Within a second the distance between Shigure and the Destroyer Princess was closed. With a look of pure rage, Shigure threw a punch at the Abyssal, the cannon on top of her first smashing its barrels into the Princess' face. The gun was completely ruined by the hit as the metal bent against the Abyssal's hard armor, but the hit also damaged the Princess, and she was launched backward as blood sprayed out of her mouth.
The other Shiratsuyu-class destroyers and Hachijo stood in shock as they watched Shigure's punch connect with the Princess.
"She… She actually got in a good hit…" Murasame marveled.
"This will be my only warning to you," Shigure spoke with an eerie calm as the Abyssal sputtered among the waves and tried to stabilize herself. "It's not just my outfit that has changed. With this remodel, I'm going to sink you."
The Destroyer Princess spit out blood onto the water as she smirked. "Heh. Yeah, I guess I did underestimate you. So it's going to be more interesting this time, I see…"
The sun had almost completely set on the battlefield now. Abyssal and ship girl shells were flying all around them, and planes buzzed angrily overhead, competing for air superiority with the Abyssal jets. Human missiles also arched through the air, orange balls of flame that lit up the night sky as they tried to find targets among the Abyssal fleet.
Shigure and the Destroyer Princess stood across from one another on the darkening seas, the former's brown hair and skirt swaying in the sea breeze as neither one of them moved. The tense killing intent in the air was thick.
Almost at the same time, Shigure fired off her guns and the Destroyer Princess rushed at the ship girl, the gun on her left arm raised and pointed straight at Shigure. As Shigure's shells shot towards her, the Destroyer Princess stopped aiming at Shigure and instead leapt into the air, doing a multiple spins as the torpedoes on her lower body fired off of her like shrapnel in an explosion.
The slick, black torpedoes entered the water and sped towards Shigure with intense speed, leaving almost no trail in their wake. Not to be outdone, Shigure popped off depth charges and kicked them into the water, blowing up the torpedoes before they could get to her. It was a remarkable display of dexterity and speed, and the Destroyer Princess was impressed as the detonating torpedoes threw up small geysers.
"So you weren't lying about that remodel. I'm glad I can play around with you a bit longer before I make you piss your panties again," the Abyssal grinned.
Shigure's blue eyes burned, but she did not deign to respond. Instead, she aimed her guns at the Abyssal again and fired.
As the two fought, the other Shiratsuyu-class destroyers snapped out of their trance.
"We have to help her," Shiratsuyu told her younger sisters.
"Eh? Didn't she tell us to stay back?" Harusame said worriedly.
"It doesn't matter what she said. We can't just sit here and watch," Murasame replied. "Hachijo, stay back. We'll handle this."
Shigure and Destroyer Princess were exchanging salvos, neither one of them able to hit the other due to the fact that they were constantly moving and dodging. But suddenly, a stray shell came from the Abyssal's portside and impacted her, exploding and knocking her over.
"Yeah! That's a hit, poi!" Yuudachi raised her fist victoriously, her cannons smoking.
"Guh… I forgot about the rest of you annoying mutts," the Destroyer Princess scowled angrily as she brushed off the hit.
She quickly lifted her left arm and fired a shot off at Yuudachi, but the blonde destroyer ducked under it and retaliated with a shell of her own, forcing the Abyssal to dodge. But as the Destroyer Princess slid backwards, another shell slammed into her back, detonating in between her shoulder blades and causing her to cry out in pain. The Princess whirled around to shoot an enraged glare at Murasame, who simply returned with her own confident smirk.
"It's not just Shigure who has been remodeled," Murasame told the Princess as she whirled her anchor around her finger.
Shigure looked annoyed at her sisters' interference. "I thought I told you all to stay out of this."
Shiratsuyu sailed up beside Shigure and smiled, patting her younger sister on the shoulder. "Come on, we can't just let you fight a Princess by yourself! And with all that scary stuff you were saying earlier, there's no way we can leave you alone!"
"Don't treat this as some sort of joke," Shigure warned, though she could see that she wouldn't be able to stop her sisters from interfering regardless.
"Oh, we're not joking around," Shiratsuyu simply stated as she raised her gun and took aim at the Destroyer Princess. Simultaneously, the other destroyers also fired their guns, Yamakaze and Harusame included.
