With the objective within hand's reach, the curtain of darkness started to wane under constant bombardment of the mysterious light. It would, however, be foolish to expect things to get better. Thinner veil dispersed and refracted the blue rays, causing them to become a blinding wall of azure.
As if following the path wasn't hard enough under such circumstances, the deadly petals kept performing their hypnotizing dance. Nagato has long got used to the pain they caused, but even mighty battleship's skin has its limit. With her clothes riddled with burnt out holes the only, however measly, protection she had began to wane.
She fell to her knees letting out a loud scream. She instinctively grabbed her left arm, now emanating with a stabbing pain, only to burn her palm. One of these damned petals caused her skin to give in and began to slowly melt her upper arm muscles. The pain was unbearable, giving way only to what she's felt on that fateful day 80 years ago. The day she'd seen that smile for the first and the last time. Smile that, what Nagato hasn't realized just yet, has become her entire world. She focused her entire being on recalling that breathtaking sight and once again saw the mysterious silhouette right in front of her eyes.
Shaking, Nagato touched the wound once more and a quick glance at her hand revealed an unexpected sight. Her palm was covered with a thick crimson fluid, mixed with dirty black ash. Initially shocked with the fact, she slowly recalled Vice Admiral Hara's and Akagi's short lecture about her new body. However, it was too soon to give up. Determined to push forward, Nagato gathered her strength and tried ripping off the rubber from her pants' leg to use as improvised bandage.
Straining her muscles only caused the pain to grow stronger. Again. No luck. Again. Again. She screamed with agony as the rubber finally let go, leaving Nagato unable to move her left arm. Heavily she picked herself up. Her body was in tremors. Covered in cold sweat the burning wound on her arm felt even more painful, but she wasn't going to give up.
Once again, the battleship has lost the sense of time and direction. Wandering aimlessly, hoping to see yet another monster, like a suicidal maniac. Feeling cold, alone and agonizing, Nagato's mind was growing weaker by the minute. She was slowly realizing something she's known for a while now. Something that her consciousness had worked hard to block away, as the sight that the battleship thought was awaiting her would be too much to bear. However, with the slow descent into madness beginning anew, the walls in her mind began to crumble.
Exhausted and unable to keep her balance, the battleship fell to her knees and kept crawling forward, like a beggar asking for a piece of bread.
"Sakawa!", she cried out involuntarily, tears covering her face. With mind's safeguards failing, her self-preservation instinct was also gone. Nagato no longer cared for what she's going to witness, all she thought about was getting out of this hell.
"Sakawa!", but again, the light cruiser was nowhere to be seen. "Please… I… I just want to go home…".
The once mighty and proud battleship curled on the ground, sobbing like a lost child. Yet another piece of ash landed on her arm. Burning through the long, black hair covering it and filling the air with sulfuric smell. The pain was just as unbearable as before, but Nagato no longer cared.
"Why… why is it happening to me?", she mumbled under her breath. "What did I do to deserve this nightmare?"
"Pya!", just as Nagato's eyelids started to feel too heavy, a familiar chubby face appeared upside-down in front of her eyes. "What's the matter Nagato-san? Did something happen?", Sakawa said completely ignoring Nagato's torn up body.
"Sa… ka… wa…", the battleship mumbled absently.
"Pya! That's me!", but Nagato was still absent. "Pya?", the cruiser waved her hand in front of battleship's eyes, but to no avail.
She walked over the motionless body, got on all four and tried again, but she couldn't see even a slightest reaction.
"Hmm… What would Yahagi-neesan do in such situation?", she crossed her legs and rested her chin between her thumb and index finger, taking a pose of an old philosopher. "I know!", the cruiser shouted as she put her hands in the black, freezing abyss below her. "Pyaaa!", she splashed some cold water on Nagato's face.
Instinctively the battleship moved her face away and looked at the figure in front of her.
"Light cruiser Sakawa to battleship Nagato. Can you hear me? Over, pya!", she closed in just few centimeters away from Nagato's face and imitated a military radio message.
Nagato's eyes grew as large as 500-yen coins as the realization of who's standing in front of her rapidly flooded her mind.
"Sakawa!", she jumped on the cruiser, embracing her tightly with her right arm. Finally, a little bit of hope.
"Pya!", the cruiser returned the hug and the couple stayed frozen like that.
"Sakawa… I must get to the source of this blue light. Do you know how to get there?", Nagato finally broke the answer, freeing herself from cruiser's embrace.
