The Battleship Princess blinked in confusion, her glowing red eyes flickering with surprise. I've lost connection with the Submarine Princess…

She was currently inside a large room which was mostly empty save for a big screen which now displayed nothing but black. The room itself was also dark, and the only light sources came from cyan pulses of energy that occasionally ran along the walls, ceilings, and floors.

"Hey, how's it going, Dyson?"

The Battleship Princess turned around to see the Airfield Princess enter through the far end of the room, her long, white hair bouncing as she walked.

Dyson smirked. "Ah, Henderson. It appears I've lost the connection with the Submarine Princess."

The Airfield Princess looked just as confused as Dyson had been. "Uh, what?"

"Are you daft? Do you not understand what that means?"

"Wait, you're telling me - you're telling me she actually went and got sunk?" the Airfield Princess laughed heartily. "Ahaha! What a fucking dumbass! That dumb bitch got herself sunk!"

Battleship Princess frowned. "You realize I was commanding that sortie, correct?"

"Then you're a fucking dumb bitch too! Hahaha!"

Dyson debated if she should go over and wring the Airfield Princess' neck, but she instead just smiled. "I will admit, even I was surprised. To think our arrogance would result in this, of all things."

The door to the room opened again, and an Abyssal with long, white hair in a princess haircut style entered. She wore black gladiator boots and had glowing red eyes like the other two Princesses, and on her head was a strange red and black decoration which resembled a lycoris flower.

"I heard Henderson's mad cackling, so I assumed something interesting was happening," she said with a sinister grin. "Don't tell me that Dyson told a funny joke…?"

"She might as well have," Henderson replied. "Get this, Lycoris: the Submarine Princess was sunk!"

"Oh? But a comrade's death is no laughing matter," Lycoris chided, though her smile only grew wider even as she said this.

"It was unexpected, to be sure," Dyson cut in, then turned to the black screen with an amused look. "Perhaps I got a little too careless."

"But in all serious," Lycoris began, "a human commander managed to defeat you?"

"As much as it shames me to admit it, yes," Dyson responded. "He had ship girls, of course, but after we crushed them in front of our gates a few weeks ago, I did not expect them to make such a comeback."

Henderson finally stopped laughing. "But how did they beat you? Better strategy? Or were his ship girls just stronger for some reason?"

"It was a bit of both, but more of the former, I think," Battleship Princess answered. "I believe you know the commander well, Henderson. This was Admiral Drake, the American who fought you by the Tokyo Base."

"Huh? That was an American?" Henderson questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't know that… So those Kido Butai whores were there as well?"

"I assume so, but I never saw them. He hid his carriers on land and actually launched his planes from there."

"Oh? An interesting strategy," Lycoris appreciated, being a carrier-type Abyssal herself.

Dyson nodded. "Yes. He also set the field of battle close to the shore, which resulted in our eventual defeat. At first I assumed he was trying to copy what the commander at Tangier tried against me years ago, but then I realized that he did this so he could nullify our Princess' effectiveness given that she was submarine."

"Huh. How'd he know about Submarine Princess?" Henderson asked.

Dyson sighed. "That was my mistake. I allowed their UAVs to observe our fleet before the battle and I told him that we had deployed a Submarine Princess. I suppose I got too cocky after the success of our last sortie."

"Damn," the Airfield Princess said after listening to that. "Hey, so what were Submarine Princess' last words? She was always so quiet, but I bet she went out screaming, haha!"

"I wouldn't know. Her death happened so fast that I did not even realize it until afterwards," Dyson informed her. "Apparently one of their destroyers was quick enough to detonate Submarine Princess' torpedo as soon as she launched it, and the explosion ended up causing enough brain damage to sink her… Which was another clever strategy that Admiral Drake used once he realized that standard depth charges would not work."

"Well, if you're done sucking this Drake guy's dick, are you going to tell us how far back this set us?" Airfield Princess asked. "Despite my amusement, we did lose a Princess. That sounds like a pretty big deal to me."

