Shoukaku stood on the airfield at the Tokyo Bay Naval Base where a plane from America had just landed. Her sister, Zuikaku, waited beside her, though the twintailed carrier wore an annoyed expression and had one hand on her hip, her demeanor suggesting that she would rather be somewhere else.

Zuikaku yawned as she watched a group of people disembark from the plane. "Did we really need to come out here to greet them?"

"You didn't need to do anything," Shoukaku parried. "You chose to accompany me, remember?"

"Yeah, because I didn't want you meeting a bunch of strange men on your own!" Zuikaku defended.

Shoukaku giggled softly. "You know very well that they couldn't hurt me even if they wanted to, Zuikaku."

"Hmph."

The two carriers waited as the men (and one woman) got their gear in order and approached. There were five of them, and they were all dressed in sleek black military combat uniforms. They sort of reminded Shoukaku of scuba divers with guns, though they wore bulletproof vests as well and they lacked the flippers. They each dragged a small suitcase behind them, and the man who Shoukaku assumed was the leader waved a hand in greeting. He was tall and of a similar build to her own admiral, though he had long, messy blond hair and wore a pair of aviator shades which covered his eyes.

The man gave a low whistle as he spotted Shoukaku and Zuikaku. "Wow! What a welcoming party!"

"I already hate this guy," Zuikaku whispered to Shoukaku in Japanese.

Shoukaku ignored her sister as she saluted the man. "Hello. Are you Commander Keats?"

"That's me all right," he grinned. "You must be Shoe-kakoo, right?"

"It's Shoukaku, sir," the white-haired carrier corrected with a hint of amusement in her tone.

"Fuck, my bad, haha! Anyway, as you know, I'm Commander John Keats. You can call me John, Keats, or Commander Keats, I don't really care."

Keats then went on to introduce the other members of his team.

Shoukaku nodded once they finished. "I am Shoukaku, aircraft carrier in the Imperial Japanese Navy. This is my sister, Zuikaku."

Zuikaku merely grunted as an acknowledgement to her introduction.

Shoukaku gave her sister a short, disapproving look, but she quickly turned back and smiled at the SEAL team. "Well then, please follow us, and we will show you where you will be staying for the next couple of days."

The two aircraft carriers led the American squad to one of the apartment buildings on the base that housed the regular sailors who worked there. The apartment building had some extra space, so the rooms had been lent to the SEALS, who would only need to be there for a few nights anyway. After the men put their carry-on bags inside their rooms, they returned to Shoukaku and Zuikaku, who were waiting outside (the latter not so patiently).

"Now, we can show you the rest of the base's facilities -"

Keats cut Shoukaku off. "Nah, fuck that. Might as well get started now, right? Assuming you girls are up for it."

Shoukaku shared a glance with Zuikaku, who shrugged. "Um… Are you not tired from your flight? Are you sure you don't want to visit the cafeteria or one of the other stores on the base?"

Keats shook his head. "Won't be a problem. We had something to eat before we flew over, and a long flight's nothing compared to the conditions we're used to. So, what do you say?"

"Well… I did order the fleet to gather by the Equipment Building so you could meet them, so I suppose we could start now," Shoukaku said.

"Cool, let's go," Keats breezily replied, then turned to his four other comrades. "You guys all right with that?"

They rest of the SEALs gave their approval as well, so the group continued on, with Shoukaku and Zuikaku once again leading them, this time to the large building on the beach which housed the ship girls' equipment. They entered the structure and found the fourteen remaining ship girls in Drake's fleet waiting around in the lobby, talking among themselves or just milling about in boredom. They quickly stopped and saluted when they noticed Shoukaku, Zuikaku, and the SEAL team approaching, though.

"Woah, you ship girls really are something else," Keats chuckled as he returned the salute.

"This is Commander Keats and his men," Shoukaku told the fleet. "As per the Admiral's orders, they will be taking charge of our training for the next few days. If nobody has any issues, then we will start now."

The rest of the ship girls looked at each other, some of them in confusion and others with apprehension, but none of them protested, so Shoukaku continued.

"All right, then. Commander Keats, I will leave the rest to you."

"Thank you," Keats nodded to Shoukaku as he stepped up. "'Sup, everyone. As you heard, I'm Keats, and the guys behind me are part of my squad. As you also probably know, your Admiral Drake asked me to show you girls a thing or two in the time that he's gone, so prepare yourselves."

