In the medical building.
Akagi slowly opened her eyes, she slowly looked around and realised she was in a hospital bed, her tails splayed out across it. She felt something brush her arm and saw an IV drip sticking out of it, leading up to a bag of blood. She then saw Kaga fast asleep in the bed next to her, she weakly smiled seeing her sister, she seemed even cuter asleep like that. She attempted to sit up but groaned in pain, feeling a bandage wrapped around her midsection, a dull ache permeated her body from her belly and back as she moved, she then gave up and sighed in defeat, regretting the attempt to sit up as the pain persisted.
She heard footsteps approaching and looked towards the door, in then walked Vestal holding a tray of medical supplies. She saw Akagi awake and smiled as she put the tray down.
"You gave us quite a scare for a while Akagi, its good you're awake." She stated in a polite tone. Akagi struggled to speak, just the movement of her chest was enough to disturb whatever wounds were still behind the bandage.
"W-Wales...where...i-is she?" She strained to ask, holding her belly after speaking. Vestal came up to her with a warm smile and put a hand on the fox woman's shoulder.
"Its OK, Wales can't hurt you any more." She told her comfortingly, she then saw Akagi's eyes widen in worry and to soothe her she added: "No she isn't dead, although the queen isn't happy with her, she IS still getting treatment back at the Royal navy's HQ."
Akagi sighed weakly in relief and looked over at Kaga's sleeping form. "What...happened?" She asked, as she explained, Vestal checked the IV drip before pulling it out and bandaging the wound.
"You passed out a few minutes after Wales was taken away, you lost a lot of blood." She then looked at Kaga as well and pointed out a small scab on her arm. "Your sister insisted on donating her own blood for a transfusion, after a while she got woozy and passed out too, so I bagged some more of her blood to give you this way."
Vestal nodded her head towards the IV stand where the blood bag hung. She then giggled a little before stating proudly: "You've certainly got a fanbase now Akagi, everybody is so proud of you for standing up to Wales like that." Akagi smiled up at her, but then she whimpered and a tear leaked out her eye.
"I...I wanted...to stop hurting others...I promised him I'd stop...but..." Akagi couldn't finish before choking up and rolling her head to the side sobbing. Vestal gently brushed her hair away from her face as she cried.
"The Commander will understand...he knows you were forced into this, and that you were trying to protect someone." Vestal soothed her kindly. "Unicorn kept coming to see you whenever she could and Kaga hasn't left your side since she and the Commander carried you here."
Vestal then gasped and remembered something. "The Commander! He just left a moment ago!" She then rushed out the room to chase him back down, she then popped her head back in and called out: "Be right back!" before disappearing again.
Akagi looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the duel over and over again. She still didn't know what happened to trigger that...power she displayed. How she went from 'literally dying' to 'deflecting cannon fire with her bare tails' was a complete mystery, she barely remembered anything between Wales stabbing her and seeing Wales begging her life on the beach. But what little Kaga had managed to tell her before she passed out terrified her.
She heard a yawn next to her and looked over to see Kaga rolling over. The white fox woman opened her eyes, upon seeing her sister awake, she shot out of the bed, fully energised.
"Sister!" Kaga then glomped her firmly and closely, forcing the red kitsune's head between her breasts and making her groan. "You're awake! I feared you'd fallen into a coma!" Kaga told her, uncharacteristically affectionate for the normally stoic white fox.
"Ka...Kaga...can't...breathe." Akagi's muffled voice came from under Kaga's chest. The blue eyed kitsune gasped and blushed deeply seeing what she was doing and released Akagi. Who grunted a little from the pain in her belly.
"M-my apologies sister! I...I'm just happy you're OK." Kaga admitted, looking away blushing with embarrassment at how she was acting. Akagi, weakly lifted her arm to Kaga's face with a small smile, Kaga glanced back at her with a smile and held the hand there so Akagi could relax it.
"You're... so adorable...when you dote over me... Kaga." Akagi cooed softly, her normal, playful tone slowly returning. Kaga smiled wider at her, for a while the two fox sisters shared an intimate look, just staring into the other's eyes. Eventually Kaga gently placed Akagi's arm back on the bed.
"Please save your strength sister; you still need to heal." Kaga told her. She then seemed to remember something and reached under Akagi's bed, confusing her sister for a moment. "The little one with Illustrious wanted to give you this, she still fears me, so she just asked Vestal to place it under here for you."
She then pulled out a small bag, Akagi recognised it as one of the sweet bags she gave Unicorn at the cafe, she also saw a small note tied to it. She opened it and it read, in a child's handwriting:
"Akagi, thank you for protecting me! These sweets are for you when you wake up, I showed Akashi the bag you gave me and she gave me more. Everybody wants you to get better, even big sis! Please get better Akagi! I miss you!"