Dyson shook her head. "This defeat meant nothing. Yes, it is unfortunate that we lost one of our sixteen Princesses, but in the end, we did not need to take that island, though it would have been useful if we did. I merely wanted to test how the humans would react after their defeat, and given this result, it does not appear that they will roll over and die so easily. Nevertheless, our Spring Offensive will tip the scales in our favor, and Operation Lungfish is still developing as well. Our war is far from lost."

"But still, such a victory by the humans surprised me," Lycoris interjected. "Those ship girls and their commanders may be better than we thought…"

"Indeed," the Battleship Princess agreed, her red eyes glowing brightly. "Admiral Drake and his ship girls… It seems they are worthy opponents."

Battleship Princess then paused and turned back towards the black screen, staring at her dim reflection in it. She licked her lips.

Killing them will be all the more rewarding now.

"Thank you for dealing with the invasion," Fleet Admiral Miiro said to Drake as he bowed deeply before the American admiral.

"Er, no need for that, Fleet Admiral," Drake sheepishly replied, still not quite used to the custom of bowing to people.

Genji scoffed. "Wish we could have been there to help, but politics fucking held us back again."

The three of them were currently in the lobby of the base's hospital. Drake had arrived back at the base three days ago, and most of his fleet was immediately put in the ICU, though by now their conditions had stabilized. Fleet Admiral Miiro and Rear Admiral Genji had returned from Sapporo this morning, and they just now encountered Drake for the first time since they arrived.

"But even so, we were all very impressed by your results," Miiro continued. "Sinking an Abyssal Princess could not have been an easy feat, especially now that we know what they are truly capable of."

"Oh, well, thank you," Drake replied, still a bit embarrassed about being praised so much. His phone then rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket to see that 'INFCOM' was the caller ID. This was strange because INFCOM usually used his office phone number on the rare occasions they needed to reach him by phone.

"Sorry, it's from Fleet Command," Drake apologized to the two Japanese admirals as he answered the phone and moved away. "... Hello?"

"Yo! How's it going, Dick?"

The deep, booming voice that resounded from the other end of the line could be no one other than Fleet Admiral Boston, and further proof of that was the fact that the caller referred to him by the same unwanted nickname Boston had used in his letter to Drake a few months ago.

"Uh, Fleet Admiral. May I help you, sir?"

"Nah, just calling to congratulate you on your victory. I read your report, and all of us back here are pretty impressed with it! You should'a seen the look on the faces of these Euro admirals! Hah!"

"Thank you, sir."

"Yeah. Well, anyway, the resource costs for your last operation are through the roof, but I think I can convince the Citizen's Council to overlook that for now. Keep up the good work, aight?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay then, I'll - oh wait, how's Bismarck doing? Hah! You write that dumb report about her yet?"

Oh shit! "Uh… Not yet, sir. I've been a bit busy."

"Man, fuck. Those two German pretty boy admirals are gonna be all over my ass, but yeah, you got a point, I guess. Just get that shit done as soon as possible, y'hear?"

"Yes, sir. I'll finish it by tomorrow at the latest."

"Cool. Oh, right, there was an actual reason why I called you, now I remember. Apparently there's some sort of international conference going down here in London about a week from now, so we want you to be there since you're part of the Kancolle Program for the United States. Your Jap buddies will probably be there as well. You hear about this from your base yet?"

"No, sir." This was the first Drake was hearing of this. "Is there anything in particular I should prepare for?"

"Uh… Fuck, I guess just be able to explain what you've written in your reports, stuff about the Abyssals and ship girls and shit like that. There'll be a lot of important naval and governmental figures from across the world there, so they'll probably want to know about that shit. You'll probably have to take a civilian flight over, but we'll provide you with the four tickets. First-class, of course, hah! Oh yeah, the other three tickets are for the ship girls, since they want you to bring some a them along. You should probably bring Bismarck as one of them 'cause I'm sure these German bastards will want to see her again… But other than that, yeah, I think that was it. Anyway, I got other shit to do, so see ya in London."