"That sounds sort of lewd," Murasame whispered to Yamakaze in Japanese with a small chuckle. Yamakaze blushed a deep red as she frowned at her sister.

"This!" Keats continued, swinging his gun off his back and holding it up for the ship girls to see. "Today, you girls are gonna learn how to shoot a gun! Exciting, right?"

None of the ship girls aside from Shoukaku had been told what the training would be about, so they were naturally surprised by this and began muttering among themselves. Even Zuikaku had forgotten to ask her sister what type of training they would be doing, and she had just assumed that it would be more or less the same thing they always did but with the SEALs instead of their admiral.

"What the hell?" Zuikaku said, voicing the majority of the fleet's thoughts out loud. "Why would we ever need to learn how to use a gun like that? I doubt that thing will even scratch an Abyssal!"

Keats shook his head disapprovingly. "Now, now, Zui… What was it again… Ah, fuck it. I'll just call you ZuiZui if that's all right."

"It isn't!"

"Seems like you don't know your naval history, ZuiZui," Keats said. "And here I thought you girls were reincarnations of the famous warships. Don't tell me you've never participated in an amphibious mission?"

"Of course we have!" Zuikaku replied angrily. "But what the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"A ship fighting out on the sea is fine and all, but if she can't also assist the marines or other ground troops, then she's basically confined to the ocean. The water is her home, but it's also her jail cell," Keats said. "Or at least that's how Drake explained it to me…"

Zuikaku still wore a look of disbelief. "You realize this isn't World War II anymore, right? Please explain to me why the fuck we would need to protect ground troops when the Abyssals are entirely sea-based fighters!"

Keats grinned. "That's what you think."

"Huh?! It's a fact!"

"All right, let me try explaining this another way," Keats decided. "As ship girls, you're all basically supersoldiers, whether it be on land or on the sea. Now, we don't really have any land wars going on at the moment, which makes sense given our situation, but what happens if the Abyssals decide to stage an amphibious invasion somewhere? As in, they send out some ships to cover them as a few of them go ashore without their rigging? If they get on land, who's going to stop them? It hurts to say this, but not even the SEALs would stand a chance against the Abyssals, even on land."

"But -"

"Our viability as land-based troops was also validated during our last sortie," Shoukaku told the fleet, interrupting her sister. "Because we now have human bodies instead of simply being warships, the carriers were able to stay on land and out of reach from the enemy while still being able to attack. We were also able to serve as runners to carry our fallen comrades back to safety. Since we have these human bodies, why not take full advantage of them?"

"That also sounded a bit lewd," Murasame grinned as she playfully nudged Yamakaze again.

"It's basically a precautionary measure," Keats added, toting his gun. "What harm could a couple days of basic training do? Besides, don't you think it'd be cool to shoot one of these babies?"

"Hell yeah!" Kiso yelled.

"That's the enthusiasm I like!" Keats nodded as he pointed at the light cruiser. "Not sure why you're so against this, ZuiZui."

"Don't fucking call me that! But I guess I'm not really against the idea…"

"Then it's settled!" Keats concluded. "So I'm assuming this is the building where Drake said there was a shooting range in the basement…?"

Shoukaku nodded, then led the SEALs and the rest of the fleet down a flight of stairs and onto the lower level of the Equipment Building. They then continued down a hallway until they reached a fairly large gun range. The range was bare of any personnel, though there were plenty of boxes of various types of ammo and weapons. Drake had told Shoukaku that since the Tokyo Bay Base was modeled after a lot of US bases, they also built a gun range in the Equipment Building like they did in America. However, most of the IJN sailors didn't own guns, so the base didn't bother stationing any staff there. Really the only person who used the gun range was Drake, and even then only occasionally.

"Okay, we can work with this," Keats nodded as he took in the fairly large shooting range. "First of all, does anyone know anything about guns?"

"Yeah! You shoot people with them!" Sendai shouted as she made shooting motions with her hands.

"Uh… You're not wrong, I guess," Keats grinned. "That's not really what I meant, though. None of you has ever shot a gun before, I'm guessing?"

The ship girls shook their heads.

"So we're starting from scratch," the SEAL commander assumed. "Eh, whatever. So, first let me show you girls the basics, like how to reload, clean the weapon, proper aiming and grip technique, that sort of shit."

