A Certain Lady Part 18

Save the destroyers circling around the bunched formation like a school of sharks, not a soul paid any attention to Kaga's steady approach.

Shimakaze put on more speed to join the circle with her bloodied comrades. It was her duty with the rest of them to maintain a perimeter on the surface while Kaga maintained a constant air patrol with whet planes she had remaining. It required a constant vigilance than could only have come from due practice and experience. Still, she could not help herself from stealing more than a few glances towards the rest of the fleet. All huddled as tightly as possible around the hulk that had been their flagship.

"Yamashiro! Tighter!" Takao did not look up at the short haired Fusou-Class as they worked frantically to stop the hemorrhaging of Hiei's upper right extremities. The arm was a ruin, barely discernible as a limb, and it took the full strength Yamashiro could muster to apply a tourniquet strong enough to stop further loss of blood and oil.

Takao herself had tried, but having a broken arm herself had made it next to impossible. All she could do was tear up strips of cloth to use as makeshift bandages as the women and their damage control crews worked themselves to the bone.

"Any more and it'll tear. Just give me more!" demanded Yamashiro with a bloody hand after tying off the latest bandage. She wiped the sweat from her brow, leaving behind an oily crimson streak.

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

They had already prepared themselves to lose the limb. Stopping the loss of vital fluids through that wound became the more pressing concern.

Even if the detonation of Hiei's forward magazines had been prevented, the damage to everything fore of her conning tower would have killed some lesser ships two or even three time over. It was a miracle in and of itself that Hiei even had a pulse when they had reached her, laying face down and unmoving on the ocean's surface.

"I-" Jintsuu was cut off as Arizona thrust her neckerchief into her hands. The cruiser immediately set to using it in conjunction with all the other pieces of clothing she had been using to hold Hiei's head together.

The catastrophe against Hiei's bridge had inflicted a horrendous wound, one that would have killed an ordinary human. And while the loss of the bridge was hardly fatal to a warship, in the wrong circumstances it was pretty close. And no one had exactly been eager to find out exactly what the consequences were for a shipgirl.

Jintsuu drew up every fiber of control she had to keep herself composed even though she knew her expression was one of grief. A far cry from the visage of violence she had worn so very recently. But she needed to remain focused. She needed her wits about her if they were to have even a hope of bringing Hiei home. Each time her fingers felt like they were going start twitching, she crushed the instinct with a vicious haste.

She idly nodded her thanks as Takao handed her a new set of makeshift bandages. Perhaps if a life so dear to them was not in such peril, they might be joking about how Hiei was going to end up looking like a mummy.

They still might.

When the danger had passed or Hiei woke up that is.

...if she woke up.

Jintsuu shook her head sharply, banishing those dark thoughts from her mind. She had a job to do.

Much like her fellow cruiser, Tatsuta was hard at work. Her focus however was the myriad chunks of ravaged steel and the twisted masses of metal that had become Hiei's midsection. She remained deathly silent however. Speaking only when she required Arizona's brute strength or more materials in her work. Like an old hand, she worked deftly and with unerringly precise movements.

In fact the only time she had really said anything outside of a request for aid had been a razor sharp rebuke towards the sole American present.

Tatsuta was well aware of Arizona's desire to help. She was neither blind nor stupid. But letting American damage control crews run rampant on a Japanese ship would have been the equivalent of giving someone a transfusion with the wrong blood type. At least while those crews were not yet intimately familiar with their systems. Thankfully there had been no questioning of her command. Perhaps she ought to use that tone of voice more often.

No matter. Thoughts for later.

She carefully used the blade of her broken spear to cut away a razor sharp wedge of metal that was pressing dangerously against one of Hiei's boilers. Her halo spun in tune with her calculated incisions. Never too fast and never too slow.

"Arizona, pull that shrapnel out. The piece next to my right hand. Only that one." There was a second piece present, but removing it might do more harm than good at the moment.

"This one?" Arizona queried as she carefully reached into Hiei's abdomen. There was a snow nod and she extracted the malevolent shard of metal with the same caution she had used to find it.

The redhead swore she saw a twitch run down what remained of Hiei's mostly intact left arm when the metal was pulled free. But it could have been a trick of the light. Or a hallucination of a desperate woman.