Fleet Admiral Boston then ended the call, and Drake pocketed his cellphone, turning to see that Miiro and Genji had already left. He continued up the stairs of the hospital until he reached the floor where his fleet was being held. All of the ship girls who had been injured were being housed in one large room like they had been after Bethlehem. They were all out of surgery by now, which was pretty impressive considering that a few of them had quite literally been blown apart.

I guess these medic-engineers aren't being paid those huge amounts for nothing, Drake thought as he headed into the room. He had seen how much the ship girl engineers were being paid just from glancing at some of the base's ledgers, and it was a hell of a lot more than he himself was getting. Then again, the military never paid that well to begin with, so he shouldn't complain about the pretty decent amount he was currently being paid.

When Drake entered the large hospital room, he was surprised to find that it was packed with ship girls, and not just the injured ones. Apparently many other girls on base had chosen today to visit their sisters, though that probably wasn't a coincidence since a lot of the girls had been in the ICU or in surgery for the past couple days, so visitors weren't allowed.

"Admiral Drake!" Kongou shouted loudly as she saw him enter. "What have you done to poor Haruna?!"

"It's okay, Sister. It's not his fault," a bedridden Haruna assured Kongou, giving Drake an apologetic smile. "Hello, sir. Good morning."

"Good morning," Drake replied with a nod, ignoring Kongou's outburst. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Yes, sir. It still hurts a bit, but these new arms are working fine."

"That's good to hear."

Drake then noticed that most of the ship girls in the room were staring at him, which made him feel slightly uncomfortable. It didn't really surprise him because it was only natural that they be curious as to what a commanding officer was doing there, but he didn't want them watching his every move regardless. If he knew that the room would be so packed, he probably would have held off on visiting for a couple more hours.

"Hey! I heard you guys sunk a Princess!" Kongou then said. "How!? Tell me your secret!"

"The secret is to become a good tactician," Drake replied with a smirk. "Also, try not to be defeated in one hit. That would help as well."

"R-rude!"

"Ehehe, I'm sure Kongou did her best," Haruna supplied, trying to cheer her sister up.

"Yeah, I'm just joking around," Drake said. "The circumstances between those two sorties were wildly different, and I'm sure it wouldn't have ended any better if I had been there instead of Genji… Either way, at least now we know that the Princesses aren't invincible. They can be sunk just like any other warship."

Drake then noticed Shigure in the corner of the room, sitting in front of a pair of beds that probably belonged to Murasame and Yamakaze. Accompanying Shigure were two other destroyers, one of which Drake recognized as Yuudachi and the other was one with whitish hair who wore the same type of uniform as Yamakaze. When Drake approached, Shigure stood up and promptly saluted, causing the other two to follow suit.

"At ease," Drake said, lazily returning their salute. "They doing all right?"

Both Yamakaze and Murasame were still asleep, but to everyone's surprise, Murasame stirred when Drake arrived. She opened her eyes slowly and looked at the four people surrounding her bed.

"Mmmph… What's going on…?"

"You're in the hospital, poi!" Yuudachi said, a little too cheerily given the situation.

"Ugh, again…? Oh, Admiral! Um, good morning, sir! Or is it afternoon…? What day is it…?

"It's been three days since the sortie," Drake explained. "You and Yamakaze took quite a bit of damage, but I think you'll both be fine."

Murasame blinked as she turned to see Yamakaze asleep in the bed next to hers. "Oh, did we win? We beat the Princess?"

"Yeah. Amatsukaze sunk her," Drake informed her.

"Really? That's great!" Murasame cried, then winced. "Ow…"

"You shouldn't move around too much," Shigure cautioned, a worried look in her blue eyes.