With so many shells coming at her at once, the Destroyer Princess didn't have much time to think and just sped away as fast as she could from the converging projectiles. However, that brought her right to Shigure. With a low growl, Shigure again slammed her fist into the Abyssal's face, sending her flying once more.
"Yeah! Nice hit, Shigure!" Yuudachi cheered.
Hmph. Maybe having them here isn't so bad after all, Shigure thought.
The Destroyer Princess brushed off the hits and rushed at Shigure again, though this time she was going for the kill and not just running away to escape being hit. Shigure tensed up and prepared to counter, but as the Princess got close, the Abyssal's two beastly jaws at the bottom of her rigging began snapping wildly, sending up sprays of water.
Unpleasant memories were forced to the surface of Shigure's mind, and she flinched and backpedaled in spite of herself. The Destroyer Princess took this opportunity to outstretch her black hand towards Shigure's neck, and her cold fingers wrapped around the ship girl's windpipe, squeezing with an intense force. Shigure grit her teeth as she tried to force the Abyssal's hand off, but it was no use.
Luckily, Shigure still had her sisters. Though the Destroyer Princess had been monitoring the position of the other Shiratsuyu-class girls and the angle of their guns, she didn't account for any other weapons. An anchor attached to a chain suddenly came smashing down on the Abyssal's helmet, causing her to cringe and let go of Shigure.
Murasame smirked confidently as she whirled the chain around in her hand. "Think you can take me, bitch?"
As the Princess turned her attention to Murasame and the other destroyers, Yamakaze went over to Shigure, who was still coughing and rubbing at her throat.
"Are you all right?" Yamakaze asked worriedly putting a hand on Shigure's shoulder.
Shigure angrily slapped her hand away. "I'm fine! Worry about yourself!"
Murasame was now engaged with the Princess. The ship girl was using her anchor like a sort of ball and chain, but the Destroyer Princess was far too quick to be hit by the weapon now that she was paying attention. As the anchor shot past the Princess, the Abyssal grabbed the chain and yanked Murasame forward, then fired a shot into her stomach as she stumbled.
"Murasame!" Yuudachi cried out. "Grr… You'll pay for that, poi!"
"Wait, Yuudachi!" Shiratsuyu stopped her. "We're at a disadvantage if we try and fight her one-on-one! We need to coordinate our attacks like we did earlier, that's how we -"
Shigure rushed past Shiratsuyu, throwing up water in her wake and obscuring the rest of Shiratsuyu's sentence. With a torpedo in one hand, Shigure threw it at the Princess like a dart, a trick she had learned from observing Sendai. The Princess swung her head around and knocked the torpedo out of the air with the horn on her helmet, then turned her left-hand gun onto Shigure and fired.
The shot slammed into Shigure and exploded into her right hip, but to everyone's surprise, Shigure sailed right through it even as the bottom of her shirt ripped open and her blood sprayed onto the ocean. As she rushed at the Princess, Shigure unstrapped the ruined gun on her right hand and slammed it down onto the helmet of the Destroyer Princess, completely shattering the gun for good and cracking open the Princess' helmet.
Caught off guard once more, the Princess quickly sailed backwards and away from Murasame and Shigure. The Destroyer Princess' bright eyes were wild as her white hair flew about in the wind, now completely unconstrained by anything.
"Urgh… You've been hitting the gym or something, Shigure?" the injured Murasame joked after she witnessed Shigure's powerful smash from up close.
"Can you stand?" Shiratsuyu asked Murasame as the other sisters sailed up to the two of them.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Murasame assured them, though she was clutching her abdomen and bleeding heavily after taking the full brunt of the Princess' lower beast guns at close range.
"No. You can't fight any longer. Stay out of this," Shigure told Murasame, all the while not taking her eyes off the Princess in the distance.
"Shigure… You need to stop rushing off like that," Shiratsuyu admonished. "Like I was saying before you rudely interrupted, we need to fight in a coordinated manner. We can beat her that way."
Shigure glared at her. "Like I said, this doesn't have anything to do with you. Stay out of it."
"Stop arguing, poi! She's getting up again!"
True to Yuudachi's words, the Princess raised herself up on her lower half and aimed all her guns at the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers. Murasame weakly tried to get to her feet in preparation, and the others lifted their own weapons to retaliate. Shigure, however, rushed off again, much to Shiratsuyu's chagrin.
