In the extreme north of Sentora continent, east of the great wastelands of the Gold region, beyong the arid and rocky hills, nature flourished again in a land which was apparently plagued by desolation. The first blades of grass could be seen sprouting in large number just after a large mountain pass which opened on a huge green field with lush forests on the horizon.
The winds there were playful while the rays of the sun was gentle and didn't burn the skin. The sounds of chirping and buzzing indicated the existence of a prosperous wildlife.
Deeper in this more hospitable lands, one could strumble across a prominent dirt road which led to the few settlements in the region and as if to assure it to any travellers, a small signboard was planted at one point to indicate the direction.
"Lady's village, 20 miles north-west", was inscribed on the wooden surface.
As soon as the small group of young looking girls read the indication, three of them immediatly shifted their gaze to the fourth. Like the others, this girl wore a white serafuku with a red tie, black collar and a black skirt. However she was the only one who wore pantyhose, as the three other girls prefered thighhighs, kneesocks or regular socks of black or dark blue color. She also wore a black navy hat with a white anchor drawn on it, trait that she shared with the girl next to her. Aside from clothes, she had dark purple hairs, slightly disheveled, which descended low on her back. Her overhall frame was small and looked quite delicate. She also possessed big purple eyes, currently widened and glued to the writings on the sign.
Hibiki silently sighed at the reaction of her elder sister. They looked so similar that aside from her bleached hairs and and icy blue hairs, they could pass as twins. However, personality wise, they could hardly be more different. Hibiki was the definition of calmness with an almost vacant attitude and a near constantly blank expression.
On the other hand, her dark haired sister, Akatsuki, was quite vocal, with an comical would-be authoritative stance hiding an usual childish personality. She was often considered as very guilible and had indeed been fooled a fair number of time by teasing destroyers. But most notable of all, Akatsuki seemed to have an obsession with anything about being a "lady".
It was the reason why Hibiki, and her two sisters Ikazuchi and Inazuma, immediatly knew how the situation would evolve.
"This... this...", began the hesitant voice of Akatsuki, obviously trying to choose her next words carefully. "I think this case deserve an investigation !" she then declared.
At her words everyone loudly sighed. Since Tenryuu and then Tatsuta broke off from them for dubious reasons, the commandment came into the hands of Akatsuki who, despite her quirks, was used to leading the 6th Destroyer Division comprising her three sisters.
But it didn't meant that they would quietly do anything she said.
"Akatsuki ! We currently are on a mission ! The commander is counting on us at the moment ! Now is not the time to be distracted by your stupid obsession !", argued Ikazuchi.
Akatsuki and Hibiki immediatly turned their gaze to their younger sister, the former with narrowed eyes, the later with her usual blank stare. Ikazuchi currently puffed her cheeks, accentuating the roundness her messy short brown hairs gave to her face. Her own light brown eyes were narrowed in a disaproving maner while her hands were balled and rested on her hips.
Hibiki internally braced for another argument between the two. For a reason unknown to even herself, Akatsuki and Ikazuchi were often stuck in disputes every now and then, with the elder sister usually reproching the younger her lack of obediance to her as an elder and leading ship of the Akatsuki class while Ikazuchi criticized the inappropriate childish attitude of said nameship.
Ikazuchi's admonitions would have been perfectly justified if she wasn't herself subject to her own quirks. Where Akatsuki was reknowned for her obsession with anything related to ladyness, Ikazuchi has a similar fixation about the fact of being dependable. She wasn't the only shipgirl trying to be of any use in the naval base, especially in the destroyers department, however the third ship of the Akatsuki class took it to the next level, to the point of sometimes doing too much.
"I- I am doing it for the sake of the mission, of course ! What are you insinuating ?", answered Akatsuki after being slightly taken aback. "We are currently on a recon mission so our duty is to gather informations ! Observing this settlement is well inside our attributions !", she finally countered.
"Oh yeah ? Then why didn't you insist so much on the other villages we've come across before ? We barely observed the last one, with the large potato fields, just yesterday !".
While the two destroyers bickered, Hibiki contented herself with observing them, not saying a thing like she always did. After all, the situation was nothing out of the ordinary and would soon resolve itself without anyone intervention, though whille briefly shifting her gaze to the fidgeting form of her last sister, she doubted that the argument would revolve just around those two.
"Awawa ! Please, stop fighting you two nanodesu !", finally cried the shy voice of Inazuma.
Despite her obvious lack of confidence, both of the arguing sisters immediatly stopped their fight to look at the small destroyer. Inazuma was by far one of the more timid and quiet shipgirls in the naval base that it came to a surprise to know that she was always paired with the social and energetic Ikazuchi. The demure girl shared with her direct elder sister the lack of hat of the two others and brown hairs. However her hairs were a shade lighter and unexpectedly long, fact that was hidden by the way she tied them at the top back of her head with a orange clip. Her light brown eyes usually had a gentle glint in them but at the moment they were widened and obviously panicking at the sight of her two sisters bickering.
"Sorry Inazuma", apologized Akatsuki and Ikazuchi at the same time as both knew how sensitive the youngest of them was to her fights. Ikazuchi in particular since she shared with her direct younger sister a pacifist attitude since they both disliked conflicts.
"Khorosho", muttered Hibiki in russian, glad that the argument was quickly put down. The white haired girl usually didn't interfere in the interaction with her siblings but she too disliked to see them bickering. But as always, she kept her mouth shut and her thoughts to herself. It wasn't her place to tell them what to do.