With the assistance of his squad mates, Keats spent the next forty-five minutes or so basically introducing the concept of firearms to the ship girls, who were much more used to dealing with big naval guns. He went through the procedure with his M16A3 rifle and his M9 sidearm, but then realized that the stock guns they had in the range were different, so he did it with those as well. He then fired a few shots off at the targets, and was surprised to find that the ship girls didn't flinch at all from the sound and did not not require any ear protection, most likely due to their ability to fight at sea and among much bigger guns.

"All right," he concluded once he finished his demonstration. "Now it's your turn. Anyone wanna volunteer for the rest of the class first? How 'bout you, Show-kackoo?"

Ignoring the butchering of her name once again, Shoukaku nodded and stepped up. As the one in charge now that her admiral and secretary ship were away, she figured she might as well go first. Commander Keats handed her one of the stock rifles, something he told them was called a 'Type 89 AR.' She flicked the safety off and set it to semi-automatic like he showed them, then held it up and aimed it downrange.

"Try hitting that target," Keats said, pointing at the human-shaped target downrange. "It's okay if you miss at first, so just do your best!"

Now that she was cleared to fire, Shoukaku took a brief moment to aim before firing the rifle. The recoil was easily managed by her ship strength, and her constant archery training made her aim sharp. She hit the dead center of the target with her first shot, then fired a few more times, either hitting the target right in the bullseye or somewhere very close to it. When she finished, she reloaded the rifle with impressive speed and then turned back to Keats.

The commander stood there with his mouth open. "Uh… Wow. You girls sure learn fast, huh?"

"It's a good weapon," Shoukaku concluded with a smile as she held up her slightly-smoking rifle.

"I wanna try it too!" Sendai yelled, reaching for the gun.

"Ay, be careful around weapons, all right?" Keats berated the light cruiser, slapping her hand away. "Anyway, yeah, I guess the rest of you should be good to go as well, then. This shooting range is wide enough to allow all of us to shoot at once, but it's not very deep, so you won't get to practice hitting long-ranged targets, sorry. Aside from that, remember the rules, and go for it!"

The rest of the fleet then began practicing their shooting, some of them using the same rifle Shoukaku used while the others used pistols. There were a few other guns available, namely a shotgun and a sniper, but Keats had told everyone to stick to the rifles and pistols for now. The shotgun also looked to be fairly dusty, so Keats assumed that Drake had never bothered using or maintaining it. He decided he might as well clean it himself, so he sat down with the shotgun and the rest of his crew as they watched the ship girls practice. Luckily there were more than enough earmuffs for the SEAL team, so they escaped a deafening by the chorus of shots that rang out through the range.

Meanwhile, the ship girls seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit. Yura gave herself an approving smile as she finished off her clip, managing to land every shot either dead center or close to it, just as Shoukaku had done.

"This is sort of fun, isn't it?" she said to Kiso, who was next to her. However, Kiso didn't respond, so Yura looked over to see her fellow light cruiser aiming down the sights of her gun with her only visible eye, an extreme amount of concentration etched into her face.

Kiso noticed Yura's gaze, then turned to her. "Sorry, did'ja say something?"

"U-um, no, not really," Yura replied with a chuckle. "You seem to be deeply focused, though…"

Kiso frowned. "Well, of course. It's only natural that we take our training seriously, right?"

"Y-yeah…"

"I mean… Aren't you disappointed?"

Yura blinked in confusion. "About what?"

"Y'know… Our performance in the last two sorties," Kiso finished, her frown deepening. "The two of us have done literally nothing since we were taken off the reserves. We both got torn a new one by that freak with the mask back at Bethlehem, and I got blasted into oblivion by the Submarine Princess' opening torpedo. From the report I've read, you didn't seem to do much either last sortie."

Yura's expression fell after being reminded of her last two sorties. "… I'm sorry."

"Don't know what you're apologizing for," Kiso said as she turned back downrange. "I'm just saying, that's why I want to put in as much effort as I can from now on… Whatever his reasoning may have been, the Admiral chose us, and we've done nothing but fail so far."

"You two are being rather grim," Amatsukaze noted with a laugh from her position next to Kiso.

Kiso glared at her. "What, you think you're hot shit now 'cause you sunk that Princess, huh?"

Amatsukaze only smiled as she continued to shoot. "No… But you have to admit, it was pretty amazing."