The other ship girl who Drake didn't recognize also stood up to adjust Murasame's pillow. Like her sisters, she was extraordinarily cute.

"Who's this?" Drake asked Shigure, pointing to the white-haired destroyer.

"Oh, sorry. That's Umikaze, one of our sisters."

Umikaze snapped to attention at hearing her name called. "Uh, y-yes! Umikaze, reporting for duty, sir!"

"Right… I'm Rear Admiral Richard Drake. Nice to meet you," he simply said, taken slightly off guard by Umikaze's overly-formal greeting.

Murasame then sighed. "I can't believe I almost sunk again…"

"It's not your fault. It was a rough battle from start to finish," Drake said, trying to console her. He also spared a quick glance at Shigure, who was staring at the ground with a downcast expression. "Shigure, I'd like to talk to you for a bit."

A nervous look flashed across Shigure's face, but she nodded and followed Drake nonetheless. Once they were somewhat distanced from Shigure's sisters, Drake began speaking.

"Are you feeling all right after that sortie? No problems?"

"Um, my arm has healed, sir, so I'm fine…"

Drake wasn't sure if she actually didn't know what he was asking about or if she was intentionally avoiding the subject, but he decided to be more direct regardless.

"You seemed kind of out of it last time I visited you in the hospital," the American reminded her. "Are you over that now?"

Shigure frowned. "Oh, that… Y-yes, it won't be a problem."

"That didn't sound very convincing to me, but whatever you say… But if you have any problems with anything, come talk to me, okay?"

Shigure looked away. "No, I shouldn't bother you with trivial things like that…

"If it's going to affect your performance, then it's not trivial," Drake immediately said, bitterly recalling how his own fears cost them the chance to sink the Airfield Princess a while ago. "I'm not going to be angry at you or anything, all right? As your admiral, you're my responsibility now. If there's anything I can do to help you, just ask. It's my job, after all."

"Okay… Thank you, sir."

He doubted that Shigure would actually talk to him about whatever battle experience was disturbing her, but he at least wanted to make sure that she knew he would listen if she ever wanted to tell him about it. Briefly, Drake wondered if he would say this same thing if the people under his command were regular sailors rather than ship girls. He had been in command of a heavy cruiser for a short amount of time, so he sort of knew the answer to that himself… Something about the ship girls made him want to care for them. He assumed it was because their appearances were not suited for the battlefield, and so he felt like he had to be more protective of them, but ultimately he wasn't sure what it was.

As Shigure went back to rejoin her sisters, Drake still stood by the window of the hospital room, looking out onto the repair docks below. It was a sunny, temperate winter day, and as per usual, flocks of seagulls flew overhead, their caws faintly audible even inside the hospital. Drake's thoughts continued to linger on his ship girls. Though he recognized that he seemed to care for them more than he would for normal soldiers, was that actually true during battle? Or did he just realize that when they were out of battle and acting like normal girls? During all his sorties thus far, he never felt scared for his ship girls or felt like they were actual human soldiers out there who were being hurt and killed. Instead, he saw them as warships, tools for him with which to execute his strategy. Though he was prone to angry outbursts when his ship girls got hurt during a fight, Drake was never mad because he didn't want the Abyssals hurting his girls; he felt angry because he thought that the enemy was overcoming his strategy, and that frustrated him more than anything. When they brought the damaged ship girls into the command center during the defense of Hachijo-jima, Drake had barely glanced at them, and he didn't think much other than, 'Damn it, that's one less ship I have to fight with.'