Finally, after a more quiet deliberation, the 6th Destroyer Division decided to follow Akatsuki idea, mostly because it would please her but also because it aligned with the objectives of their mission. So they followed the dirt road across vast green fields of dancing grass. Ikazuchi and Inazuma seemed to particuliary appreciate the trip as they admired the tranquil beauty of the nature there which contrasted greatly with the previous setting. Since none of them was really familiar with trips across the land before the displacement of the naval base, it made quite a novel and pleasant experience. It didn't prevent Akatsuki to complain about the dirt stuck on her shoes or the fact that "proper ladies should have a mode of transportation during travel".
Thanks to their warship stamina, the 6th Destroyer Division travelled at a great pace. They didn't really fatigue much and didn't need any break. Even if it was bad manners for Akatsuki, they ate their lunch as they walked. She was far more concerned to arrive quickly at this lady's village.
And quickly arrive they did. Lady's Village was a small settlement of less than a hundred of houses. However those habitations were not simple wooden homes made of logs with roofs of thatch. All of them were made of fine white stone and elegent design. Between the houses, paved roads were borded by well trimed turf and trees. Everywhere spawned gardens of colorful flowers in which where tables and chairs of fine wood used to leasurely enjoy the afternoon sun.
And in the middle of this setting of refinnement and good taste throne a manor of considerable dimension with numerous windows that glittered from the reflection of the daylight. It's masonry was of great finesse with carfully carved bricks. At the front, a small array of steps made of white stone leaded to an impressive oak door with a golden handle.
"Wow...", let escape Akatsuki, rightfully stunned by the architecture of the place. But she wasn't alone in that regard as even her less enthousiastic sisters seemed to be impressed at varying degrees.
However what truly attracted the gazes of the shipgirls were the inhabitants. Strolling leisurely on the roads, sat at the garden tables or in the finely trimmed grass itself, drinking tea or simply idly chatting with each others, were numerous women, all dressed in dazzling frilly dresses of incredibly good taste, some of them carrying delicate umbrelas to shield their delicate skin from the offending rays of the sun.
Hibiki briefly shifted her gaze to her elder sister and as expected, her eyes were wide open with stars in it. After all this place looked what was probably the more ressembling image of Paradise in her purple haired girl mind.
The white haired destroyer didn't really understand the interest of Akatsuki into ladies. To her, Akatsuki was already perfect as she was and actually looked more like a proper lady when she wasn't even trying to do so. It was a shame that her obsession was in fact breaking an otherwise admirable personality and behavior.
Sometimes she wondered herself if she should talk to her about it. Tell her that her will to become a proper lady was unecessary, that she and her sisters liked her as she was. It would have saved some saliva and Akastuki's image.
However, each time she crushed the thought. There was a reason for why Akatsuki wanted to be a "proper lady" so badly. It was the same reason most of the shipgirls have so much apparently inexplicable quirks. The same reason that told why Ikazuchi was obessessed by being depended on, why Inazuma's personality sometimes shifted around and why she behaved the way she was. It was something eminently personal and intimate that even sister-ships couldn't freely share with each others. Everyone realised this, even the admiral and it was the reason everyone was so tolerant about it even though they were a military force.
"Don't you think we are too, nanodesu ?" suddently came the worried voice of Inazuma.
At her words, three stares turned in her direction and after an instant, they all looked around them. It was true they were pretty close, despite being hidden belong a small group of trees of bushes. Akatsuki had argued that they should be as close as possible to amass an increased amount of informations. At that, Ikazuchi countered that it was unecessary to get that close to the village. After all they were still warships in the end and as such they were used to fight at sea against foes several kilometers away. The case nearly broke into another argument but the panicking face of Inazuma was enough to differ the situation.
In the end, they went closer than expected but it wouldn't have posed any problems. Their presence was not expected so noone was on the lookout for them and their small frame was easily concealable.
"It's fine, don't worry Inazuma. Even if we are discovered we can still flee in a moment", reassured Ikazuchi with her usual enthousiasm.
"And it is unlikely that we even get spotted. We're 500m away from the nearest house. No human can see clearly that far", added Akatsuki with a confident tone while Ikazuchi nodded.
"Ara ? But you're still under the wind, young ladies. Anyone could be able to capt your smell in this situation".
All four destroyers immediatly froze at the sound of an unknown female voice behind them. However, the next second, instinct nurtured by numerous battles made them immediatly turn to face the origine of the voice.
At the same moment, a neaby bush was pushed aside to reveal the form of a tall woman, one with black hairs flowing below a large light purple hat with a dark purple flower on it. She wore a long and expensive looking dress and gloves of the same color than her hat while her clothes revealed her bare shoulders and stopped short of showing cleavage. In her hand, she held a light purple umbrela that she carried above her shoulder.
"Oh my, may I have scared you per chance ? If that is the case, please accept my apologies", said the woman with a kind smile.
The destroyers stayed silent, their stance ready to move at a moment notice. However, after the woman idly showed her hands to show that didn't mean any harms, the destroyers relaxed a bit.
"How did you spot us ?", briefly asked Hibiki with her usual flat tone, even if her slightly narrowed eyes betrayed suspicion.
"Oh, I did answer to your question, no ? You see, I was peacefuly strolling into the woods like I usually do, and per chance I notice quite an unusual scent", the woman answered.
"You smelled us ?!", nearly cried Akatsuki, wondering if she stinked that much after a long trip without proper bathing.
"Indeed. You see, I do have a quite good sense of smell".
The answer did placate a little the destroyers worries about the corporal odor departement. And for Hibiki, it explained how she managed to pinpoint their position without them being in her line of sight, otherwise their lookout fairies would have spotted the woman first.
"Tell me, what four cute little girls are doing, crouching in the woods outside of our village ? I have never seen you in our little community, are you perhaps lost ?", asked the woman with a tinte of concern.