She did not gaze at the Abyssal metal, not like she had the first shard. It was no different from the countless others she had helped Tatsuta pull free during the agonizingly slow process of meatball surgery. And like the rest, she dropped it into the drink. Only a few shards had been saved and they rested in her breast pocket, still warm with Hiei's blood.

There was a small part of her that was genuinely amazed at how well she was handling the situation.

Her damage control crews had been told to stay put and focus on her own repairs, such as they were. She had taken a hit to the bridge in much the same way Hiei had, but she hadn't suffered nearly the same degree of damage. The large chunk of flesh that had been shot away to give her a rather horrific appearance was already on the mend.

Granted, the large section of her belt that had been savaged was and would take a long time to repair. And the large amounts of damage to her superstructure hurt like blazes. But she had come out of the battle rather well off all things considering.

All the while her allies and her friends had suffered.

Suffered considerable wounds and damages the likes of which would put them out of action for days and even weeks depending.

Her guns had drawn blood. Her guns had slain the enemy. Her desire to fight and finally do her duty as a battleship had been fulfilled at long last. It was not the pathetic showing that had required Albacore's intervention to stave off death. It had been her moment to charge into battle and be what she had always meant to be!

But her guns had not been powerful enough. Her speed left her trailing behind every other combatant. Only the armor she girded herself with had been remotely worth anything. She hadn't been able to stop Tosa. Not from striking down Hiei. Not from inflicting grievous wounds or swatting planes from the skies. And certainly not from abandoning the field. Tosa had left because she wanted to. Not from the threat she or anyone else had presented.

They may have killed the escorts, but Arizona knew that Battleship Princess had left on her own terms.

Arizona's moment of glory. To draw fire and be the unstoppable bulwark for her allies.

And Tosa had laughed in her face...

It was galling. Infuriating. Humiliating. She wanted nothing more than to tear the Abyssal warship asunder with her bare hands and make her suffer as she did so. Every pain. Every agony inflicted by Tosa would be repaid a thousand fold. Against her and against anyone else.

And here she was, calm and detached as could be.

"-zona. Arizona!"

Yamashiro's voice cut into her darkening thoughts and snapped her gaze towards their fleet's current flagship.

"I- I'm sorry. I was..." What was she doing? Helping Tatsuta, right?

A bloodstained hand fell upon her shoulder gently and she looked upwards at the owner, unknowing of the fading golden light from her eyes.

"We've done all we can. You can stop now." Jintsuu's now exhausted tone would have shaken Arizona to the core had it not been for the faint hint of relief upon her face. "She's... She'll be stable enough for the trip home."

Arizona snapped her attention back to the brutalized form of her... her friend, and perhaps even rival. While still looking no better than a slab of meat having gone through the grinder, there was a now a slow and steady rise and fall of the second Kongou's chest. Despite the beating inflicted upon her, Hiei drew breath.

Battleship Hiei yet lived.

"Th-Thank g-goodness..." Perhaps she had simply been on autopilot the entire time? Arizona was fairly certain Tatsuta would have said or done something if she began to slip in any way. But still, it was highly disconcerting...

"Hey! We're not out of the woods yet!" shouted Kawakaze from the circling patrol, breaking the moment of relief.

"She's right." Takao pointed at the American redhead before continuing. "We're going to need your coat for a cot. There's no way we can tow her safely in anyone's condition and it was reported that New Jersey was able to carry one of her own wounded. So we'll do the same for Hiei. Also, you and Yamashiro will carry her."

"I'll follow your lead, Arizona." Yamashiro grasped the tail of the large greatcoat and worked to bring it up underneath Hiei's floating form. They might not have the most shaft power, but there was little denying that they held the strongest human forms of all present.

It took a few tries, but finally the two battleships were able to lift the unconscious Hiei from the water. There was plenty of jostling. However they held fast and did everything they could to keep her as stable as possible. All the while, Takao barked orders to the remainder of the fleet.

"Hiei... I- I don't know if you can hear me, but..." Arizona began with a whisper, not even trying to turn towards her carried charge. "We'll get you home. Safe and sound."

As the fleet formed up and began putting on steam towards home, Battleship Arizona's eyes narrowed.

"That is one duty I will not fail."