Even when Yamakaze was captured by the Submarine Princess, Drake ordered the girls to go after her not necessarily because he followed 'no man left behind,' but rather that Yamakaze's death would mean the loss of a chess piece that could be used in future sorties, and also because losing Yamakaze would prove that his strategy had a huge flaw in it. Now that he thought about it, in that moment, he didn't remember Yamakaze as the cute, shy girl who would cling to him for the dumbest of reasons; he saw her as a valuable weapon that couldn't be lost to the enemy. To be honest, this was nothing new for Drake. Even back at Tangier, his first major engagement, he had no problems leaving the sinking or heavily-damaged ships behind as fodder for the Abyssals. Their crews undoubtedly suffered terrible deaths, but Drake needed to use them to gain time for his own retreat. And then of course was his strategy to use the civilian population of Tangier as bait. During the battle, he didn't think of any of those people as people, and he simply used them as pawns in his tactical game with the enemy.

Of course, that wasn't to say that he had no emotions or that he had no qualms with using people like that. His repeated traumatic flashbacks to Tangier were evidence of his guilt, even if he didn't want to acknowledge it. He also knew that he cared about his ship girls outside of battle, but when they were in the fight, a feeling of reckless abandon would overtake him, and he would use anybody and anything to achieve victory… He hoped that he was wrong about himself, and that he was just overthinking things.

The Battleship Princess' glowing red eyes suddenly flashed into his mind, along with the image of the Princess and her beast eating a sailor alive. He also remembered how the Abyssals had let their entire Los Angeles attack force sink, their lives used up and cheaply discarded as nothing more than a distraction.

To fight monsters like that, one must become a monster… Is that why I was the one picked for the Kancolle Program?

"Admiral."

Drake turned to see Bismarck, who had just entered the hospital room. The blonde battleship had healed nicely from her injuries, and she didn't really have any close friends to visit in the hospital, so he guessed she must need him for something.

"Yes?"

"That Ooyodo girl asked me to tell you that you received a call from Fleet Admiral Boston," Bismarck said, a distasteful expression on her face. Drake guessed that Bismarck and Boston didn't get along back at London, which made sense given both of their personalities.

"Yeah, he called me back already. But that reminds me: I'm going to London next week, and they asked me to bring you along as well, so pack your bags."

"London?" Bismarck repeated, surprised. "For what? A sortie?"

"No, it's for a conference of some sort, so no need to bring your guns."

"Wait! You're going to London?!" Kongou exclaimed, overhearing their conversation. "How!? Can I come?"

"Ask Genji to take you. He might be going too," Drake said. "He hasn't said anything about this?"

"No! Was he keeping this from me? That bastard!"

Kongou sprinted out of the room, presumably to hound Genji about this. Drake felt like he shouldn't have told Kongou that, but it was too late now.

"Then are we visiting Fleet Command?" Bismarck asked, a hint of excitement creeping into her voice.

"Yeah, so get ready to do a lot of saluting, I guess."

"Ah, I see! When are we leaving?" she asked, stepping closer to Drake and grinning.

Drake frowned. "I told you, sometime next week. What are you so excited about? Got a boyfriend in London or something?"

Bismarck blushed fiercely and scowled at him. "Don't be an idiot! I just haven't seen my comrades in a while, that's all…"

She must be talking about the other German ship girls, Drake realized. "All right, all right. I'll tell you the exact date and time once I know it, so be prepared."

Drake then felt someone tugging on his uniform, and he turned to see Yuudachi smiling up at him. "I want to go to London too, poi! You can tell Admiral Genji for me, right, sir?"

"Yuudachi, please don't bother him," Shigure said, pulling her sister's hand away.

"Yeah, don't know if I can convince Genji of that, and he'd probably think I was weird if I randomly asked him that," Drake responded. He then turned to Shigure. "What about you, Shigure? You want to go?"

"M-me?"

"Yeah. I have three tickets, one of which I have to use on Bismarck. I'll probably ask Kaga to come as well since she's the secretary ship, but I still have one left."

"Oh, uh…"

"You can say no if you want. I just asked you because you happened to be here, so don't think it's required or anything."

"Hey, you should go!" Yuudachi encouraged Shigure. "If I don't get to go, you can at least tell us about it, right, poi?"

"Hey, I was sitting here too, you know!" Murasame pouted at Drake. "You could have asked me…"

"You're injured, though," Drake pointed out.