"Unicorn"
As Akagi read the little note, she smiled a little and shed a tear of joy. She looked up at Kaga who was smiling back at her. She opened the bag of sweets and took one, she offered the bag to Kaga but she held up her hand and shook her head.
"Doesn't feel right taking a gift meant for someone else." She stated and sat back on her own bed. Akagi shrugged and ate another one.
As she ate the sweets Vestal and the Commander both walked in. The young man smiled brightly seeing Akagi awake, the two of them shared a hug with Vestal and Kaga looking on with a smile each. As he pulled back the Commander spoke.
"Its so good to see you on the mend Akagi, thank god." He breathed out, wiping a small tear away. He then cleared his throat and added: "Queen Elizabeth extends a heartfelt apology over Prince of Wales's actions today, and she thanks you for sparing her."
"I never had...any intention to kill her..." Akagi replied quietly, she looked back down at her sweet bag and took another one absent-mindedly. Vestal and Kaga both shared a glance and nodded at each other. The white kitsune then stood up.
"I'll take my leave, i'll see you at the next meeting Commander." She told the officer. The Commander nodded and the two of them bowed at each other before Kaga left the room. Vestal also bowed before saying: "I'll let you two speak alone." With that she also left the room.
The Commander then sat on the bed Kaga originally used and folded his arms, frowning at her. While he was happy to see Akagi awake, the events leading up to her being in that bed were something he felt needed to be discussed.
"OK, Wales told me her side of things, now lets hear yours; what happened at that cafe?" He asked firmly. Akagi sighed and placed the bag on a side table before replying.
"I was with Unicorn and two of her friends, Wales came up to me and yanked me away from her, telling me to leave. She then tried to grab Unicorn, I told her to stop, she ignored me and roughly grabbed Unicorn's arm, she was screaming for Wales to let go and clearly didn't want to leave." Akagi explained.
"And thats when you attacked Wales?"
"Yes."
"So she grabs Unicorn, you hurt Wales's arm to force her to release Unicorn and that's when she throws the glove at you?" The Commander correlated out loud. "That corroborates what Javelin, Laffey and Unicorn have also told me." He then laced his fingers together while pointing the index fingers up to the ceiling in thought.
"Lets fast forward to the duel, you want to tell me why you were half-arsing it at first?" He bluntly asked. Akagi looked up at the ceiling, a sad look on her face.
"I didn't want to undo my hard work, I didn't want anyone to fear me again." The fox woman admitted, she then turned to face him, her voice breaking as she kept speaking. "E-Even if...it meant my life...I didn't...want to break my promise to you...i'm so sorry!" She started to sob again, trying to hold in her tears, but they kept forming rivulets down her cheeks.
The Commander sighed and his frown softened into a look of sympathy. He brushed her hair away from her face as she kept choking up.
"I don't know if you saw, but when you got stabbed, it went crazy on the beach; The older girls had their hands full trying to stop the younger ones from rushing to help you." He told her with a chuckle. Akagi looked up at him, her puffy eyes wide in awe of that statement.
"Akagi...you kept your promise, you don't need to risk your life to prove you can and please don't do it again." The Commander told her kindly but firmly. His gaze then narrowed slightly as he then remembered what happened next. "Now...since when could you 'hulk out' like that?" he asked semi-jokingly. Akagi tried to remember what happened, but it was just a blur in her mind.
"I...I really don't remember." She honestly told him.
"You don't remember crushing Wales's rigging with your tails and whacking her across the bay with her own turret?" The Commander asked, on the verge of chuckling from the absurdity of it. He then calmed down and added: "Don't worry about it, we can figure it out another time; you just focus on getting better."
He then gently held her face and kissed her on the lips. Like in the office Akagi's heart pounded much harder and her tails stiffened up considerably against her will. She then moaned a little and kissed him back as much she could from the bed.
After far too short a time for the two of them, the Commander broke the kiss, leaving a very giddy Akagi on the bed. "You'll get a short vacation from duty once you're healed too, Kaga will fill in for you on Task Force Alpha until then, good bye." The Commander then saluted before leaving, leaving Akagi to sigh dreamily as she thought about him.
Many miles away, out at sea.
A large fleet of Japanese warships cut across the crystal waters of the sea, right at the front of the formation was a Nagato class battleship with Nagato herself standing on the ship's bow, with no rigging on.
It was a rare sight to see her without her rigging, she was feeling a little strange and uncomfortable, but with everything she knew Akagi was trying, she was inspired to make a similar change to herself, first by removing her rigging to help those around her feel more at ease in her presence. However she was struggling to keep her composure and her usual stoic look had a small blush colouring her face.
Another young girl walked up behind her, nearly identical to Nagato in overall appearance, except she had shorter hair and while Nagato wore a more regal dress, she wore a more traditional miko sleeveless shirt and black socks to Nagato's white ones. She was smiling seeing Nagato without her rigging.