Now left with only her main guns, Shigure pulled them from her back and took aim at the Abyssal as she sailed forward. As reckless as her charge was, it did have the effect of forcing the Princess to turn her attention towards Shigure.
The Destroyer Princess targeted her hand cannon at Shigure and fired, but Shigure anticipated that and leapt over the shot, mirroring the Princess' earlier move. The Destroyer Princess tried to track her in the air and shoot her on the way down, but Shigure also predicted that and turned her main guns downwards and towards the water, firing and propelling herself back into the air at the last moment and evading the enemy shell.
"Wha -" was all the Princess managed before Shigure came crashing down on her, planting into her chest with both feet.
Shigure then jumped off the downed Princess, just in time to dodge the several crashing shells fired by her sisters at the Abyssal.
"Well, I guess this is teamwork too," Shiratsuyu sighed as smoke started to spiral out from the damaged Princess.
The Destroyer Princess righted herself again, but lavender blood was seeping out from cuts on her head, and even more was pouring out of the recently smashed-in portion of her torso. Nevertheless, she still maintained a weak smirk as she regarded the Shiratsuyu-class.
"Hm… So it seems the ship girl remodel procedure is pretty powerful after all," the Abyssal admitted. "I am impressed."
"Don't think cheap praise will save you from your grave on the seafloor," Shigure growled.
"Heh. Come on, we both know that I don't think that," the Princess humored Shigure. "But I've played around enough. If I don't take you seriously, I really will sink. But before that, let me just ask you one thing: Shigure, do you think there is any point to this conflict?"
Though it wasn't addressed to her, Murasame was taken aback by the question. "Huh? You of all people would really question your sick motivations now?"
"No, I perfectly understand the Abyssal motivation for this war. Our cause to eliminate the humans who poison everything they touch is right," the Destroyer Princess stated with uncharacteristic seriousness. "But I am asking you. What point is there to protecting those worthless humans? You're just weapons of war to them, even now. I mean, it's not that I won't have fun tearing you apart if you get in my way, but I have always been curious why you all brainlessly oppose us just because the humans ordered you to."
Murasame opened her mouth to answer, but Shigure interrupted her with another demented chuckle.
"Hahaha… What a stupid question," Shigure said, her eyes flashing demonically. "'What is the point?' The point is to smash you disgusting Abyssals apart until you are nothing more than chunks of flesh and steel buried in the sands at the bottom of the ocean. There's nothing more to it than that."
The Destroyer Princess narrowed her eyes. "That didn't really answer my question, but whatever. You're too far gone anyway. Now prepare yourself!"
Drake looked around the Hamburg Airport as he tried to spot the contact that the US Liberation Navy sent over to take him to Japan. Since time was short, they would be taking a private Concorde Mk II plane directly to Tokyo. Fleet Admiral Van Dyke had impressively managed to coordinate everything flawlessly, and so Drake was told that the plane and his escort were waiting for him at the terminals.
"This is taking quite a while," Vice Admiral Ehrhard complained in English, specifically so that Drake could hear him.
Frowning, Drake didn't bother with a reply. Unfortunately both German admirals had been approved to accompany Drake to Japan, which he would have been completely against had they not brought someone actually useful with them. The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen had been stationed in Hamburg near the North Sea, and apparently she had been told to go with them. Prinz Eugen was excited to go on another mission with Bismarck, and though she tried to hide it, it was obvious that Bismarck was too. Throughout the entire trip to the airport, the two of them had been talking in German nonstop.
"Oh, there," Drake finally said as he noticed the white officer's uniform from the USLN and started walking towards the contact, forcing the others to follow.
Although she was wearing an officer's uniform, the contact did not have any rank markings on her sleeves or shoulders. She had neck-length blonde hair and cheery blue eyes, and she was relatively tall as well, though shorter than Bismarck. She was also extremely beautiful.
"Ah, hello, sir! Rear Admiral Dick, correct?" the woman saluted as she noticed Drake.
"Yeah, that's me. Call me Drake," he replied with a grimace. "So I'm guessing you're from London HQ?"
"Yes! Fleet Admiral Boston sent me," she answered with a smile.
That would explain it, Drake resisted the urge to sigh. "So, are we ready to leave? We should go as soon as possible."
"Oh, um, we should wait for my partner. She went off a while ago," the contact gave him an apologetic look.