"I'll be healed in a week!" Murasame protested. "... But really, I think you should go too, Shigure. Haven't you wondered what the world outside of Japan is like?"

Yuudachi nodded. "Yeah! But then again, we don't really even know what Japan is like these days…"

Shigure thought it over. "... I guess I have wondered about that stuff… Okay, Admiral. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to go."

"All right, then it's settled," Drake concluded, though he realized too late that some of his other fleet members might not like how he decided this on his own. Eh, whatever, most of them are still asleep anyway. I'll make it up to them somehow.

The rear admiral then turned to head back to the office, but a shrill scream stopped him in his tracks. He jumped slightly as he quickly whirled around to locate the sound, and he found that it came from Yamakaze, who had just now woken up. The green-haired destroyer was sitting up in her bed, an impressive feat considering her injuries, but she didn't even seem to be aware that she should be in pain. Her eyes were wide with fright, and she held her head in her hands as her body trembled. Her sisters gathered around her as the rest of the room's occupants turned to look.

"It's okay…" Shigure murmured as she crouched down beside Yamakaze, softly touching her hair.

"Y-you're all right now," Umikaze tried to assure her younger sister, putting a comforting hand on Yamakaze's back.

After getting over the initial shock, Yamakaze seemed to calm down slightly as she glanced around at her sisters. Tears welled up in her turquoise eyes, and she slowly collapsed back onto her bed.

Drake stood by, silently peering over at them. A few of the other ship girls who were visiting also spared a moment to see what was going on, but they quickly returned to their posts once they realized it was nothing serious. Surprisingly, the girls who were asleep stayed asleep in spite of the loud interruption.

Yamakaze's three sisters continued to remain by her side, but they then turned to Drake, their gazes expectant. The rear admiral was honestly planning on leaving because he thought the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers had the situation under control, but now that they were all looking at him, he felt obligated to say something. He lightly cleared his throat as he made his way over to Yamakaze's bedside.

"Uh… Are you all right?" he asked a bit awkwardly, kneeling down next to her. Despite what he may have said to Shigure minutes ago, he wasn't actually that good at comforting people.

Yamakaze's scared eyes nervously flitted over to Drake. "... Admiral…?"

"Yes. You're back at the naval base's hospital now," he told her. "The sortie was a success, so good job out there."

"Oh… That's good…"

You certainly don't sound happy… Drake wasn't sure what else to say to her, and he felt pressured now that all her sisters were watching as well. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and he quickly turned away to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Richard?"

Drake blinked. In his haste, he had forgotten to check the caller ID, so someone calling him by his first name caught him off-guard for a second. However, he quickly recognized the British accent and realized that it was probably his cousin, Lira. He hadn't spoken to her in a while, so he wondered why she was calling him out of the blue now.

"Yeah?"

"Your Fleet Admiral said he forgot to tell you something, so he told me to tell you since he's in an important meeting right now," she said, annoyance clear in her tone. "You know how you're supposed to come to London next week? Well, apparently your government is sending a squad of Navy SEALS down to your naval base to hold the fort while you're gone."

"The hell do they need to do that for?"

"Why are you asking me? I don't have a clue why your government does half the things it does, nor do I care to -"

She was interrupted by a series of rough coughs, and Drake frowned as he heard her move the receiver away and her coughing grow fainter. After about a minute, she finally returned and also gave Drake the contact information of the captain of the SEAL squad, her voice notably more hoarse.

"I see your condition hasn't gotten any better," Drake noted afterwards.

"That's got nothing to do with you," Lira snapped. "... Anyway, that was all I had to say. I suppose I'll see you in London."

With that, the phone call was ended, and Drake sighed to himself before pocketing his phone. He briefly glanced at the Shiratsuyu class and saw that they seemed to have forgotten about him, which gave him his chance to finally leave the hospital.