"I'm so proud of you sis!" She suddenly shouted. Nagato yelped and wheeled around in surprise, she landed in a fighting stance and frowned at the intruder, who just giggled at her jumpiness.
"Mutsu! Don't do that! You know I'm not used to no rigging!" Nagato scolded, the normally unflappable Sakura leader uncharacteristically flustered by the newcomer's actions. Mutsu giggled again and winked at her sister.
"I'm sorry, its just so good to see you getting so confident doing without it!" Mutsu chimed in a bubbly tone. Her older sister sighed in embarrassment, Mutsu was one of the few people in her life who could get an emotional outburst from Nagato, it annoyed her so much when she did this.
"Sister please...i'm trying to watch the hori-" Nagato cut herself off when she saw something on the water, she narrowed her eyes for a moment to better focus.
What she saw was a modern day ship; instantly giving away it wasn't part of Azur lane, it was an Arleigh Burke destroyer, however Nagato realised something was strange about it: it was listing to its starboard side and wasn't moving. Using her innate kansen senses, she could detect that the destroyer had hit a reef and its keel was wedged in between two large rocks.
"Mutsu, update the Commander on what we've found, i'm going for a closer look." Nagato ordered, her hull changed course slightly in order to intercept the stricken ship.
"Uh, yes sister! What are you going do?" Mutsu asked, concerned about Nagato's intentions. Her sister looked back with her usual neutral expression.
"Do something I haven't done in a while: make new friends." Nagato announced.
After roughly half an hour, Nagato carefully pulled along side the trapped destroyer, being mindful of the reef that she could sense under the water's surface. She looked down onto the smaller ship's deck from her hull, it looked deserted, no one outside it seemed. The ship itself seemed perfectly fine apart from being trapped, though Nagato knew that if any damage was sustained, it would most likely be beneath the waterline out of her view.
"Watch my hull Mutsu." Nagato told her, before leaping off her ship and onto the destroyer's bow. "I know you're brave, but please be careful sister!" Mutsu called after her as Nagato stood up. Nagato then saw the ship's turret depress and slowly rotate towards her, it seemed she was not welcome despite the ship being stranded. She gave a quiet huff and put her hands on her hips indignantly.
"You had better be VERY sure about this whoever is manning that gun." She called out in irritation. "It'll be very embarrassing if you not only shoot a little girl, but fail to kill her." She then taunted. Mutsu was shaking and whimpering from the tense stand off, she knew Nagato could easily tank even a point blank shot from a gun this size, but she still naturally worried about her getting hurt.
After a few tense seconds of Nagato poker facing, the turret returned to its original position, without breaking her stride Nagato gave Mutsu a thumbs up before walking into the ship, leaving Mutsu to catch her breath.
It was dark inside the destroyer, the ship's electrics seem to fritz and spark every few seconds, briefly illuminating the almost pitch black corridor Nagato found herself in. The only other light source was her point of entry, which was of little help as she rounded the first corner. Fortunately her kansen senses helped her again, her exceptional night vision kept her from tripping over random debris.
Nagato's fox ears twitched slightly as she heard someone breathing. She surmised they were round the corner at the end of the corridor, she then heard the sound of an assault rifle cocking, then a hushed argument between two people, even her senses couldn't make out everything they were saying but she definitely heard "Don't!" and "Just a girl!" as part of someone's pleading with another person.
The owner of the rifle then peaked round the corner, Nagato wasn't sure if they could see her in the dark, but she kept walking towards them confidently. Holding her hands up as a sign of truce.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to assist you." Nagato called out, trying to sound reassuring. She then heard a curse word before someone shouted "No wait!" from around the corner.
The stranger with the rifle suddenly bolted around the corner and unloaded the rifle right into Nagato's chest. The bullets bounced and ricocheted off her body like it was metal, the muzzle flash of the gun briefly revealed it was a man in his mid-thirties shooting her, scarred over his cheek and a mean look in his eyes as he fired. However upon seeing how ineffective his gun was, his look changed to one of fear and he staggered back. Nagato hadn't reacted the whole time the man shot her, her usual neutral expression on her face. After he stopped she just frowned and folded her arms.
"Well, that was rude." She stated in her usual stoic tone, brushing her dress with one hand before returning it to its folded position.
"Are you out of your mind sailor!? You trying to get us killed?" A voice yelled from round the corner. The first man looked back as another man came from the other corridor, clearly more decorated than the first man. He looked at Nagato in mild shock before snatching the rifle from his subordinate.
"You see how useless that was?! Why do you think I called off the cannon shot? Get out of here!" The first man saluted and ran back down the second corridor. He dropped the assault rifle down and extended a hand with a nervous smile.
"Sorry about that young lady; your uh...abilities spook my men. Captain Varennes of the U.S.S. Lennon." He greeted kindly. Nagato, without changing her expression took his hand and shook it.
"Nagato, flagship of the Sakura Empire, please allow me and my people to assist you Captain."