The four destroyers looked at each other before answering, as if to silently deliberate. However, as the currently flagship, it came to Akatsuki to decide what to do.
"We are not lost", answered the purple haired girl. "We are currently travelling and just made a brief break. However, we are fully rested now so we will be resuming our travel".
Akastuki discretly gulped her saliva. The thought of having a real lady abording her might have, in a different situation, elated her but the fact that she was a step away from failing her mission just because of her stupid obsession upsetted her far more. The situation might have been a once in a life time chance for her to learn more about being a proper lady, be she was first of all a warship, a destroyer of the Japanese Navy, a big sister and she flagship of their task force, she couldn't fail her siblings nor Tenryuu nor her admiral.
Having understood the intent of their eldest sister, Hibiki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma, immediatly prepared to depart. They all hoped that this little miscalculation would not get them into trouble with their superior.
However, as they were about to leave, the voice of the lady standing behind them made them stop.
"Ara ? Why are you so hurry ? Surely you must feel tired and hungry after all this march. And those things you are carrying on your back seems so heavy. Why don't you all join me at my house ? I would be delighted to share some tea and delicacies with such fine little ladies".
Hibiki shot a midly concerned look at the back of Akatsuki. Without knowing, this woman was pushing all the buttons necessary to convince the purple haired girl to join her. Her elder sister seemed to take it upon herself to resist to the tentation but it certainly was enough to made her pause.
A low rumbling suddently came to her ears, followed by three others. She turned her gaze to look a the slighty embarassed face of Ikazuchi and deep crimson one of Inazuma to confirm that it wasn't only her stomach which complained to her. She didn't need to look at Akatsuki to know that she was in a similar state.
It wasn't like they lacked food since they still had a fair amount of rations hidden in their riggings but since the displacement of the base, the military staff decided to limit the quantity and quality of food that were distributed between shipgirls. Later model destroyers like the Akizuki class didn't seem to be affected since they were used to it since the Pacific War. Hibiki too was still somewhat used to it but her stomach also remembered the taste of proper food at the same time.
Now that all her sisters seemed conflicted, the stoic white haired girl decided to voice her opinion. She silently asked her radio fairy to transmit a message to all of her sisters.
"I guess that if our interactions are limited and we don't reveal our identities and allegiance to the naval base, we should be fine", she radioed.
"But...", began unsurely Inazuma by radio before hesitating to continue.
"That would be against orders", added Akatsuki with a firm voice through the radio, having apparently recovered her bearing.
"Don't worry. If we exploite the situation correctly, the result would be beneficial to the high command and as such, we should not be punished", answered Hibiki with her usual cool voice.
"What do you mean ?", asked Ikazuchi.
"By entereing the settlement and conversing with one of its inhabitants, we could gather a substancial amount of informations, more than we could by just observing from afar".
"Oooh, I see ! Good idea, Hibiki ! It really shows that you're the more experienced among us", exclaimed enthusiastically Ikazuchi.
Hibiki silently wince at her sister compliment. Stating that she was the more experienced among them didn't made her happy at all.
Despite Inazuma and, surprisingly, Akatsuki reservations, all four finally decided to comply to the white haired destroyer's plan.
The woman seemed positively delighted to hear their answer. Was she longing for company that much, thought the girls. The finely dressed lady then lead them to the village proper.
The destroyers quickly realised how much they attracted attention. As they moved through the streets, all women they crossed watched them with seemingly envying gazes, sometimes commenting on how cute they looked. For Hibiki, the situation was quite incomfortable but Ikazuchi didn't seem to mind as she happily greeted everyone. Inazuma was predictably reduced to a blushing mess as she wasn't good with neither too much attention, nor compliments. Akatsuki looked quite tense at first but with how much she was called a "fine lady" in those few minutes, she quickly lowered her guard and looked positively elated.
After a short time, the small group of destroyers, led by the light purple dressed lady reached the sill of a charming house in impeccable conditions. The woman briefly smiled at them before grabing the handle. However, as she was about to open the door, another woman approached.
The newcomer was tall for a human and had quite an imposing figure. It was mainly due to the ampleness of classic black and white maid clothes with descended low, even hiding her feet, with a frilly white headress. She hard rather short dark blue hairs and eyes of the same color and arbored a tranquil expression.
When the light purple lady noticed her presence, she immediatly froze for some reason but quickly regained her bearing and smile gracefully at her.
"Greetings, miss Ran. Can I help you with something ?", she asked with a quicker tone than usual.
"Yes, indeed madam. My master was informed of the presence of your fine guests and wished invite them for lunch", gently spoke the maid.
The finely dressed woman seemed displeased at that. She stayed silent for a moment and as she was about to say something, the maid cut her.
"I must insist that my master is very adamant on the matter", the maid said, which apparently made the lady retract what she was about to say. "However, I suppose my master would be willing to extend her invitation to you. You know how much she fancy having guests during her lunches", she added with a mode pronounced smile.
Hibiki noted that the lady seemed to feel fairly displeased but also spotted something else in her eyes. Was it fear ? She didn't know. She wasn't really good at reading people.
In all cases, the lady quickly conceded and prompted the small group to follow the maid to her employer, stating that she would be able to offer them a far better reception than her.
The destroyers didn't really have time to ponder the changement of situation and decided to follow the flow of the events. They accompagned silently the maid deeper inside the village. However, the stares that the other denizens of the village noticably changed toward them. No longer they were seemingly lingering and instead quickly losed interest when they saw who was leading them.
Even if her mind was still mostly in her "lady mode", Akatsuki noticed the change. It striked her as odd but didn't know what to make of it. It was obvious that they would meet someone higher in the social ladder of the community. It could be a double edged sword in their case because it was disturbing that such a person took notice of them and at the them time, they could probably gather more information with this higher value source.
