Chapter 29: Onwards! To Waffles!

Eleven Months ago

Fleet Carrier Kaga stared down the yawning assemblage of sleepy light carriers. She'd asked- she'd begged her Admiral for reinforcements. Even fleet carrier Kaga, pride of the first CarDiv couldn't protect a nation by herself.

Yet… this was all he could offer her. Three girls who couldn't even get up early without yawning and complaining. Three girls who—even put together—barely carried more planes than she did.

Kaga glared at them, cowing the three carrier-girls into a passable approximation of parade-rest as she folded her hands behind her back. For a moment, the fleet carrier didn't speak. The sound of early-morning drizzle flashing to steam against her skin seemed to echo across the sleepy harbor.

"Now," Kaga, pulling her skirt tight and staring down the sleepiest-looking light carrier, "Let's get down to business."

"Hai, Kaga-sama," chorused the three girls, bowing at the waist to the battle-hardened fleet carrier.

"Zuihou," Kaga folded her hands across her polished steel muneate as she stared down the sleepiest-looking girl, "Step forward."

Zuihou bowed, "Zuihou heading out, I'll show-"

"Stop." Kaga's voice never wavered from her calm, professional timbre. But her brows knit into a tight palisade as she fixed her gaze on the light carrier.

"K-Kaga-sama?" Zuihou clenched at her bow, her spine going ramrod straight as she braced for an oncoming officer-tirade.

Kaga didn't say a word. She just nodded to where the other two carriers were sitting. Her unblinking gaze never wavered from the little carrier girl as she slouched her way back to the line.

"My Admiral tells me you're carriers," said Kaga, her hands folding behind her back. "Carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Is this true?"

The three girls bowed. "Hai, Kaga-sama."

"They why don't you act like it," said Kaga, her stoic voice dripping with the kind of barely-contained fury only a stone-faced carrier could truly display. She stared down her charges, almost daring them to speak up. "Hm?"

"Uh… Kaga-Sama," said Shouhou. The half-clothed carrier clutched at her belt, nervously flexing and un-flexing the muscles in her slender neck, "I… I don't know what you mean."

Kaga glanced down the line, one brow creeping up as she waited for a response. "Anyone care to guess?"

The girls were silent.

"Aviation Archery is not a sport," said Kaga, stepping to the case where her own bow was stored. "It is a great and terrible honor." She plucked the bow from its case, her eyes carefully examining down the traditional bamboo bow and its drum-tight string. "There is no room for show or pageantry."

Zuihou dipped her head, scuffing her shoe against the ground.

"Our home… our nation sits on the very razor's edge," said Kaga. A slender bamboo arrow shaft slid from her quiver with a subtle wishh of wood-on-wood. Kaga took a moment to inspect the eagle-feather fletching before continuing. "We forgot that once… during the first war we grew arrogant, and the Americans punished us for our mistakes. The Abyssals will not be so kind if we make them again."

Kaga nocked her bow, holding it out in front of her in the first movement of an aviation-archery strike. "You must be tranquil in battle."

She raised the bow above her head, pulling the string to half-draw. "Your concentration must never falter."

She lowered the bow in a smooth motion, pulling it to its full draw with a creak of stressed bamboo. "You must never fail to exert your full effort."

She took a breath, her eyes locked onto her target as she felt her pulse slow to a crawl.bumBum… bumBum…bum- She let the arrow fly, her shaft exploding into a miniature D4Y as it cleared her bow. The tiny dive bomber flew true, pulling into a shallow climb before diving down at its target, planting its dimiutive bomb dead-center of the bullseye.

Kaga allowed herself the tiniest ghost of a smile as she rested her fists on her hips. "And you must never fail. For every mistake we make our nation will pay for in blood."

The Present Day...

Light cruiser Tenryuu had to stifle a smile as she slid open the door to the American Destroyers' temporary quarters. Her own ki-division. Her own division all slept in the same room with at least two plushies apiece. Watching her girls cuddle up in their sleep was enough to warm even the heart of a hardened badass like her.

But then the Americans just had to push it one step further. They'd taken all the mattresses from their bunks and piled them in a heap in the middle of the floor. Atop the small mountain of mattresses and blankets, three destroyers and one destroyer escort lay in a disorganized dog pile. It looked like someone had just poured a cup full of loli ragdolls out onto the floor. If Tenryuu wasn't such a stone-cold badass, she might have giggled profusely at the adorable cuddle puddle.

But she wasn't, so she didn't.

"Hey, taffies," she said, dropping into a crouch near Hoel's head. At least she was pretty sure it was Hoel's head. The four girls were so throughly intertwined it was hard to tell where one started and one ended.

"Mrmmpgh," came the mumbled response.

Tenryuu rolled her eyes. At lest her kids were early risers! It was barely before seven!

"Guh," The smallest girl—Sammuel B Roberts, if memory served—crawled out from the very bottom of the cuddle puddle. "Mornin," she mumbled, stifling a yawn with the baggy sleeve of her oversized Marine jacket.