"What? This is an urgent matter. We can't afford to be wasting time here," Drake was beginning to lose his patience after having to deal with Ehrhard for hours on end and now having to wait even longer here while his fleet was fighting in Japan.
"Calm down, Captain! You're scaring the new girl!"
Drake recognized the voice and turned around to see Iowa emerging from a nearby shop. She also wore the same white officer's uniform as well as a large grin.
"Iowa? You're here too?" Drake blinked in surprise.
"Yeah! You didn't know? Admiral Boston was supposed to tell you," Iowa said, slapping Drake on the shoulder as a greeting.
"All I got from him was a text saying, 'Good luck, Dick!'," Drake replied with a defeated tone. "So you're fighting with us, then?"
"Yes, sir! You can count on me!" Iowa thumped her chest, which looked like it was about to burst out of her uniform at any time. "Colorado here won't be fighting because she's new, but she'll be with you on the ship to observe. The admirals thought it would be a good learning experience for her."
"What?" Drake said dumbly, then turned back to the other woman. "You're a ship girl?"
"Oh, yes! I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself!" Colorado hurriedly apologized. "I'm the USS Colorado, the strongest member of the Big Seven!"
"Oh? That's a bold claim."
Now everyone turned to look at this third newcomer. Unlike Colorado and Iowa, she wore a white and gray uniform with a short skirt and an elaborate red ribbon in the shape of a rose around her neck. She had long blonde hair and clear blue eyes, and her height and the size of her bust made it obvious that she was also a ship girl.
"N-Nelson! You're supposed to wait on the plane!" Colorado blushed at having been caught.
"Yes. It was getting boring since you were taking so long," Nelson shrugged as she eyed Drake's party. "But it does seem to be much more interesting here…"
She stepped over to Drake and held her chin in her hand as she looked him over, which weirded him out a bit. Compared to Colorado, Nelson looked bigger in terms of height, muscle, and breast size, even though they were both members of the Big Seven. She sort of reminded him of a British Nagato.
Suddenly Nelson reached out and grabbed a lock of Drake's hair between her thumb and forefinger.
"W-What are you doing!" he sputtered as everyone looked on in shock.
"Ah, magnificent!" Nelson declared as she let go of Drake's hair but then planted a firm hand on his shoulder, preventing him from moving away with her immense strength. "You wear the uniform of an American, but you have the exotic looks of an Indian raj and the commanding eyes of a true British gentleman! Could you perhaps be the product of a British master and one of his servants from our Crown Jewel colony?"
"No! And you can't say things like that!" Drake was taken aback by her forwardness and lack of tact, though technically she was close about his lineage.
Nelson just smiled in amusement. "My, how much the world has changed since my time! And as for the rest of you… It seems we have some real Nazis here as well! It's the great Bismarck!"
Bismarck regarded Nelson with a look of annoyance. "Yes. And what of it?"
"Nothing, it's just that I'm happy to finally get to meet you! If only I had been a bit faster, maybe I could have joined in on the pounding our girls gave you back in the War," Nelson grinned cheekily.
A look of anger flashed across Bismarck's cool blue eyes. "Ja, it's just like you cowardly British to gang up on a lone opponent. If I could take you and your bitch sister on one-on-one, then I would have sent you both straight to the bottom, one after another!"
"Wunderbar!" And I will help you this time, Bismarck!" Prinz Eugen approved, nodding enthusiastically at Bismarck's declaration.
"All right, can you grannies stop your bickering? We have a battle to fight," Ehrhard stepped in, clearly having had enough.
His rude interruption just made all the ship girls stare at him.
"... 'Grannies'?" Nelson repeated in a low voice.
Bremerhaven tried to defuse the situation. "Ah, forgive him, that was not the right word. Perhaps he meant, how do you say this in English… Revered elders?"
"You're making it worse," Drake sighed. "But he is right. We do have to go to Japan, so show some professionalism and save your grudges for another time. Iowa, get us to the plane, now."
"Yes, sir!" Iowa saluted sharply and began walking towards one of the terminals. Bismarck and Nelson reluctantly shut up and followed, though not before exchanging killer glares with each other.
As they walked, Drake pulled Bismarck aside.
"What did I tell you about starting fights with other ship girls?" Drake whispered to her.
Bismarck gave him a look of betrayal. "But she's the one who started it!"
"Okay, calm down," Drake glanced at Nelson to make sure that she didn't overhear.