Kiso shook her head in defeat. "Great, just what we need… A destroyer with an inflated ego."

"Um… But the Admiral said that 'everyone contributed' right?" Yura interjected.

"Tch. He probably just doesn't want the rest of the fleet feeling bad," Amatsukaze replied, but then smirked at the two light cruisers. "But no, seriously, I obviously couldn't have sunk her on my own. Everyone did play a role."

"I just hope I get a bigger role next time…" Kiso muttered as she reloaded her weapon.

"We can only work with what we have."

The trio turned around to see Shoukaku standing behind them. She held the lone sniper rifle in one hand, though it didn't appear to be loaded.

The three girls glanced at each other.

"Uh, what?" Kiso asked.

"Oh, my apologies. I was just listening to your conversation," Shoukaku said with a small smile. "What I meant to say was that there is no reason to worry about your past sortie performances. If we did that, then most of us would be kicking ourselves over our many failures. Many of us sank during World War II, remember?"

"Yeah, but… That almost feels like a lifetime ago," Kiso countered. "I'm talking about our sorties as ship girls."

Shoukaku frowned. "So you're telling me you feel no connection to your actions during the War? You don't ever think of those feelings of despair and defeat?"

"I try not to. What's the use? It's just gonna make us depressed," Kiso replied, but then quickly realized that this was Shoukaku's point in the first place. "Uh… Yeah, I guess I see your point, actually."

Shoukaku nodded. "It's good to set high goals for yourself, but don't feel like you have to make up for something just because of what you did in the past. If you're constantly trying to correct past wrongs, then you may just get so caught up in that that you will just end up making even more wrongs in the future."

Kiso sighed. "Tch. Yeah, I s'pose you're right."

The aircraft carrier gave a light laugh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come over here and start lecturing you about this. It's just that… Perhaps the reason we lost the War was because we tried to do to much, and I'd rather not see that happen again."

"I agree," Yura nodded, "things will be different this time. We've already had some big victories, right?"

"We had big victories at the start even in World War II. That means nothing," Amatsukaze pessimistically added as she started to aim another shot downrange.

"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," Kiso sarcastically spat. "Weren't you just patting yourself on the back a few minutes ago?"

"Heh. Don't get me wrong, the way we sunk the Submarine Princess was amazing… But we won't get that lucky again."

"Lucky?" Yura asked.

Amatsukaze fired a shot before explaining. "Yeah, the Abyssals were incredibly overconfident, and that's the biggest reason we won. Because of their victory at Bethlehem, they didn't bother doing shit when our UAVs came and took pictures of their exact formation, and the Battleship Princess or whatever literally told the Admiral that they sortied a Submarine Princess underwater. Also, they only sent one Princess, and a large portion of our fleet still got wrecked. We're lucky that no one took any headshots or sunk too far down."

"... Did the Admiral tell you all that?" Yura wondered.

"No," Amatsukaze scoffed. "It's not like we can't figure this stuff out on our own. I mean, it was pretty obvious that our victory wasn't as amazing as everyone thinks. I'm sure you two both know that as well, but you just don't want to believe it… So it's pointless to try and pretend like everything is going fine. No offense, Shoukaku."

"Well, that wasn't quite what I meant," the carrier replied. "I said that you shouldn't focus too much on past failures, not that you should just ignore everything bad… Admittedly, those are valid issues you brought up, but what else can we do but move forward and be prepared to face an even stronger enemy next time? Being overly-negative won't help, I can assure you."

Amatsukaze shrugged. "Hey, I'm just trying to be realistic, not 'overly-negative.' Take it how you will, I guess."

Kiso and Yura eventually turned back to their own practice as well, and Shoukaku absently shifted the sniper rifle in her arms as she thought about Amatsukaze's words.

It's true… I don't expect things to get any easier from now on. Admiral, Kaga… I hope you two have a plan.

Drake glanced around the large, newly-built conference room in the Ritz Hotel. It was probably around the same size as the ballroom he was in last night, and it damn well needed to be since there were a lot of people there. It sort of reminded him of a slightly bigger version of the UN's Security Council meeting room, and there was a large, circular table in the center of the room where the INFCOM admirals and ship girls would be seated. Most of the foreign dignitaries or members of other navies were seated further back away from the table, though they could still easily hear and see what was going on. A majestic podium stood at the head of the room, just in case anyone needed to make a speech or something.