Johnston mumbled something, slowly blinking away the last grasps of sleep as she stared at Tenryuu. Well, at certain areas of Tenryuu. "Ayyy…." she grunted. The destroyer shook her head, her rumpled feathers snapping back into place as she yawned. "Geddup!" she kicked at… someone else in the puddle of destroyers.

"'m up!" barked Hoel, rolling onto her back and scowling at the ceiling.

Heermann just yawned, covering her mouth with one hand as she bounced to her feet. "Wha time iz it"

"Six… fifty," said Tenryuu. She didn't smile at the cluster of sleepy destroyers lazily forming ranks in the middle of their bedroom. She smirked. "Kids and I have to head out early," she said, "Let's get you some breakfast, hmm?"

All four girls instantly smiled, whatever grasp sleep held on them vanishing in a flash at the thought of food. Yup. They were Americans alright…

"Uh, Miss Tenryuu?" Sammy tugged at the hem of the light cruiser's short skirt.

"Fu?"

"If you're on a mission," said the little destroyer escort.

"Who's gonna look after us?" added Hoel.

"I like it when you look after us," said Johnston, throwing her arms around Tenryuu's waist and burying her face in the light cruiser's substantial bust. "You're so cool," is what she tried to say, but it was muffled almost beyond comprehension.

Tenryuu laughed, peeling the feathered destroyer off herself and tugging at her tie. She had to make sure she had just the right amount of devil-may-care rackishness to her outfit after all! "I am, aren't I?"

The four girls nodded in response.

"Well don't you worry, I'll be back in a day or two," said Tenryuu. "Until then, Naka-Chan'll look after you."

"Okay," said Heermann.

"I like her too," said Johnston.

Hoel nodded.

"I think," said Tenryuu, "Azikuzi and her sister wanted to play with you too. They're AA destroyers like you!"

The taffies smiled, trotting after Tenryuu into the destroyer dorm hallway. The four girls of DesDiv6 were waiting for them there. Sammy tossed Akatsuki a wave, while Heermann and Hibiki wordlessly drifted together.

"C'mon," said Tenryuu, whistling to get her kinder- her division in formation. "Line astern! Ahead two thirds! Onwards!"

"To Breakfast!" cheered the girls of DesDiv Six.

"FOOOOD!" boomed Johnston, her hands flailing in the air with unrestrained glee.

—|—|—

Jersey wandered over to the showers, stifling a yawn as her bare feet padded against the slick tile. She was already feeling better, the tenderness in her skin was gone, and judging by the tickling she felt on her butt, her hair'd grown back too. Oh, and she wasn't missing half her face any more either, which was a definite plus.

The battleship quickly stripped out of her swimsuit with a grateful sigh. It was the little things, like being able to remove ones own underwear with out the help of a destroyer escort, that you don't really appreciate until you've been burnt to a crisp by White Phosphorus.

She yawned again, fumbling the shower knob over to its warmest fresh-water setting. According to her chronometer, it was… well, it was about ten-thirty. Not early enough for her to be excessively grouchy, but definitely earlier than she'd like to have been up.

She drummed her hands on her belly, tapping out a passable impression of the bassline from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the water" as she washed the salty bathwater off her fresh—though annoyingly pale. She'd have to get some sunbathing in to get her tan back—skin.

Jersey was a solid quarter of the way towards falling asleep in the shower when her belly issued a thunderous rumble. A rumble that sounded… surprisingly like the furious tirades of her chief engineer all but ordering her to get some fucking fuel in her tanks.

The battleship knew better than to argue with her engineer. No one, up to and possibly including the Almighty Himself held power of the Sovereign Nation of Engineering. It didn't hurt that Jersey was in a breakfast mood anyway.

She hummed to herself as she towelled off. The process went surprisingly fast. By the time she'd wandered over to the lockers, her skin—and even her waist-length hair—was perfectly dry. She shrugged, it was too useful to question.

The locker on the very end, right next to the showers, had a piece of tape with her name on it. Jersey recognized Kongou's flowery handwriting in an instant, although the "Feel better! Love Kongou!" did aid her recognition skills. Jersey threw open the door, idly wondering what outfit Kongou'd picked out for her.

As soon as she saw it, the battleship froze. It was her outfit. Her "BB-62" baseball cap, her T-shirt with "NEW JERSEY" stencilled down the side in gold, her running shorts, her down vest, even her scarf. All her clothes were neatly folded, smelling like they'd come out of the dryer mere seconds ago. Jersey pressed her scarf to her face and smiled. The fabric felt like it was fresh out of the dryer too.

But more than that, it was hers. Jersey wasn't sure how, but she knew this was the same outfit she'd worn when she was first summoned. The same outfit she'd fought in. It was good to be back in her own clothes again!