The blonde Brit was busy talking to the German admirals, Ehrhard's comment either forgiven or forgotten already. Nelson had a charismatic aura about her that made it hard to avoid her even if you wanted to, and so the Kriegsmarine officers had no choice but to entertain her for a bit.
"You could still try and be the mature one and not get drawn into it," Drake continued to Bismarck.
"Sir, you of all people shouldn't be talking to me about getting into fights," Bismarck pointed out.
Drake couldn't think of a good rebuttal to that, so he just shook his head and gave up.
Colorado was now leading the group, so Iowa stepped back and slung her arms around Drake and Bismarck's shoulders, giving them both a jolt.
"So! What have you two been up to! It's been a while, hasn't it?" she grinned.
"It's only been a few days," Drake said. "And speaking of that, how did we suddenly gain a new ship girl in the brief period that I was gone?"
"Colorado? She's been in custody of the navy for at least a week now," Iowa told him. "Fleet Admiral Van Dyke knew of her existence, but he didn't tell any of us until a couple days ago. They were probably just giving Colorado the basic information she needs to function in modern times, so she technically wasn't in service until recently… Oh yeah, we also found another destroyer, USS Fletcher, but she's still back in America."
"Really? Damn, looks like America is finally starting to catch up when it comes to ship girls," Drake marveled.
"Yep! We've definitely surpassed our German friends here!" Iowa agreed, shaking Bismarck with her right arm.
Bismarck shoved Iowa's arm off her. "You may have more, but the quality of our ships is better. Don't think for a second that you are better than us."
"Yeah! German warships are the best in the world!" Prinz Eugen backed her up.
"Hey, you're pretty cute." Iowa turned her attention to Prinz, letting go of Drake and draping herself around the heavy cruiser, who blushed at the sudden contact. "What's your name again? Prince Eugene or something?"
"I-It's Prinz Eugen!" Prinz managed, looking uncomfortable at Iowa's closeness.
"Yeah, you're Sara's buddy," Iowa nodded as she remembered. "You came over to America at the end of the war, right? Why don't you ditch this blonde grouch here and join us again?"
"Stop trying to corrupt Prinz!" Bismarck admonished Iowa.
Iowa released Prinz and suddenly drew close to Bismarck, causing the German to step back apprehensively.
"W-What is it?" Bismarck asked, surprised by the serious look on Iowa's face.
"Hm… The Captain likes you a lot, huh?" Iowa smirked.
Now it was Drake's turn to appear shocked. "Wait, what?"
"It's obvious, sir," Iowa shrugged. "Compared to how you were in Alaska, you look a lot happier now. You have that glow of confidence back, and such a drastic change in only a few days needs an explanation, right?"
"But that's not -" Drake started, but then stopped when he unconsciously stole a glance at Bismarck. The German ship girl had been looking at him too, but she quickly looked away as a faint blush spread across her face.
This seems to be happening a lot lately, Drake sighed internally.
"Oh…? Why are you blushing, Bisko?" Iowa grinned as she nudged Bismarck in the side.
"I'm not blushing! And don't make such inappropriate comments!" Bismarck denied as she pushed away from Iowa.
"The harder you fight it, the more right you prove me," Iowa continued to tease her.
For his part, Drake was glad that Iowa had shifted her attention towards Bismarck and away from him. Now that Iowa had said it out loud, it was clear that her words were true. Fighting that battle in Lubeck with Bismarck at his side had allowed him to regain his confidence, and after his crushing defeat in Okinawa, he was able to stand and fight again.
Even after everything that happened… She never lost trust in me, Drake thought, watching as Bismarck continued to argue with Iowa. Even after I failed in Okinawa and got my secretary ship sunk, even after I stupidly fought with Ehrhard, even after I left her behind on that day… She still believed in me.
"What's the smile for, Captain?" Iowa suddenly asked, snapping Drake out of his thoughts. He had hoped that Iowa was entertained enough in Bismarck, but apparently seeing such a rare expression on his face made her take interest in him again.
Drake hadn't even been aware that he was smiling. "Nothing. It's just that I realized that you were right. It's thanks to Bismarck that I'm able to be here with you all right now."
Bismarck was caught off guard by his honesty. "Oh, I, um… You're welcome, sir…"
"Oho, you were praised by Captain Drake, Bisko! That's quite an achievement!" Iowa shook her by the shoulders, enjoying the opportunity to continue her teasing.