"Why would you want to go there? Did I do something wrong, pya?", Sakawa's face suddenly saddened, looking as if she was ready to burst in tears.
"No, you didn't. I just can't stay here any longer."
"But… but… If you stay here then we can finally be together… forever. Are you going to abandon me again, Nagato-san?", this question stung harder and deeper than any wound old and new that Nagato's received.
"N-no… I'm not going to abandon you Sakawa. I'd never do that if I could… I'm sorry I left you alone back then…", already swollen from crying the battleship's eyes were once again filling with tears.
"No, you are not!", the cruiser pushed Nagato away and took some distance. "You are just like everybody else! Leaving me alone in the end!", Sakawa's voice was turning cold and empty, a pattern that even Nagato's tired mind could recognize immediately. "You are going to stay here with me, forever!", she shrieked as her skin began to take the colour of dried out bones.
With a twisted grin, this new, ghostly Sakawa charged Nagato aiming for the throat. Contrary to Prinz Eugen and USS Independence, she didn't disappear at the last moment. The brunt of the charge was enough to knock the battleship down, causing her skin to crack in few other places. She cried out in pain, but a cold embrace of death on her throat quickly brought her back to her senses.
"You will die like the rest of us, traitor! You will stay here with me, lost for eternity and dead!"
Not thinking much, Nagato let out a desperate cry and pulled her assailant close to her chest with all the strength she could muster. However, despite the sound of cracking bones the steel grip remained as tight as before.
"Sakawa…", Nagato coughed up. "You aren't dead anymore… You are there, on the other side of that light. You... you were the first person to welcome me in that world.", tears and the cruiser's grip made it near impossible to say all that. "Sakawa… please… I need to get… back to you…", the battleship burst in tears.
"You… you mean that Sakawa's not dead? You came back to me?", her dead eyes filled up with tears as the grip on Nagato's throat loosened.
"Not just me… Agano-san, Noshiro-san… Yahagi-san too… We're all there with you, so please…", Nagato gasped.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Nagato-san!", she started crying and as she tried to embrace the battleship, she disappeared in the thick cloud of black smoke.
Breathing heavily, Nagato felt a small object weighing on her stomach. A simple sake cup ornamented with just two characters, "酒匂". After a short break, she picked herself up and quickly checked whether the Iron Cross and Independence's dog tag are still in place. As soon as she's done it, the area went black. The light, the mist and the ash. They were all gone too. All that was left was the sound of waves and irresistible feeling of being watched.
Immediately, Nagato turned around ready to defend herself. However, instead of some untold abomination, all she saw in front of her was a tall woman. Wearing a snow white tight dress, she smiled at the battleship, who immediately recognized her. As with a touch of a magic wand all the pain, exhaustion and fear disappeared. She felt safe. Safer than ever before.
"You look as if you've seen a ghost.", the woman laughed in a voice that was a perfect match for her smile.
"I've found you at last…", stumbling at first, Nagato fell into her arms. "I've been seeing you in my dreams ever since I awakened. What is this place?"
"To be frank, I don't know. Or rather, I can't know. We're inside your head Nagato.", the woman looked worried.
Nagato could finally take a closer look at her face. She was the most beautiful being she's ever seen. Delicate features perfectly complementing her smile surrounded deep azure-coloured eyes. If in the past days the battleship's seen faces of death and demons, this one was the face of a loving and merciful goddess.
"What do you mean, inside my head?", she was more confused by this one statement than anything she's gone through to get here.
"You're dreaming, you silly girl. I don't know why you'd dream of such a place, but I really hope it wasn't too bad…", her eyes were filled with sadness and sympathy. "Nagato… one more thing before you wake up… Please, let go of me. You will find nothing but sadness and death if you pursue this path… Don't do it to yourself…", she added after a short pause as her eyes filled with tears.
Suddenly a whistle of something falling from a great height filled the air.
"It's time to go."
Nagato's mind was filled with questions, but she knew what's coming next.
"At least tell me your name…", she uttered in panic hoping to make it before the inevitable comes.
"It's…"
A wave of pure white light flooded everything around her and a deafening roar of thousand guns didn't allow Nagato's goddess to finish her sentence.
She woke up. The turned-on lights and the alarm clock's loud ringing made her realize that she's back in her room at the naval base in the city of Akashi. Confused by what she's just experienced, Nagato picked her up off the bed to turn off the annoying buzzing. Only then she realized a stabbing pain in both of her arms. Rolling up her sleeves, she noticed two bright red spots causing a wave of cold to come over her.