She quickly glanced at her sisters. Hibiki seemed nonplussed, Ikazuchi didn't seem to mind the change and Inazuma was even more nervous than usual. She mentally apologized to her youngest sister as she decided to take the risk and meet the person in charge.
After a short while, the destroyers arrived at destination. As they expected, they stopped in front of the biggest mansion, the manor they spotted when they were outside of the village. The maid smile to them as she saw them look up toward the higher floors of the huge house and then opened the large oak door, inviting them inside.
The interior of the mansion was even more luxurious that the exterior. Expensive looking beige carpets drapped the floor while light blue tapestries covered the walls which were arrayed of numerous paintings of breathtaking sceneries and still lifes.
"This way please", indicated the maid as she continued through the corridor.
The sixth destroyer division followed while marveling at the setting. Obviously Akatsuki was the most affected and spent her time having her gaze wander all around instead of looking before her. Inazuma, which was nervously stare at her eldest sister, fearing she hits a wall or strumble on the floor by accident, silently thanked Akatsuki fairies which were probably the ones conducting the walk of their host.
After walking through a long corridor, the maid leaded them to a vast dinning room. At the center was a huge and sturdy looking wooden table surrounded by massives chairs with several flower pots on it while above their heads, on the ceiling was a magnificent silver chandelier which was brightly shining, reflecting the light of the rays of the suns coming from the large windows.
The polite maid invited them to take seat on the chairs while waiting the arrival of her master and then disappeared, probably in the kitchen.
After unequiping their gear, which they put in a corner of the room, the four destroyers, to varying degrees, had troubles feeling at ease in this setting where they hardly fits. Every things seemed so grand, to start with the chairs they were sitting on, which didn't let them have their feet touch the ground. The disturbance was so unsettling that they began to have second thoughts about their idea.
"It-it is not too late to escape, nanodesu", tried Inazuma.
"That would be really rude to go now that we accepted the invitation", countered Akatsuki be even she was hesitant.
"Don't worry Inazuma, everything will be alright. After all, what could go wrong ?", rassured Ikazuchi.
"A fair number of things", flatly added Hibiki, without apparent concern.
"Mou, Hibiki ! Don't you I'm trying to think positively ? And it was you who suggested we take this course of actions", pouted Ikazuchi.
"Indeed. If anything go wrong, I will take the responsability", the white haired destroyer simply answered.
Akatsuki let out a loud sigh at her little sisters words.
"We've all agreed to follow Hibiki idea and I would be an hypocrite if I said did it with reluctance. And since I am the flagship, if anything, it will be me who will take the blame if anything go wrong so you don't have to worry about yourselves", declared the purple haired destroyer.
Even if Akatsuki words were meant to reassure her sisters, it didn't really work out. On the contrary, Hibiki felt bad for suggesting that they take such risks while Ikazuchi and Inazuma tensed from the implications. After all three of them prefered to share the flak from their common decision that just having Akatsuki shoulder all the weight of the consequences.
After a minute of tense silence, the door of the dinning room was opened. All destroyers turned their gaze and recognized the maid who was carrying a plate of tray of cups of what looked like tea.
However the maid was not alone. Behind her came a girl in her late teens who was pretty tall. She wore a white blouse and long black skirt with white frills at the bottom. A blue ribbon of the same color of her eyes was tied to her neck and another set of ribbons tied her insanely long blond hair in two massive twintails.
The girl approached the table with confident steps and stopped mere inchs of it, as the maid silently distributed the drinks. She had a confident smile on her face and seemed to appraise her guest with a playful gaze.
"Greetings dear guests, my name is Emily. I am the daughter of the lord of this community and I came here to entertain you before my mother come to meet you", greeted the girl.
One after the other, the destroyers of the sixth division greeted and presented themselves. Emily couldn't help but notice the great difference in personalities of these girls despite their affirmation that they were sisters. The blue haired one affiched a confident facade and careful manerism but it all feeled very artificial. The white haired one was very quiet and the few time she spoke, it was in a very flat tone, as if she wasn't concerned by anything happening around her. The short haired one was on the contrary very cheerful, she had a bright expression and wasn't afraid of showing her enthousiasm. The last one, with tied brown hairs, was very shy. She stuttered from time to time but her tone was very gentle and friendly.
The four destroyers were first apprehensive at the coming of the daughter of the village lord. They expected a serious discussion and a lot of question asked. However none of this happened. Instead, Emily engaged in a carefree chat, speaking a lot about herself and idle things. She asked no difficult questions about their origins and their reasons to come to her village. They just had to reveal that they travelled and the only reaction were a flow of questions about the place they visited and how they were lucky to have a chance to see the world. Despite impecable mannerism, Emily eventually came to complain how she never was allowed to set a foot outside of the settlement boudaries and how her mother was too authoritative over her. All in all, the blond girl seemed like a sheltered rich youth who yearned so excitement in her life.
That kind of talk allowed the destroyers to relax. They hardly learned things of values but at the moment they were just glad that no difficult questions were asked.
After some more time of pleasant chatting, the door of the dinneroom opened. Again came the maid that none of the girls noticed the absence after she served the drinks. Again she came with another tray of drinks and again she was accompagned by another woman.
The moment the destroyers layed their eyes on her, it was evident to them that it was this lady who was in charge. She was clothed on a magnificent deep red dress that was covering the vast majority of her body except a fair amount of cleavage that made several of the girls blush. Her hair was light green and was tied in a complex and regal braid. Enthroned on her head was a silver tiara with stange dull brownish gems at its center. Her face was calm and composed and affiched a benevolent smile.