The rear admiral was dressed in his standard white USLN uniform, and the ship girls wore their own regular uniforms. Even Iowa was wearing her rather provocative outfit which looked out of place in a formal setting like this, but Drake supposed INFCOM wanted everyone to be in uniform, and that was technically Iowa's uniform.

Speaking of Iowa, the American battleship was already seated at the table, and she waved cheerily at him. For the conference, each person was expected to sit with his or her own country, so Drake would be sitting with the Americans while Kaga and Shigure went with the Japanese. Bismarck was already with the Germans, and Drake had no doubt that she was glad to be rid of him and his Japanese girls.

Seated next to Iowa was Saratoga and the new light carrier, Gambier Bay. She now wore her regular uniform, though her skittish disposition didn't seem to have changed since yesterday. Even in the company of her more veteran comrades, she still appeared to be nervous, and she especially avoided looking at the Japanese delegation.

After they got back to HQ last night, Drake had received word that Fleet Admiral Wei did indeed encounter another US ship girl, now known to them as the aircraft carrier Intrepid. Intrepid had been found near the West Coast, so they didn't bother flying her all the way over to London, but her discovery was still good news. Drake himself had seen the warship USS Intrepid a few times before when he went to New York City, and it was weird to think that the very ship he saw anchored in NYC had now become an undoubtedly beautiful girl with unprecedented destructive capabilities. He wondered what would happen if Intrepid were to go aboard her warship self, then remembered that Iowa was also a museum ship.

"Have any of you ever been aboard the USS Iowa?" Drake asked the three ship girls as he sat down beside Saratoga.

"Yeah! It was weird!" Iowa nodded. "I don't really know how to explain it… Imagine yourself walking on top of a huge version of your corpse, I guess."

"That does sound weird," Drake agreed.

Drake then felt somebody tap him on the shoulder, so he turned around to see a woman with wavy dark brown hair, light tan skin, and a hazel eye, singular because one of her eyes was covered by an eyepatch. She wore what looked like some sort of naval officer's uniform, so Drake guessed she was an admiral from somewhere. Behind her was another woman, though this one had light brown hair tied into a ponytail, and judging by the way she dressed, she was a ship girl.

"Pardon me, but are you Rear Admiral Richard Drake?" the black-haired woman asked, her voice marked by a slight accent.

"Yeah…" Drake replied a bit cautiously.

The woman's face lit up. "Meravigliosa! I have been wanting to meet you for quite some time now. It is an honor."

Drake could now guess that she was Italian, but he still had no idea who she was or why she was so eager to see him. "Right… Sorry, do I know you?"

"Ah, that's right. My apologies. I am Ammiraglio di Squadra, Paola Veronese. The fine lady behind me is Littorio, battleship in the Regia Marina."

The ship girl bowed lightly as she was introduced, and Drake nodded back. However, he still didn't know if this admiral expected him to know her or not.

"I see. Nice to meet you both," Drake said, "but I'm sorry, I still don't recall having heard your names before."

Veronese smiled at him. "It is no big matter, Admiral Drake. I did not expect you to know of me… But can you guess where I lost this eye?"

Drake glanced at her eyepatch, wondering how the hell could possibly know the answer to that. However, it then struck him.

"... Tangier," he said.

Veronese smiled again, though this time, there was no warmth behind it. "Yes. I see you still remember that day as well."

Now that he thought about it, he did recall that there was an Italian warship that escaped the battle in addition to the remnants of the fleet Drake was in. Since he didn't really like thinking about Tangier, Drake never really followed up on that, and he sort of let it fall out of his mind. This woman seemed to be more mindful than he was, though, and now he felt sort of bad that she knew who he was by sight but he didn't even recognize her name.

"Yeah, I do remember now," Drake said. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize. It was you who came up with the idea that got us out of there alive, was it not? I merely followed along once I recognized what you Americans were planning to do."

Drake's eyes darkened. "Yeah, well… It certainly wasn't the best strategy, but it was all I had."

Veronese's expression turned grim as well, since she knew exactly what he was thinking about. "All those who participated share the burden of that day, Admiral Drake. Those many innocent lives that we traded for our own… I have no doubt that we will one day pay for them, but for now, it is our duty to destroy the Abyssals who were the root of all this pain, no?"