As he walked out of the building and into the winter air, Drake thought about the Navy SEALs. He supposed that it did make a bit of sense to send some American personnel down to the base if all three admirals were leaving, but he still wondered if it was a wise decision. The secrecy of the Kancolle Program wasn't really a big issue anymore (after their success at Los Angeles, national newspapers headlined things like, "VICTORY ON THE OCEAN: 'SHIP GIRLS' INVOLVED?"), but he didn't know if the SEALs and ship girls would get along. After all, the ship girls were still smarting from World War II, and though they had been told to get along with Americans by their own government, he doubted that all of them took those words to heart. Also, he figured that having an American military squad operate on a base full of extraordinarily-beautiful girls may cause some problems.

Either way, if the SEALs were going to come, he might as well make use of them instead of just letting them sit around and potentially mess with things. He entered the phone number Lira had given him into his cellphone, then listened as a brief period of ringing gave way to a man's lazy surfer drawl.

"... Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Commander Keats?"

"Yeah. Who're you?"

"I'm Rear Admiral Richard Drake. I heard you're coming to my naval base next week?"

"Oh, shit! Yeah, that's right. Sorry, I didn't have your number or anything."

"That's all right."

Though the 'commander' rank was technically subordinate to Drake's, with the way the Liberation Navy was structured, SEAL teams basically operated on their own and as a result had their own internal rankings system. This made them unique in the US Liberation Navy, though the Delta Force in the Army also shared this characteristic. However, due to the Abyssal War, the admirals had the luxury of being some of the more important members of the military, and so the SEALs generally accepted orders from them.

"So yeah, uh, did you need somethin'?"

"I was just wondering about the orders you were given," Drake continued. "Did Fleet Command give you guys any specific directions? Or are you just supposed to watch the base until I get back?"

"Uh… Nah, I think he just said to go there and make sure nothing happens."

"Oh. Well then, I've got something I'd like you to do…"

Kaga's golden eyes focused intently on the target in front of her. With fluid, practiced precision, she notched an arrow to her bowstring, pulled it back, and fired, watching as the projectile cut through the air and buried itself in the dead center of the target on the archery range.

"Good shot, Kaga."

She turned around to see Houshou, the effective matriarch of the base's aircraft carriers. Night had recently fallen, and though she had practiced earlier in the day, Kaga sometimes liked to go out and shoot a few more arrows when the stars were out. Houshou, having known Kaga for a while, knew this, and so she wasn't surprised to see Kaga out there.

Kaga merely nodded to Houshou, then drew another arrow and began notching her bow again. Houshou walked up beside Kaga, silently watching as the younger carrier continued to shoot at the practice targets.

"You appear troubled," Houshou noted just before Kaga fired another arrow. The remark caused Kaga's shot to go slightly off-center, and Kaga turned to Houshou with a frown.

"I don't know what you mean."

Houshou smiled softly. "Oh? As much as you try and hide your emotions, I can still tell."

Kaga's frown only deepened as she reached for another arrow. "Well, you can be wrong sometimes."

"But am I wrong this time?"

Kaga didn't answer, instead notching her bow and firing the arrow. The shot was again slightly off from the middle of the target, and Kaga scowled. "... Perhaps not."

"I see." Houshou glanced upwards at the full moon as its soft white radiance touched upon the targets out in the archery field. "Your last sortie was a success, was it not? The other carriers in your fleet seemed ecstatic at the victory."

"It was a victory with heavy costs," Kaga replied.

"But no one sunk."

"... I suppose."

A few minutes of relative silence passed, the night air only being interrupted by the whistle of Kaga's arrows and the thunk of the projectile entering the target.

"Then perhaps you are worried about future sorties?" Houshou posited. "Though you won this time, it was still incredibly difficult, and you only had to fight one Princess."

"... Yes," Kaga confirmed. "When we last fought the Airfield Princess, it took the entire strength of the Kido Butai to bring her to her knees, and even that was after she had already expended some of her planes when she attacked the base. Surely the Abyssals underestimated us on the last sortie, and that is the only reason we won. I don't expect we'll be so lucky next time."