"Accept my apology for my lateness, young ladies", greeted the woman with a curtsy. "My name is Cassandra, lord of this settlement. I hope my dear daughter managed to no bore you before I finally arrived".
The destroyers shook their heads as the lord of the village took a seat next to her daughter, in front of them. Once the owner of the mansion was comfortably seated, Akatsuki spoke to present herself and her sisters.
"My name is Akatsuki and here are my sisters : Hibiki, Ikazuchi, Inazuma. We are all very grateful for your invitation", curtisied Akatsuki as it was expected from a proper lady.
"You're very welcome. When I heard words of the arrival of four young ladies, I found quite adequate to invite you for lunch. But I can't help to be curious, what were you doing this region ?", said Cassandra while elegently sipping tea.
"They were travelling mother. They said they came from the south and crossed the Gold Region's wastelands.", enthousiastically answered Emily.
"Is that so ? That is quite impressive by itself. But pray tell, where do you come from and where do you go ?", asked the lord.
The destroyers winced at her question they managed to avoid it until now. They now faced the choice to answer somewhat truthfully at the possible expanse of the naval base or to craft a lie on the spot, a quite difficult endeavor since they knew next to nothing of the land they were on.
As the four sisters nervously eyed each others, Cassandra let out an amused smile.
"My apologies. If my question does bother you, you're not obligated to answer. In fact it is quite rude of me to expect a response when I am the only one who is doing the questioning. Let's turn the tables, shall we ? You can ask any question you want, and I will answer. It will probably be easier for you to trust me after I satisfied your curiosity", spoke the lady.
Akatsuki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma nervously laughted after their host had seen through their discomfort and began mustering their wits to find pertinent questions to ask. However they were immedialy beaten by Hibiki who didn't wait to question the woman.
"Where are the men ?", she asked in a neutral tone. "Since we've entered this settlement, we haven't seen any".
It was Indeed something that the girls noticed but kept quiet. As they travelled across the village, they spotted women and girls of different ages but not once did they spot any man. It was something that did raise question. How can a society could sustain itself with only females ? How could the women give birth to children ? Where was Emily father ?
"That is quite a common question asked by previous travellers and the answer is quite simple. It simply seems that men in general does not accomodate well to the lifestyle we are enjoying here", said the lady as if it was a regrettable thing.
It did and didn't answer the question but for now, Hibiki decided to drop the subject in case it leaded to something problematic.
"Hum... Where do your food comes from ? We didn't see any fields outside of the village, only small gardens behind some houses, nanodesu", tried Inazuma.
"We import most of our food from the exterior. We used to receive the visit to quite a lot of people before : merchants, adventurers, heroes and even lost people. However since a while their number decreased and it get me quite worried".
"Maybe it's because the terrain is quite hostile to the west ?", offered Ikazuchi. "Anyway, you're the lord of this place but do you answer to anybody else ?", she then asked her usual benevolent smile.
"I nominally answer to the king of Grangold. However, by the law of the kingdom, lords does possess a fair share of autonomy and the royal authority usually don't meddle in our affairs", explained the woman. But as Akatsuki was about to pose a question herself, the lord of the village immediatly continued. "You all do pose quite a lot of complicated questions. It is strange for simple travellers to show so much interest to a settlement they were not even meant to visit".
Inazuma tried her best to not show how nervous she got at Cassandra suspicion as she knew she was the one who's nervousness showed the most on her face. She suspected that entering the village might get them in trouble and personally didn't want to take any chance. However, as she follower her elder sisters, she gradually came to think that it wasn't such a bad idea.
However, now that the owner of the village seemed dubious about them, she couldn't help but regret her decision to not oppose Hibiki's idea. And the worst was that they were the ones who exposed themselves with their array of questions. Did Cassadra was suspicious of them all along ? Were they baited by the woman by her willingness to answer anything they asked ?
"I don't think that strange at all. I mean, if we are curious about something, what is wrong to ask ?", came the saving voice of Ikazuchi. The brown haired destroyer didn't seem affected at all by the sudden tension but Inazuma could tell from the tiny quivering of her voice that she too was tense.
"Is that so ?", calmy asked Cassandra. "Yes, I guess you're right. Children are sure lucky to speak with such airiness", she then sofly added.
Ikazuchi inwardly let out a huge sigh of relieve. She and her sisters let their guard down, forgetting they were technically in hostile territory. Sure, even if they angered the lord they could quite easily get out since she doubted that they had any mean to restrain them, but she was pretty certain that the commander wouldn't appreciate to be put at odd with someone of authority because of them. After all her duty was to be reliable to the commander, not a liability !
As a tense silence was hovering in the dining room, the sound of the door opening once more took everyone attention. It was again the maid who entered with this time an array of plate instead of drinks.
Without a word, the maid served the plates on the table, adding white and silver curtly of such luxury that Akastuki head was nearly spinning.
Unaffected by the pageantry, Hibiki simply noticed of delicate the disposition of the food was and felt her stomach rumble once more. She also noted that the food was mostly made of vegetable with just spare servings of meat.
"Thank you Ran", said the lady when everyone had a plate in front of them and then invited her guests to begin to eat.
Akatsuki happily ate a slice lettuce with a little bit of cheese. She used to not be very fond of vegetable since most were pretty much tasteless but after so time she realised that a proper lady has to be able to eat her greens. However she did still struggle with spicy food and so she let the small piments aside for the moment.
As she looked to the sides, she saw that her sisters were also enjoying the food. Hibiki, as expected, ate the piments and bellpeppers like it was nothing. Ikazuchi actually ate her spicy greens with enthousiasm as if she was taking a challenge of some sort.