Drake nodded, glad that she shared his same mindset. "Agreed."

"Good. Well, it appears the conference will start soon, so we must get back to our seats. But it was nice to finally meet you in person, Admiral Drake. Addio."

With that, the Italians returned to their place in the conference hall. Drake stared at the table in front of him, his eyes boring into the wood. However, he snapped back to his senses once he remembered that the American ship girls were sitting right next to him and probably overheard that entire conversation. Sure enough, when he looked over next to him, he caught Saratoga quickly averting her eyes when he turned his gaze on her. None of the Americans said anything, so Drake didn't say anything either. However, Gambier Bay, being new to the fleet, was understandably confused.

"U-um… What does 'Tangier' refer to?" she asked meekly, then squeaked in fright when the other three gave her dark looks.

"It was a battle relatively early on in the Abyssal War," Drake informed her, mentally kicking himself as he tried not to think of the battle too much. "It basically showed the world's navies that conventional ships didn't stand a chance against the Abyssals, and that we could really only hope for victory with the help of you ship girls."

He didn't say anymore than that, though Gambier Bay probably got the gist of the situation now.

"Oh... Thank you, sir," she replied in a small voice. "Tangier was also the name of a seaplane tender, r-right?"

Drake glanced over at Saratoga and Iowa, who nodded.

"Really? I didn't know that. Interesting." He wondered how he would feel if she got reincarnated as a ship girl, though the warship Tangier had nothing to do with the actual battle.

"Ah, could this be the infamous Iowa-class?"

Drake looked up to see Nagato approach the Americans, her red eyes fixed on Iowa.

"That's me!" Iowa greeted enthusiastically. "Who're you?"

"Nagato, battleship in the Imperial Japanese Navy," she proudly introduced. She then noticed Saratoga and Drake beside Iowa, and she nodded to them. "Saratoga, Admiral Drake. Good to see you."

Drake gave her a lazy salute while Saratoga smiled at her. The rear admiral remembered that Saratoga had also been one of the ships present at the Able and Baker nuclear tests, so her familiarity with Nagato made sense.

Iowa stood up to observe Nagato. They both were of a similar height and build.

"Hm? You look pretty strong!" Iowa concluded as she grabbed Nagato's bicep, causing the other battleship to blink in surprise. "Nice muscles! Wanna have an arm-wrestling match?"

"Arm… Wrestling?" Nagato frowned, now taken off-guard at how the American was willing to engage in such a contest right before an important conference and in front of the world's dignitaries.

"Yeah! I've even beaten Captain Drake before!"

Nagato smirked at Drake. "Oh? Is that true, Admiral? Even a big guy like you was defeated by the Iowa-class' horsepower?"

Drake sighed. "Even a destroyer could beat me in a contest of strength…"

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Captain!" Iowa tried to cheer him up as she slapped him on the back, causing him to lurch forward. "Maybe you would've won if you weren't drunk, haha!"

Nagato raised an eyebrow. "Admiral Drake and you got drunk together…?"

"It's not what it sounds like…" Drake assured her as he winced from Iowa's slap.

"Nah, it's exactly what it sounds like," Iowa grinned mischievously as she slung an arm around Drake's shoulder. "You jealous, Miss IJN Battleship?"

"Not really, but now it sounds like you're challenging me," Nagato grinned with excitement as she cracked her knuckles. "Truth be told, I've always wanted to spar with the Iowa-class, who were said to be the best American battleships ever built. I wonder if that's true?"

"Hmph. I'd love to prove it to you!" Iowa responded as she too smiled in anticipation.

"Um, you two aren't seriously going to fight right now, are you?" Saratoga asked with a nervous chuckle.

Nagato coughed into her fist as she remembered where she was. "Oh, yes. Forgive me. We'll save this for another time, Iowa."

Iowa nodded. "Looking forward to it!"

"... She's scary," Gambier Bay noted as Nagato returned to the Japanese delegation.

"Really? She's always seemed pleasant to me," Drake said. "Though, then again, a Japanese warship didn't sink me, so…"

"I think she is nice," Saratoga added. "Even during the nuclear tests… She stood so calm and majestic. Though she was a former enemy, I felt strengthened by her resolve."

Definitely sounds like Nagato, Drake thought.

