glowing red eyes disappeared beneath the black waves.