Houshou continued to watch as Kaga merely notched another arrow after her pessimistic declaration. "... What does your admiral think about this?"

"What do you mean?" Kaga asked, lining up her shot. "I don't see the point in sharing these thoughts with him, especially while so many members of our fleet are still in the hospital. I feel it would unnecessarily bring down morale."

"But you are the secretary ship. It is your job to advise your admiral, is it not?"

Kaga frowned with frustration again as her shot sailed wide. "I told you, I don't want him to think that I'm being harsh for no reason."

Houshou sighed. "And what if he's having these same thoughts himself? Don't you think it would give him some peace of mind if you also sympathized with him? The admiral and the secretary ship are meant to share the burden of command, Kaga."

Kaga looked at the ground. "But…"

"But what?"

"The Admiral… He's been doing well lately."

"What do you mean by that?"

Kaga glanced up at the moon. "How much do you know about Admiral Drake?"

"Not much, I'm afraid… He stops by the restaurant sometimes, but other than that, I can't say I know him well," Houshou answered. "Why are you asking?"

"It's to answer your previous question," Kaga explained tonelessly, but then her expression took on a slight melancholy look. Most people would not have noticed it, but Houshou was not most people. "Admiral Drake… He is usually calm and reserved, in the same way I have often heard others say about me. He does get fairly aggressive during sorties, but even then, I've always felt like I could rely on him… I don't think he realizes it, but he exudes an air of quiet confidence that makes me feel at ease when he's commanding our sorties… I'm sure the other girls have noticed it as well."

Houshou was mildly surprised to hear Kaga praising someone in this manner, much less an American, but she was still confused as to how this related to Kaga's reluctance to share her thoughts with her admiral.

"I see you think highly of him. I am glad you have such a good admiral, but…"

"Yes. I was getting to that," Kaga continued. "Do you know of the Battle of Tangier?"

Houshou nodded, a serious look on her face. "Yes. It was one of the first major conflicts in the Abyssal War, correct?"

"That is correct. Admiral Drake fought in that battle, and he still seems to shoulder some trauma from it. That's why…"

"Mm," Houshou nodded, finally understanding. "So your admiral still fears the Abyssals to an extent, does he? That 'quiet air of confidence' you so value… It's shattered when he is reminded of his prior experience against the Abyssals at Tangier."

Kaga seemed a bit surprised at Houshou's accuracy, but she nodded nonetheless. "... Yes. And lately, the Admiral has seemed to be fearing the Abyssals less and less, so… I just don't want to remind him of how dangerous they are, and risk having him feel like that again."

"Do you say that for the sake of the fleet?" Houshou asked. "If your admiral were to be overcome by his memories, then it would certainly affect his ability to lead sorties, and the fleet would suffer for it."

Kaga raised an eyebrow. "Of course I say this for the sake of the fleet. What other -"

"Or you say it for yourself," Houshou interrupted, "because it hurts you too to see your admiral like that."

Kaga's eyes widened, her face betraying a momentary flashing emotion. "... I don't know what you mean."

Despite Kaga's words, Houshou got all she needed to know from that. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Kaga. I'm sure you care for the fleet, but there is nothing wrong with caring for your admiral as well. In fact, I'm happy that you've found someone other than Akagi whom you can get along with."

Kaga turned back to the archery range, but her eyes were distant. "That's not how it is…"

Houshou sighed again as she patted Kaga on the shoulder. "Don't try to deny yourself. Your admiral probably cares for you as well, and you'll only make things more difficult if you ignore your feelings… Well, I think I've said enough. The others are already asleep, so make sure you don't stay out too late. Good night."

As Houshou went back into the carrier dorm that was connected to the archery range, Kaga stared up at the night sky, confusion clouding her gaze.

Admiral Drake…