The rest of the admirals and ship girls finally arrived at their positions, and a few minutes later, once everyone was seated, the conference started. The nominal head of INFCOM was a British admiral of the fleet, Lord Lockhaert. Lockhaert was a tall, smiling man with gray hair and sharp blue eyes, and though he appeared friendly and approachable enough, he had seen his fair share of duty throughout his career. He had been chosen to be an admiral of the fleet by the new queen herself, and that led some to speculate that he had a hand in bringing her to power during the Great Churning. Nevertheless, Lord Lockhaert was a capable enough man to wield the position, though in reality, INFCOM was run by committee rather than by one person. The head of INFCOM didn't really have any special powers, and the only time when he had any extra significance was in situations like this, where he was needed to begin the conference.

And so Admiral Lockhaert said a few words about how he was grateful that everyone was here and blah blah blah… Drake wasn't really paying too much attention, and he honestly thought that the entire conference was a waste of time. The conference was basically just meant as a summary of the Abyssal War, crafted for the officials and countries who didn't have as much of an idea of the day-to-day activities of INFCOM. However, as much as he wished he could just tune out the conference, Drake figured that he might eventually be called on for something considering that he was at Tangier and that he was the only admiral so far who sunk an Abyssal Princess. The possibility of being called on and having to present his progress to a room full of important foreign people was a pain, but it at least prevented him from straight up falling asleep in the middle of the meeting.

However, as it turned out, Drake wasn't called on at all, and he actually wasn't even mentioned by name. Though he felt a bit annoyed at being left out completely, he at least didn't have to say anything anymore, so he laid back in his seat and just waited for the conference to end. Lockhaert had moved on to taking questions from everyone, and there would now be a sort of open discussion. Drake spared a glance at the Americans beside him. Saratoga and Gambier Bay were politely still sitting through the conference, trying to pay attention, but Iowa was resting her cheek on her fist and clearly struggling to remain awake.

"I want to know what we should do next," a Chinese admiral (whose name Drake did not remember) spoke up during the discussion. "If there are still thirteen Abyssal Princesses out there, what is stopping them from gathering together and eliminating us one by one? I've read the reports, and it's clear to me that this Admiral Drake or whoever just got lucky with his sortie, and that he ran into extremely favorable conditions. A victory like that is unlikely to happen again."

Drake quickly composed himself once he heard his name, and after the Chinese admiral was done speaking, he noticed that a lot of the people seated at the table were looking in his direction.

Are they expecting me to defend myself or something…?

Truth be told, he couldn't disagree with the Chinese admiral. In fact, it was the exact opposite: he really did get quite lucky with the last sortie.

Drake figured he should say something regardless, since everyone was looking at him. "Leave the worrying to people who actually do the hard work, Admiral."

The Chinese admiral gave Drake a look of disbelief, and Drake internally screamed at himself as he realized that he had probably been a bit too cavalier with that comment.

"Haha! Exactly!" Iowa agreed with a nod, finally snapping out of her drowsiness. "America will lead the world to victory! The rest of you can just follow behind!"

Good god, you're only making this worse, Drake mentally lamented as he regretted saying anything in the first place. He turned to his left to gauge the reactions of his superiors, and he saw Boston hiding an amused grin while Cassius wore a stern frown.

An Australian admiral (whose name Drake also didn't recall) then made her comment. "As much as we appreciate your… Bravado, neither of you answered the question. That tells us nothing."

"But truly there is nothing we can do," Fleet Admiral Umi cut in with her accented English. "Anyone who has been paying any attention to the Abyssal War knows this. The enemy does not have naval bases that we can attack, and they do not have towns or cities either. How are we possibly supposed to take the fight to them? That is why the Abyssals have been the ones who started all the engagements thus far."

"So you are saying we simply wait for them to attack us, and then we defend?" the Chinese admiral summarized with a dissatisfied tone.

Umi shrugged. "That is what we have been doing so far, no?"

"Pardon me, but this is idiotic," France's Grand Admiral Sartre interjected. "The notion that we should simply wait to be destroyed does not sit well with me. The Abyssals attacked the American city of Los Angeles a while ago. What if they had sent a fleet of Princesses instead of that meager force they actually sortied? What would be the fate of Los Angeles if that had happened?"

"Their Princesses are needed to guard Bethlehem, so they won't be sortieing anywhere like that," Umi pointed out. "That is why I said the Abyssals have no naval bases despite the fact that they have Bethlehem. With the presence of the Princesses there, we cannot hope to assault it."