Finally when her gaze fell on Inazuma, Akatsuki found her youngest sister blankly stare at her plate. Inazuma managed to have a lucky draw in Akatsuki eyes since she didn't have any piments or pepperbells. Instead, she got some slices of tomatoes, a little bit of carrot and a mostly an eggplant of massive proportion.
When she realised what her sister had in front of her, Akatsuki froze. Inazuma was a sweet girl. Her gentle and shy personality made her hard to dislike and as such she was adored by everyone in the base.
However even if the brown haired destroyer was very tolerant about a lot of things, she still possessed things she didn't like. And to say that among those eggplants were one of her pet peeve would be a massive understatement. Inazuma hated eggplants.
Akatsuki didn't know why her sister made a fixation on eggplants but it was a thing so disproportionate as to change her personality to a ninety nine degree. The purple haired girl could already spot the signs : the eyes of her little sister were already darkening, loosing their innocent shine, while her facial muscle tensed, washing away her usual gentle expression.
Inwardly, Akatsuki panicked and, without looking away from Inazuma, quickly tapped on the arm of Hibiki who was seated next to her. The white haired destroyer then dispassionatly shifted her gaze toward her elder sister and then to her younger one. However when she saw in what state the brown haired destroyer was, her usual impassive attitude broke.
"Der'mo", Hibiki silently cursed. While she has been eating, she has thought about how delicate their situation was since the lord of the settlement seemed somewhat suspicious of them. However, now that Inazuma was affected by another of her "fits", she realised that Cassandra was the least of their problems.
As Ikazuchi grabbed the arm of her unstable little sister the second she realised her situation, the Hibiki tried to think of how to resolve their predicament but in reality she didn't know what to do.
It was not the first time Inazuma lost her mind. The first time was years ago during a battle off the north-east coast of Malaysia. Even now, noone knew for sure why her sister mind suddently changed, only that at that moment and for the rest of the battle, the kindhearted and shy Inazuma was remplaced by something vicious and brutal that rampaged until all the ennemies fled or went to the bottom of the ocean.
After this event, everyone though it was a one time occurrence due to some accumulated stress and the fact that the timid destroyer recovered her mind shortly after without remembering a thing seemed to support this idea. However the occurrence eventually came to repeat itself of the rest of their service. It mostly came back during battles but also during patrols and even when they were not even in combat. It was still rare and seemed to be triggered in reaction by some random events or objects, provoking each time the same reaction but at varying degree. However, each time Inazuma lost her mind, her eyes blackened and her usual gentle voice lost all of her benevolence and while she directed all her violence and hate solely on the object of her ire without threatening her companion, its still terrified her sisters when her gaze void if any warmth shifted toward them, barely aknowledging them as living beings.
"Is something wrong ?", asked the somewhat concerned voice of Cassandra, having obviously spotted the odd behavior of the youngest sister. "Maybe do you dislike vegetables ?"
At these words, Inazuma blackened eyes shifted to the lord of the village who, instead of looking intimidated, seemed quite amused.
"Nasu wa kirai nanodesu !", growled the Brown haired destroyer, forgoing english to her mother tongue instead.
"Inazuma !", cried Akatsuki in half indignation to her sister rudeness and half desperation to snap her out of her unusual mind.
Obviously, Akatsuki attempt to placate her sister didn't work as the latter didn't stop to glare at Cassandra with obvious hostile intent. Even in this state, Hibiki somewhat trusted Inazuma to not physically lash out just because she was presented eggplants but as the same time she couldn't remember seeing her little sister show so much hostility toward the person who served her the dish she hated so much.
It was at this moment she felt it. It was a killing intent strong enough that made her instinct scream at her to prepare for battle to the point that her fairies moved to their battle stations by themselves. However, from what she managed to pinpoint, the killing intent didn't came from her sister but from the other side of the table, to the form of Cassandra.
"I was willing to extend this appetizer a little longer in order to squeeze a little bit more informations since it seemed you were hiding something, but finally I decided it was time to begin the main course", declared Cassandra as something in her body seemed to shift.
The next second, before any of the destroyers could say or do anything, Inazuma threw her dinning knife at their host, must to her sisters shock. However, what shocked them more was to see the knife bury itself into her torso where her blood red dress fused with her skin and became similar to mud.
"Mother ! Could you not have let them alone just this time ? I finally made some friends from outside this village !", complained Emily as her body too changed, her long twintails becoming massive golden octopus tentacles while countless smaller pink ones appeared from below her dress.
"Be quiet my stupid daughter. The strong don't befriend the weak, it only consume them", answered the monstruous woman, her humanish upper body standing on a muddy and extending body.
It didn't take long for the destroyers to recognize the danger and quickly, Inazuma first, they dived toward their rigging they putted aside when they sat down.
However their opponents were fast and one of the golden tentacles of Emily grabbed Akatsuki arm while a muddy appendage from Cassandra went for Inazuma and Hibiki.
The white haired destroyer only had time to roll and grab her armor plating in the form a large metal rectangular shield to protect herself. The appendage struck hard and the fizzle she heard against the steel of her shield convinced her that it was better to not let this muddy touch her skin.
Hibiki glanced at Inazuma who managed to evade the blow but it prevented her to reach her equipment. The second elder destroyer grabbed one of her turret and aimed to the elder woman. The shot was loud and surprised the two monstruous women as the shell quickly travelled the body body of Cassandra with enough force to shred through it, penetrate the wall behind her and explode somewhere deep inside the mansion.
Inwardly, Hibiki regretted her choice to go for her turret instead of a anti-air gun or a machine gun as she was too close too her ennemies for the fuse of her shell to activate and detonate at the contact with her target. She regretted more her choice when she saw the massive hole in the center of Cassandra body to be filled with more mud.