Prinz Eugen, meanwhile, looked fascinated and surprised at the same time at the embarrassed blush on Bismarck's face and couldn't think of anything to say.
Drake watched the three of them with amusement. Heh. I never knew things would end up like this back when I first joined the navy…
Bismarck met his eyes again, but this time, neither one of them looked away. The two shared a smile as the group finally reached their terminal.
"Fuck! She's losing blood fast!"
Shoukaku turned to answer Zuikaku, who was holding a heavily-damaged Akagi in her arms, but a careening Abyssal dive bomber slammed down into the water between them and exploded in flames, briefly obscuring Shoukaku's view in a hail of seawater and a cloud of smoke.
The sky above them had given way to nighttime, but it was still full of Abyssal and ship girl planes alike as they streaked through the missile-illuminated darkness. The sound of guns firing, planes dogfighting, missiles and lasers launching, and the screaming of ship girls and Abyssals echoed throughout the battlefield. Worse still, the frantic radio chatter in Shoukaku's earpiece composed of the voices of both humans and ship girls added to the cacophony.
The smoke finally cleared and Shoukaku sailed over to Zuikaku and Akagi. The First Carrier Division ship girl was struggling to stay conscious as Zuikaku held her right arm around Akagi's stomach, quite literally preventing her guts from spilling out. Zuikaku was covered in Akagi's blood, and she herself looked far more panicked than Akagi did.
"What do we do! She's going to die!" Zuikaku yelled over the noise.
"We'll have to let her die! As long as she doesn't sink, we can repair her body!" Shoukaku replied as a large-caliber shell splashed into the ocean only a few meters away from them.
"Ngh… No… I have to…" Akagi muttered, coughing up blood.
"Stop talking, you idiot!" Zuikaku screamed at Akagi. She looked back up at Shoukaku. "We have to at least get out of here! There's a good chance all three of us could end up sinking, especially if we have to hold on to Akagi like this!"
"We can't. It's not possible right now," Shoukaku frowned, surveying the battlefield.
"What do you mean, 'It's not possible'!? Wasn't that the entire purpose of this plan, to retreat!?"
Yes, but it's clear that the plan has failed at this point, Shoukaku thought.
She tried to review what had gone wrong in the hopes that it would help her find a way out. Everything had been going according to plan until Shigure had started fighting that Destroyer Princess. Yes, other ship girls had been on the frontlines as well because they were supposed to hold their ground here for a bit, but unlike Shigure, they were able to disengage and retreat if they needed to. Shigure, however, either could not or did not want to retreat, and she dragged her sisters into the fight too, so now there was a group of destroyers tied up in a battle with a Princess. Naturally, the other ship girls had to continue to fight back against the other Abyssals or else they would all be overrun, and this led to a spiral that just drew in more and more girls until they were all fighting a messy, static battle.
To make matters worse, Akagi had decided that this would be the time to take down the Airfield Princess. However, since the battle had pretty much descended into chaos, it was hard to get escorting destroyers to provide anti-air cover, and so the three carriers had to dodge Abyssal planes themselves or take them on using their own fighters. This took up a good portion of their attention, and bad luck struck when a battleship shell managed to strike Akagi right in the stomach, ending their run to the Airfield Princess before they could even get close.
Now the entire fleet was bogged down in this insane brawl. Nagato and Rear Admiral Genji had both ordered retreats, but it was impossible to carry out that order in any sort of organized fashion. At the very least, the Abyssals were in range of some of the human weapons, but those didn't seem to be doing much damage. All they could do now was hold out until more reinforcements arrived and gave them an opportunity to break through.
Flares burst in the air above the three carriers as Shoukaku contemplated their next move. "We should sail towards the rear of the fleet. We might be able to drop Akagi off at one of the islands or get a ship to come out and take her, and we don't really need to be at the frontlines to control our planes."
"Guh… No… Kill…" Akagi struggled to speak again.
"Forget it! We couldn't even get near her!" Zuikaku told her, frustrated. "Shoukaku, I think you're right. Akagi is going to die if we don't get her help."