"That's ridiculous," Vice Admiral Ehrhard spoke up. "You're saying that with all the weaponry and resources our combined countries have, we still can't attack this 'Bethlehem'?"

"What, you want us to nuke it or something?" Drake asked, smirking at Ehrhard and Bismarck as well, since she had suggested just that earlier.

Ehrhard glared at him. "Why not? Might as well put your oversized nuclear arsenal to use."

Fleet Admiral Cassius sighed. "That's going to be a no from us. First of all, we won't be able to get a plane or missile close enough to Bethlehem due to the structure's unprecedented anti-air capabilities. Second, we don't even know if a nuke will be able to destroy Bethlehem. Finally, launching nuclear weapons is not something we take lightly, for obvious reasons. Firing a nuke at Bethlehem would not be wise."

"Kanmusu are the only ones who can attack Bethlehem," Umi then said. "But we are not prepared to send them out there again after what happened last time. It will only end in disaster."

"Kanmusu?" Ehrhard repeated.

"Ship girls," Nagato translated.

"Speaking of 'ship girls,'" Umi continued, "We at the Japanese bases would like to know why there are so many of them being squandered here in the Atlantic. When was the last time the Atlantic faced an Abyssal attack?"

"Well, Abyssals make runs at merchant shipping occasionally," Lockhaert said.

"That is only occasionally, and based on the reports I have read, most of the time the Abyssals either disappear or sink the merchant ship before the ship girls get there. Is that correct?"

Nobody answered her, which pretty much affirmed what she had said.

"Even so, we can't leave Europe undefended," Cassius decided. "What if the Abyssals decide to attack once they've learned we've redeployed our ship girls?"

"But the entire continent of Africa is undefended, and yet the Abyssals do not attack there," Admiral Akwa of the Nigerian Navy countered. Drake remembered his name since he was supposed to be Africa's representative at the table.

"Part of the European fleet's responsibility is to defend Africa, Admiral Akwa," Cassius replied. "Perhaps that is why."

"And what would the Abyssals even want there? It's all sticks and stones, and the Africans are always killing each other anyway," Admiral Reginald Snowbrook scoffed. "No need for the Abyssals to step in if humans can just do their jobs for them."

Akwa shook his head. "Admiral Snowbrook is a perfect example of what is wrong with the global naval community, as well as the political community. You people do not care about the well being of Africa, nor other poor continents and areas like South America or the Middle East. Even if the Abyssals attacked there, your fleet would arrive too late to be of any use. Do you not remember Tangier? How your Western navies were perfectly content to offer up the lives of innocent Africans because it would allow the few ships that were left in your fleets to get out safely?"

Drake grit his teeth in annoyance, partly because he felt personally insulted and partly because he knew Admiral Akwa was speaking the truth.

"Then maybe Africa should get some ship girls of their own," Drake spat, speaking more out of frustration. "Don't complain that the ship girls from Europe are being used to defend Europe. I shouldn't have to explain to you the logic behind that."

"I have to agree with Admiral Drake," Genji added. "Expecting us to waste time defending Africa when the threat is in the Pacific is inane."

Akwa frowned. "And yet Admiral Drake is an American using Japanese ship girls, and you Japanese were just saying exactly what I was, except that the European fleet should come and defend Japan instead of Africa. International Fleet Command is supposed to promote unity, but you all insist on maintaining your nationalistic arrogance, forgetting that the Abyssals will take advantage of that to wipe us out all the same regardless of our skin color or place of birth. I am done here."

With that, the Nigerian admiral walked out of the room, leaving the conference in silence.

Umi was the first to speak. "... He did have a point, but he failed to recognize that we were asking for more ships because the main threat has been proven to be in the Pacific. This is simply a fact, and it is not based on nationalism."

"Right," Lockhaert said, trying to regain control of the conference. "Anyway, going back to our goals for the future, it appears we have decided that the best offense will be a good defense, I suppose. Figuring out a way to destroy Bethlehem will also be high on our priorities, but as for now, our strategy remains the same?"

No one at the table spoke, so Lockhaert awkwardly cleared his throat and decided to conclude the conference.

"All right, then. I suppose that is all… We will notify all of you if anything changes, but for now, thank you for coming, and have a safe trip home."