At the same time, Akatsuki struggled with strong grip of the tentacles on her arm. As much as she was confident she could resist well in a context of brute strength, the fact that she couldn't get a proper footing prevented her to stop herself to be drawed toward the young monster girl. She still stuggled to get her arm out but the thick appendage was wrapped several times around her member and the octopus suckers prevented them to move a mere milimeter. Realising the futility of her actions, Akatsuki instead prepared to simply charge Emily, and as much unrefined as it was, Knock her out with her small fists. However, she didn't do go that far as a sudden cry came from her left as Ikazuchi charged at Emily armed with her anchor.
Realising the new threat, the young monster girl launched her other tentacle on Ikazuchi but the short haired destroyer dodged by diving under it, forcing Emily to let Akatsuki's arm go to attack with her second tentacle.
"Ikazuchi-", began Akatsuki before being cut by her sister who jumped in front of her to evade the second blow.
"Don't worry, you can rely on me in these occasions too !", she exclaimed. "Go get your rigging now !".
Instead of complaining to be ordered by her little sister, Akatsuki excecuted herself and went for her rigging. She quickly glanced to her two other siblings and saw them defending themselves against muddy tendrills from Cassandra, Hibiki shielding herself with her armor plate while the crazed Inazuma evaded while trying to get close to her own rigging.
In short notice, Akatsuki reached her rigging and since she was not directly engaged, managed to fully equip herself. Once she was done, she turned to their adversaries, her turret in one hand, her anchor in the other and her own armor plating on her left shoulder.
To one side Ikazuchi managed to close the distance with Emily but the latter had her small tentacles at the bottom of her body grab the feet of the destroyer while her thick tentacles on her head blocked Ikazuchi blow.
On the other side, Hibiki dropped her shield which was horribly corroded and retreated while firing her dual guns turret while Inazuma was still kept far from her armement. Cassandra form reformed each time she was pierced and her muddy body rapidely extended to cover an increased amount of surface on the floor, walls and ceiling.
Akatsuki hardly had time to think at what to do. All she knew that as an elder sister she had to protect her siblings. So she let her instincts take over her body and moved.
The door of the room violently opened to reveal the form of the maid. She too became a monster as gigantic red tentacles sprouted from under her dress. Akatsuki barely registered her appareance. Instead she ran toward Emily and Ikazuchi and struck toward the tentacular girl with her anchor. Again Emily blocked the blow with her huge golden tentacle but obviously flinched at the strength of the blow. The leadship quickly raised her shield to prevent the second tentacle to grab her left side and pushed foward until she got close enough to her target.
Ikazuchi was on the ground struggling to get away from the small tentacles which were carrying her toward a strange organ protuding from below the monster girl skirt. With all her might, Akatsuki stepped with on foot on as much tentacles as possible, making the wooden floor crack below. It was enough to visibly hurt Emily which let out a pained cry and allowed Ikazuchi to quickly crawl away. Not wanting to let her adversary catch her once she recovered from the pain, Akatsuki followed her stomping with a kick in the middle of the belly with enough force to throw the blonde monster toward the maid that was coming to her aid.
"Your turn !", ordered Akatsuki at her younger sister. Understanding what she meant, Ikazuchi ran toward her rigging.
With Emily and the maid temporaly out of the fight, Akatsuki turned toward Cassandra as she was about to corner her two other sisters. Akatsuki aimed her turret at the more dangerous threat and with a mental command, ordered her fairies to bear all the smaller caliber guns toward the same direction.
As all the guns fired, a huge stream of shells and bullets fell on the form of the lord of the village, shredding her body into pieces. However it wasn't enough as despite all the firepower, she body continued to reform itself at the same time it took damages. All Akatsuki managed to accomplish was attracting the monster's attention and apparently making her very angry, if the the scowl on her reformating flesh was anything to go by.
As Ikazuchi finished equiping herself with the blare of dozens of guns firing in the background, she was rejoined by Hibiki and Inazuma. The white haired destroyer didn't waste time in words and equiped the rest of of her rigging. Inazuma too went directly toward her amament and from the crazed smile and the low snigerring she displayed, Ikazuchi wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let her direct little sister take part into the battle.
In any case, Ikazuchi quickly banished those thoughts as Akatsuki was still fighting and needed her support. So she turned toward the fight and saw the disgusting sight of the falling and reforming body of Cassandra slowly approaching her elder sister. However the most imminent threat didn't came from there, instead she turned toward Emily and the maid which recovered their bearing and prepared to attack Akatsuki from behind.
Immediatly Ikazuchi threw her anchor at them since her fairies weren't yet at their battle stations. The piece of heavy metal flew toward the pair of tentacular monsters and having spotted it quickly, Emily swatted it aside with one of her massive tentacles on her head. However Ikazuchi still held the chain in her hand and violently pulled on it, making it go back toward their targets which surprised them enough that they didn't deflect it in time before the Anchor it the maid side while the long chain partly entangled them both. Ikazuchi knew that they would quickly get up and recover but that already got all the time she needed. Her fairies were now at their battle stations and the short haired destroyer aimed her main turret at her target. She felt kinda bad to fire on young girls and women but if she got this messy situation right, they actually planned to eat her and her sisters at some point during this lunch. So she fired and two shells went straight toward their targets. With a last second reaction Emily and the maid managed to get their tentacles to shield them from the projectiles but they quickly discovered that this protection was insufficient against munitions fired by 127mm guns. Both screamed as large bits of their appendage flew in different directions of the room. They somewhat barely managed to deviate the shells to avoid fatal blow but the pain they felt seemed to be largely enough to paralyze them on the ground with bleeding wounds.
