Nagato coughed up blood as she lay on the water's surface and looked ahead of her, their fleet's opponent walking slowly but surely toward her with obvious intent. The operation had seemed simple when it had been explained to them. Her fleet was to search for the newest Hime that had been found just a day before by the fourth battleship fleet, engage it in combat to ascertain its strengths and weaknesses, then return to the base with the information.
It had seemed like a simple mission with a simple objective. It wasn't. Now the last of her fleet not sunk, Nagato could only lay on the water's surface glaring at the new Hime that had been designated Blade Reef Hime and watch as it began to close the distance between them.
Blade Reef Hime had been called such because of how it had engaged the fourth battleship fleet, entirely with swords and with a few depth charges. She seemed to have neither cannons nor any AA, but was insanely strong, like a hard unnoticed reef that could tear into a ship's hull.
When they engaged her, they found out something worse than her blades, her armour. Unlike any other Hime this one had no canons, but her armour seemed so thick that even Nagato's own shells merely exploded on her armour harmlessly. Torpedoes did nothing. Dive bombers did nothing. Even fighters and depth charges did nothing to her; it was if this Hime was indestructible. Worse even, while she moved slowly initially, as soon as she got within a certain distance of a target she would lunge at them with both blades, focusing entirely on that single ship girl until she was killed. Nagato had watched her fleet's Inazuma, Fubuki, Yamato, Atago and even her sister Mutsu cut into pieces before her eyes. None of them stood a chance against Blade Reef Hime, and now she was a dozen meters away from Nagato, and she couldn't move.
"Na, . . . Nagato!"
Nagato's heart nearly broke out of her chest as she heard the voice of her Admiral over her radio. Her Admiral, her boss, her husband. Despite being his secretary and wife she couldn't stand to see the other girls risk their lives while she staying at the base, so she would volunteer to lead missions on a semi regular basis. "A-Admiral," Nagato wheezed, her entire body in pain from the rain of depth charges that Blade Reef Hime had thrown at her previously during the battle.
"Nagato! Thank the gods! I lost the radio signal so I was worried. What the situation? Are you all on the way back?"
Tears welled up in Nagato's eyes as she saw Blade Reef Hime swing her blades in anticipation from six meters away. "I- I'm sorry. We- we've failed. I've failed you. The new Hime is . . . Blade Reef Hime is too strong." Nagato cried, her words choking through her sadness.
"What? No! Nagato, you have to retreat! You are not allowed to stay there! Return to base now! Return to the base!" Nagato's admiral yelled over the radio, his voice filled with dread and fear.
Nagato looked up at Blade Reef Hime, now standing over her, both swords raised in the air. "I'm sorry, I can't . . . . . . . all the fleets will have to work together. This Hime is just too strong for one fleet. I'm sorry, I love you!"
" Nagato? . . . Nagato? . . . . NAGATO!"
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Ryu Kurokami, the head of the Naval Admiralty board, highest ranking Naval officer in the entire Japanese navy, placed his desk phone back onto its receiver and looked to where his secretary stood. "Kirishima, I'd like you to prepare our forces. We will need to go and join the fray soon.
Kirishima nodded, "The new Hime?"
Ryu nodded as he picked up the second phone on his desk, a large red phone that, even if an admiral did not pick up, it would leave a message of everything he said. Normally he would press one of the dozens of buttons that would connect him to any of the naval bases, but instead he did not, meaning that his message would be sent to every naval base simultaneously. "This is Admiralty Board Head, Ryu Kurokami. A new Hime has appeared in the last two days in Sector Twelve, Zone Seven – three. It is so powerful that it completely routed a fleet of the Fourth Battleship Fleet, and has completely sunk the primary unit of the First Assault Fleet. Due to this, I am ordering a complete combined fleet march upon the Sector Twelve, Zone Seven. Admirals are to mobilize all of their fleets and ships. All fleets will meet outside this zone, shall join together, and destroy this new Hime, permanently." He placed the phone back onto the receiver and opened his computer.
Kirishima looked at Ryu as he began to type things out. "May i ask what you are doing, sir?"
Ryu smiled but did not look to Kirishima as he spoke. "I have a feeling in my gut that this new Hime was first a Ship girl, and I believe I know from which fleet."
"The assistance fleet on Kala Island?" Kirishima asked, receiving a nod from Ryu.
"Yes, but I cannot move as I wish at the moment without the rest of the admiralty board noticing. So I'm going to send this to another admiral and hope that their friendship is still strong, that they may help each other, and everyone else in turn."
Kirishima nodded and walked to the door. "Then I shall hope your judgment does not fail us sir. I shall go rouse all of our girls."
Ryu nodded as Kirishima left, leaving him alone in his office with his thoughts.
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Yin looked at the horizon, seeing his fleet on it, and slowly coming back from their expedition with their newest member. Normally he would be happy to see them coming back, but because of a message sent to all admirals, including him, he wasn't feeling so lucky.
Ring! Ring!
Yin grabbed his phone from his pocket and flipped it open, "Yin Akimoto, Admiral of the Kala Island Assistance base here."
"Oh, thank god you picked up, Yin. Are you still at your base? You haven't sent your fleets out to join with the rest yet, right?"
"Kyousuke? No, they're returning from an expedition then we'll leave right away. Why do you sound like you ran a marathon?"
"Oh good. You need to go with your fleet and come to my naval base, before going to Sector Twelve!"
"What? Why? That'll piss of the admiralty board and-,"
"I just found out that that new Hime could be your Fleet's sunk Tenryuu!"
Yin was silent as Kyousuke's words echoed in his head. Only when his ship girls stopped in front of him in the water was he able to speak. "How did you-?"
"I'll tell you when you get here, okay?"
"Alright, we'll be there by sundown." Yin said as he closed his phone and stared out at the late afternoon sun. "Are you all unhurt?"
"But of course!" Musashi answered as she patted Ru on the back, "Ru did an excellent job as well!'
"Err, I didn't do that well. I just wanted to keep up. " Ru said, her cheeks turning a bit red.
"Good. Then we're heading out again, together." Yin said as he jumped down into his speedboat beside the girls.
All of the ship girls looked at each other before Wo spoke up. "Why? We just got back."
Yin turned and looked at Wo, his eyes full of steel. "A new Hime has been discovered so all fleets are gathering to team up on it but. . . . . It might be Tenryuu. It might be our Tenryuu!"