Jersey hurriedly dressed, her smile growing wider every time she slid a new piece of dryer-warm clothing on. It wasn't quite as good as cuddling a pack of destroyers, but it was close. She didn't allow herself too much time though, her belly was still grumbling under its breath like a petty officer under an incompetent butter-bar. She didn't even bother to put her hair in its usual braid. If Admiral Goto let Nagato walk around in that, he wasn't going to mind a little windblown hair.

She bumped the locker closed with a swing of her hip, already planning the best possible route to the dining hall. With her impressive sensor suite, she could sense the presence of scrambled eggs… pancakes… bacon… her mouth was watering at the very sight. No, not sight, thought? Smell? Being a girl was hard.

The battleship bolted out the washroom door, her shoes biting into the concrete as she skidded around the corner-And very nearly plowed over Kongou.

"SHIT!" snapped Jersey, diving to the side at the last second and landing flat on her stomach in the neatly-trimmed grass. The battleship landed with a loud thud, and she carved a neat chunk out of the dirt as her fifty-eight-thousand ton body skidded to a stop. "Ow."

Kongou giggled, her hands on her hips as she smiled down at her fellow fast battleship. She almost looked like she was contemplating joining Jersey in the dirt.

"Uh… sorry," said Jersey, brushing a few loose scraps of dirt off her knees as she stood.

Kongou beamed, "No problem, Dess!" She licked her finger and leaned in to rub a errant smudge off Jersey's nose.

"Muurmf!" The American battleship tried to pull her head back, but her Japanese counterpart was to fast for her.

"There, all better!" smiled Kongou, literally bouncing on her heels with a smile that threatened to succeeder from her face at any second.

Jersey scowled as best she could while still smiling in spite of herself. "I'm gonna get some breakfast-" Her belly roared in agreement, "-you wanna come with?"

"Of course!" said Kongou, somehow making the simple two-word utterance in to a spectacle worthy of Broadway as she threw her fist into the air. "Follow me!" With a flurry of streaming brown hair and equally-streaming white fabric, the Japanese battleship wheeled around on her heel, bolting down the walkway with a sprinting skip. "He he, keep up if you can, Dess!"

Jersey rolled her eyes, breaking into a trot to keep up, "You know I'm six knots faster, right?"

Kongou just giggled in response as she… bounced along.

Jersey blinked. Nope, Kongou was definitely bouncing. Her arms were thrown back, her face smiling into the breeze as the one floppy tuft of hair on her head waved her forward with each rabbit-like bounce. It didn't help that whatever she wore under those robes clearly didn't offer enough support. Before Jersey could wrap her head around the concept of a fast battleship skipping along like a schoolgirl, the two arrived at the base mess hall.

Where Jersey was confronted by an even more perplexing sight. Food! And none of those silly moon-moon rice dishes. Real food! Huge tubs of scrambled eggs, mountains of pancakes, rows of sizzling bacon, pitchers of syrup, warm toast and sausage links! "W-wha…" Jersey felt her eyes start to water in joy.

"Traditional American Breakfast, dess!" Kongou smiled, helping herself to dozen poached eggs.

Jersey gawked as she mutely followed along. She didn't even fully process what she was putting on her plate. She just knew that every time her hand ventured into the mystical realm of the buffet line, it came back bearing some Mouthwatering New Thing.

"We wanted to make you feel at home," said Kongou, her little tuft saluting in response as she scooped sausage links onto her plate. "It won't last," she added, her giggling smile fading for just a moment, "So eat up, dess!"

Jersey didn't need to be asked twice. She was too hungry to get an accurate count, but she knew she'd eaten at least nine poached eggs by the time she and Kongou found a place to sit. "Oh, fuck me," said Jersey, drenching her pancakes in syrup, "Fuck ME this is good."

Kongou giggled, cutting a bite off of her sausage and sweetly popping it in her mouth.

Jersey took no such precautions. The fast battleship was wolfing down faster than an Air Force appropriations committee. her stacks of pancakes simply disappearing.

"Teitoku and Yankeetoku, want to see you when you're done," said Kongou. The Japanese girl actually let out a dreamy sigh on the first word, stringing out the syllables with gooey giggles until it sounded like "Tae-To-coooooouu."

"Shit," Jersey felt her heart skip a beat. Her Admiral was waiting on her! Shit shit shit! She wasn't a hopeless romantic like Kongou… but still… it was her Admiral! She couldn't make him wait for her! What if he found-

"Relax, Jersey!" Kongou giggled, "They're not expecting you until noon."

"Oh," Jersey slouched back in her chair reaching for- For a carafe of coffee. She must've grabbed it during the mad dash to fill up her plate. She shrugged, twisting the top off and gulping down a solid third of the delicious black fluid. She set the carafe down with a smile, her eyes closing in- wait. "Kongou?"

"Dess?"

"This is decaf, isn't it?"

"Dess!"

Jersey glared at the ceiling. There were no words that could properly express her disappointment.