A sudden explosion behind her attracted the attention of Ikazuchi. As she quickly turned, the short haired destroyer eyes met a large hole in the wall that led to the outside. Next to it was Hibiki and Inazuma, who seemed relatively tame for the moment despite the still creepy smile on her face.
"Let's get out", calmly said Hibiki as she jumped out of the hole.
Ikazuchi turned to Akatsuki who was still relentlessly firing at Cassandra. She apparently heard Hibiki's words since she turned and began to ran toward their exit, the 25mm AA guns on her rigging covering her retreat. Ikazuchi herself didn't wait any longer and ran toward the hole. However instead of jumping outside she stopped as Inazuma was still there.
"Inazuma…", she said hesitantly as she met the blackened eyes of her dear little sister. However it took only a moment before steeling herself. "Let's go !", she exclaimed with a smile while taking her hand.
Inazuma didn't react the first two seconds before smiling from ear to ear. It was an horrible smile, one full of malice and madness, but somehow Ikazuchi knew that any of these ill intentions weren't directed at her. As she was about to gently pull her sister arm, Inazuma grabbed something from her rigging with her other hand and presented it before Ikazuchi face. It was a metal canister with round angles.
"A departing gift", snickered Inazuma in such an uncharastically way that Ikazuchi cringed a little bit from it and from the object that she was presenting.
As both of them jumped out of the wall just before muddy tendrills fell on them, Inazuma threw the canister she held. Once they touched the grassy ground of the manor garden, both girls ran partly to join their two other sisters, partly to get as far away from the manor as possible while Inazuma was laughting madly.
When all destroyers were finally reunited, crouching among the hedges of the garden, a loud explosion erupted from the manor, making half of it crumble upon itself.
"What did you do ?!", cried a surprised Akatsuki.
"Inazuma tried a new imaginative use of depth charges", nervously explained Ikazuchi.
"We should escape now before the other inhabitants find us", nonchalently declared Hibiki before Akatsuki could berate the two other.
One hour later, the four destroyers stopped to catch their breath after their flight from the Lady's Village.
As much as they wished to stealthily get away after having blown up the lord manor, the plan didn't really went as expected. First when they exited the gardens, they were quickly spotted by noone else than the woman who brought them inside the village earlier. When she noticed the four destroyers, the umbrella woman dropped all appearance and she too transformed into a monster, this time with the lower body of a huge subterrerian insect with numerous little legs. She immediatly charged toward them but was quickly dispatched as she seemed much weaker that the three other monsters inside the manor.
After this incident, the sixth destroyer division quickly discovered that all the denizens of the village were monsters disguised into respectable ladies. And as a large number of them attacked them, it was easy to deduce that they all wanted a bite of them.
While they fled the village, they had to fight a significant number of them and while most of the time they were forced to close combat, since they were now outside they had the ability to use their guns more freely which resulted in great destruction as the prevention of collateral damage was not their priority at the moment, espacially in the case of Inazuma.
So while they managed to loose their pursuers, the girls could still manage to spot on the horizon the black smoke emitted by the fires they caused.
"That was not how a Lady's Village should be !", complained Akatsuki as she put a finger in large hole of her torned sleeve.
"I'm amazed you're worrying about that when we all nearly got eaten", deadpanned Ikazuchi. "Are you alright now Inazuma ?", she then asked to the brown haired girl who recovered her mind.
"I'm sorry. I caused you a lot of troubles again", sniffed Inazuma before Ikazuchi hand came on her head, patting her gently.
"We would have been in problems either way", stated Hibiki with her usual emotionless voice.
"Aaaah ! We are going to be yelled at when we got to base !", cried Akatsuki in desesperation, nearly plucking her hairs out of her head.
"I hope Tenryuu-san and Tatsuta-san fared better than us", muttered Ikazuchi while the three other silently nodded because otherwise the whole expedition would have been a catastophe.
A/N :
So there are 9k words without counting the author's notes. It took me some time because it is a long chapter and I had trouble to find proper wording at some points.
Like usual, I'll first answer the reviews :
Guest : Thank you once again to your continual support. I'll try to write as much and as well as I can. For your question about Luka and Alice reactions to the shipgirls interferances, well, you will have to wait but be reassured that I plan to inplant all major characters of MGQ so obviously Luka and Alice will be featured.
Confessor Dolan : Thank you for your praise even though this fic is intended to have humor, I never planned to write a lazy crack fic and I try to put as much effort in characterisation and world developpement as I can. As such you probably noticed that consequently the plot didn't progress much. As for your concern, I want to reassure you. I want to make characters which have coherency and are overall making sense. As you've seen, in this chapter I confronted KC characters to Lady's Village (I was planning to writing it well before you comment and began to write it days after). You will have to wait 2-3 chapters to know what the naval base reaction will be toward the denizens of Lady's Village but also all the encounters they made until then.
Since I don't know which universes my readers are familiars to, I'll explain one aspect of the chapter that may seem obscure to some. For those who are not familiar with KC fandom, there is a meme in the form of an alter ego version of Inazuma which is her opposite personality wise. It is called plasma-chan and was first featured stating how she hated eggplants (Nasu wa kirai nanodesu). I found it funny to feature it here.
In a related manner, I would be interested to know with which universe are you the most familiar.
At the begining, this fic was meant to be a one-shot or something looking like a collection of small funny stories. However, now that I decided to make it a full fledged story, I find the tag "humor" to be a little bit restrictive as I want to address more serious themes or themes which are not related to humor. It doesn't mean I will abandon humor in this story, I just want to make something more proper. So I am pondering if I should change the tag to something broader like "adventure". In this case too I would like the readers input.
Anyway, thank you for reading and see you next time.