Shoukaku nodded. "Okay, let's get moving. We might have to -"
She stopped in the middle of her thought when Zuikaku's eyes suddenly widened, and not a moment later, a searing, smashing pain slammed into Shoukaku's back, accompanied by a loud bang that made her ears ring. She fell face-first onto the water, saltwater forcing its way down her throat and into her eyes and nostrils. She then felt herself jerked upwards as Zuikaku pulled her out.
"God, no! Shoukaku, are you all right!?" Zuikaku's voice echoed in her ears, competing with the ringing from the shell that just exploded on her back and the general noise of the battlefield.
"Hah… I… I think my back might be broken," Shoukaku said, her entire spine crying out in pain. It hurt too much to even try and turn her head around to survey the damage.
Zuikaku now had her hands completely full, clutching Akagi by the stomach with her right arm and her left arm around Shoukaku's waist, keeping both of them from sinking.
"Damn it! Sorry, everyone, but I'm going to need to call my planes back to cover our retreat," Zuikaku said out loud as she slowly began sailing backwards.
"Don't, I can still control mine. I'll do it," Shoukaku told her sister, even as she fought to stay conscious.
Zuikaku didn't reply and continued sailing backwards, clearly having trouble holding both carriers up, maintaining her planes in the air, and trying to watch out for any more stray shells all at the same time.
"Zuikaku!" a familiar voice called out. It turned out to be Asashio, who was accompanied by Shiranui and Kashima. "What happened? Shoukaku and Akagi are…"
"Yeah, they're down! We need to retreat!" Zuikaku yelled over to them. "If you can spare some help, I'd appreciate it!"
"We're needed at the frontlines, but we have towing cables. We can take one of them," Shiranui said.
"I'll help!" Asashio volunteered, reaching around to the back of her rigging and grabbing the cable.
The black-haired destroyer began sailing over to Zuikaku, but before she could get there, a high-velocity shot seemingly came out of nowhere and slammed into Asashio's chest, knocking her clean off her feet and sending chunks of flesh, steel, and blood into the air.
The ship girls stood in utter shock for a split-second, but their training kicked in and quickly overrode their astonishment. Asashio had a huge hole in her chest, and her body immediately began to sink. Shiranui sailed over with the efficiency and precision of a speed skater and scooped her fellow destroyer's corpse out of the water. Kashima readied her guns and pirouetted to face the new threat.
"Well, well. This is pathetic. I thought you three would come to me, but in the end, I actually had to sail over here myself."
The Airfield Princess had sailed within range of their guns. The group had apparently been distracted by their damaged comrades and the general clusterfuck going on around them and had missed her signature moving towards them.
"Oh? It looks like two of you are already quite fucked," the Princess smirked at Zuikaku, who was holding the now dead Akagi and the dying Shoukaku. "This won't be as fun as I thought…"
"It's you…" Zuikaku growled, her mouth twisting into a snarl and her eyes narrowing.
"Get back, all of you! Take the injured and retreat!" Kashima said, bravely getting in front of them to face the Princess by herself.
The Airfield Princess was not amused. "Who the fuck are you? I'll give you one chance to get out of my sight, worm."
"Are you insane? You can't fight her by yourself," Shiranui warned Kashima.
Kashima gave her a weak smile. "We don't have a choice… I'll do my best."
Shiranui sighed. "This is hopeless… Sorry, Zuikaku, but I'm going to attach my cable to Asashio and then detach it and put it on your rigging instead. You need to sail out of here."
"Why don't you take them all? I need to stay and fight!" Zuikaku argued.
"I'm a destroyer and I don't know if I can sail fast enough with all three of them. Also, you can fight at a range and I can't. Get these three somewhere safe and then focus on the fight," Shiranui said. "Kashima, hold on for a few minutes. We'll be back."
"Roger that," Kashima replied, readying herself to take on the Princess.
"Is that seriously your plan? Pathetic," the Airfield Princess spat. "But that's fine, I guess. I'll kill you first, then."
Kashima tried to maintain her tough look, but the air around them suddenly became filled with white Abyssal fighters and bombers. The Airfield Princess outstretched her arms as she grinned, and the maw of the beast on her starboard side rigging glowed with a red energy.
Kashima swallowed. This doesn't look good…
"Kashima!" Zuikaku called out. "I'll be back! I promise you!"
The training cruiser hesitated, but she returned Zuikaku's words with a nod.
I can't lose here… My fleet is counting on me!
"Haha! Let us fight!" the Princess declared, and with a snap of her fingers, the aircraft descended from the sky.