Admiral Yin smiled as he brought over a large tray of food and placed it on the table before Shimakaze and Musashi, sitting down at the end of the table as he did. Since their first real sortie two days before every mission the ship girls had been on had been a rousing success with minimal to no injuries incurred and decent amounts of resources gained. As Yin took his plate of food off the tray he looked around and could not help but wonder aloud. "Is Tenryuu still asleep?"
Shimakaze merely shrugged as she continued to throw food down her throat at what for anyone else would be an alarming rate as Musashi placed down her chopsticks. "This Musashi believes so."
"I see. She seems to be up about the same time as you Musashi, I wonder what's keeping her."
"Is Wo here?" Tenryuu screamed as she crashed through the double doors of the cafeteria, heavy exaggerated breaths leaving her mouth as she breathe deeply at the room's entrance.
Neither Yin, Musashi, or Shimakaze spoke for a good minute as Tenryuu stood in the doorway panting; only when Yin stood up from his chair did Tenryuu step forward. "What do you mean, Tenryuu?"
Tenryuu shook her head and walked over to the table, leaning against it as she spoke. "Since our first sortie two days ago Wo has been acting odd. And when I woke up this morning she was gone."
"She wasn't in your room?"
"No." Tenryuu admitted as she avoided Yin's gaze. "And her side of the futon was cold."
"I knew she couldn't be trusted!" Shimakaze suddenly yelled out loud as Yin took out his tablet and began swiping on its screen.
"You have looked around your room to be sure?" Musashi asked calmly as she finished her food and placed her dishes back on the tray.
"Yes, I turned my entire room upside down three times over." Tenryuu said worryingly.
"She's still in the base." Yin said as he placed the tablet back in its case on his belt.
"How do you know, Admiral?" Shimakaze asked as her gaze kept darting to the door, evidently eager to hunt for Wo, though for different reasons that Tenryuu.
"The base tablet says so; it tells me when anyone is on or off the base. Shimakaze, you go with Musashi to look around the dock area, me and Tenryuu will go look around the firing range."
Both Musashi and Shimakaze nodded before turning and leaving the room to search. Yin turned back to Tenryuu and smiled, prompting Tenryuu to finally speak up. "We-, we are going to find her right?"
Yin nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
Yin and Tenryuu got into the firing range and began looking. Yin stopped near the far end and waved Tenryuu over. "What is it, Admiral?"
Yin pointed beside him. "None of you have used the firing range in the last few days, right?"
"No, why?"
"Look at the targets, they're all broken."
Tenryuu turned to the targets and looked over their remains, pieces of wood splinters all over the ground under them. "It looks like they were hit by small cannon fire. Like my own or something similar."
"Could Wo have done it?"
"I didn't think the cannons on her headgear worked, but if they do its possible, I guess. But if so, why?"
"That's what we need to find out. Let's check the factory, it's the second biggest building and could be easily hidden in." Yin suggested.
Tenryuu nodded as they left the firing range and went toward the factory. Inside the factory it was as it should be, nothing seemed out of place. As they went into the far back room where Musashi and any more ships would be built, Yin and Tenryuu looked ahead to see Musashi and Shimakaze slowly opening the steel doors to a supply room.
"This is the last place to check!" Shimakaze explained as she noticed Yin and Tenryuu behind them. "We've checked everywhere else in the main building and the dock.
Yin nodded. "Open it up then back away, just in case something strange happens.
"What do you mean Wo wouldn't attack us!" Tenryuu suddenly said.
"I know she wouldn't, but I'm thinking it's possible something else would."
"You mean . . . . . . . "
"Open it up."
Doing as ordered, Musashi and Shimakaze pulled one last time on the door and it slid fully open, showing its deep dark interior.
Yin stepped forward and placed a hand on his sword, just in case he needed to use it, as he spoke. "Wo, if you're in there come out. If someone is in there with Wo, then come out as well. We will not harm you if you do not mean to harm us or Wo.
". . . . . . . . . . . . um . . . . . I'm coming out. . . . . . Please don't be shocked , Admiral. "came a soft and shy female voice from the depths of the dark room.
Yin raised a brow as his grip on his blade tightened slightly, but the tenseness in his arm slackened. "I don't know who you are or how you know who I am, so come out slowly, alright?"
" . . . . Well, um . . . . . . You do know me . . . . But I guess you don't . . . . . . . I'm coming out."
As the unknown girl's voice ended she stepped from the room and into the light of the factory, shocking everyone as she did. She was slightly shorter than Tenryuu with slightly pale skin. Over her legs she wore thigh high white boots that had small rotor'd spikes on the heels like most ship girls would. She wore a deep white leotard over her entire body and wore a red skirt, similar to a Miko's on her waist. On her neck was the horridly obvious black and tooth covered color bone covering collar of an abyssal ship, though the teeth on it were small, rounded and smooth instead of jagged. In the girl's hands she held a long silver staff with a glowing blue ball at the end. And to top it all off on her head of long smooth silver hair she wore the headgear of a Wo-class aircraft carrier; though instead of being viscous and black her head gear was instead dark grey and smooth on all its points and its tentacles had red stripes down their lengths, even its cannons and glowing blue eyes looked soft and less dangerous that a Wo-class normally would. The strange looking Wo class stood before them and then raised her head to them, showing them her beautiful bright blue eyes and a big bright smile as she spoke.
"Wo has, um. . . I mean, I levelled up, Admiral!"