Time: 11:00

Date 24th August

Location: Battleship dorm

Man I never would have thought how good it would be to have an ice cold Ramune, courtesy of my sister, after a full morning full of hard work, you see I've moved into my new room from the temporary one in fleet HQ.

Don't get me wrong I like my new room but setting everything up the way I wanted it to be took me nearly 3 days worth of work due to the massive amount of pieces that had to be put together from the flatpack furniture I had ordered, I've had splinters before but not as bad as having to remove a few every couple of minutes. Once that was done I got my sisters to help me when they had the chance to for the aesthetic part of my room.

That was yesterday and now after a few hours of moving stuff between rooms I was finally done and decided to kick back for awhile before I headed off to lunch and when lunch finally came around I just wanted to stuff myself with the sweet stuff, so off to Mamiya's I went and pretty much stuffed my face without realising that I had set a record once again this time for the most amount of desert eating within a set time.

It wasn't long after that I finished my giant parfait that Ryuujou had come into the shop and walked over to me, which got me confused at what she wanted me for.

"Izumi-san, please report to the office immediately the Admiral wishes to speak to you on an important matter" She said in a serious tone

"Lead on then" I said getting up out of my seat, handing the bowl to Mamiya-san on the way out.

It didn't take long for the two of us to be present in the admiral's office with Ryuujou sitting at the desk and me standing in front of the admiral's desk.

"On time as always Izumi" I spoke

"I hate being late" she replied getting a giggle out of me

"Okay it's time to get down to business, do you know why I called you here?" I asked, she shook her head showing that she had no idea

"It has been nearly two weeks since you have arrived here at the base and it's about time that we send you out on your first sortie" I said causing her to squeal in excitement.

"Now, now don't think this will be all fun and games because it's not, you see my dear we have a tradition here on base for new ships and that is they must perform their first sortie all on their own" she gulped hearing this and had started to shake and sweat.

"Don't worry Izumi it's nothing too hard, just a lap around the Island making sure that you activate the checkpoints along the way and then you come back to base. It's basically a trial sortie so that we can gather data that will help us decide which sorties we can send you out on in the future" I finished saying causing her to sigh in relief and relax.

"Okay now that we have the specifics out of the way. Battleship Izumi you are too report to the launch ramp at 15:00, do not be late, do I make myself clear" I said

"Yes ma'am!" she saluted in response.

With the briefing now over I was given permission to leave and start preparations for the mission and that is exactly what I did. The first place that I went to was the library and from there I planned the most efficient route both ways around the island because I wasn't told which way I was going yet, also I plotted the areas of reconnaissance that I was going to perform since I had the planes to do so.

After I had jotted down the route the next place I went was the bathhouse and had a nice long relaxing bath before getting out and heading back to my room. Where my sisters were waiting to give me pointers to which I hugged them all in happiness thankful for their help. The time for the sortie was then upon me.

I went to the launch ramp, summoning my outfit and checked that everything was topped off one last time, where my Auntie, Ryuujou and my sisters were waiting.

"Okay this is your first sortie Izumi, be careful and stay safe" Auntie said as I positioned myself on the launcher

"I will, now it's time to go"

"Good luck!" everyone present said as I hit the water and sped off to start my route which was to be made in a clockwise direction.

"Well there she goes" Aria said

"Think she'll be okay?" Shinano asked

"We'll find out in a few hours" Auntie replied before turning around and walking away leaving the others at the dockside.

I had just started my journey and was on my way to the first recon point, in order to alleviate the eventual boredom that I would suffer I had brought along my ipod full of my favourite songs to help pass the time. Also I had brought some food along with me when I get to the halfway point of the journey.

As I had planned I reached the first recon point and launched the first plane, I had told each of the fairies that when they had launched individually, to go in an arc at the max of their operational range before returning. I had to wait roughly 30mins before the fairy returned and gave the all clear for this zone. I thanked her as I put the plane away and headed over to the checkpoint which was simply a button and a light on a stand. So I pressed it, waited for the light and then headed on my way.

The second zone was the exact same as the first, getting an all clear from the from the recon plane. So I went to and used the checkpoint and then headed on my way to the halfway point to take a break seeing as it had been two hours since I set sail and I badly needed to rest.

The rest area was nothing more than a table and chairs carved out of a giant boulder but I really didn't mind seeing as it was the simplicity of the place that I really liked. 15mins later I had finished my snack and made sure the place was clean before I set sail into the third zone.

This time however I didn't need to launch my plane due to the fact that the ungodly sounds that I could hear, gave me all the information and warnings that I needed to take heed of in order to know that the Abyssals were close.

"How did they get this far?" I said to myself looking around trying to spot them and when they came into view I went wide-eyed in shock but I quickly got over it seeing as there was only 8 targets to take care of. The mini fleet consisted of two wo class, four ro class destroyers and lastly two he class light cruisers.

I got into a suitable firing position just as the fleet came into firing range and immediately the destroyers and light cruisers started firing, not really landing their shots near me, but they were not my immediate concern. I had to take out the wo's quickly so that I could minimize the damage from their planes and thankfully so far they had only launched a few each.

I took aim with all my barrels pointing directly at the wo's and as soon as the rounds were loaded I fired the shots heading straight to their targets causing a massive explosion far bigger than I thought and as the smoke dissipated I found out why.

Whilst taking out the wo's as I had initially planned it seems that one of the rounds went passed the wo on the right and hit one of the he class that was behind it.

I was surprised that I managed to take 3 ships out at once, I chalked it up to luck, but I was snapped back to reality as the planes had started to fire causing some of my clothes to get ripped and this pissed me off so I loaded type-3 rounds into the top right turret whilst the rest I aimed towards the remaining fleet.

I fired the remaining three turrets and managed to sink two ro class leaving three ships left, whilst the turrets reloaded my chance to take down the planes had came as they had grouped together and had started to head my way so I took the shot and took them all down luckily.

As that turret started to reload I looked towards the remaining ships and against what I had initially thought, instead of running away they had grouped together and started charging toward my position. I took aim and as soon as the last turret reloaded I fired staggering my shots and each of them hit their targets resulting in a massive fireball.

I checked my radar and sensed no more ships in the area so I breathed a sigh of relief and set off the third plane for recon to make doubly sure that there was no more ships in the area as I headed over to the checkpoint to activate it as well as to take a breather.

When the fairy returned I was glad there was an all clear signal, but the fairy surprised me by mentioning that where the mini fleet had been there were a couple of blue lights that had been spotted so I headed over there and to my surprise I had found 5 cores just floating there, I immediately picked them up and put them in my snack bag causing it to bulge slightly.

After that I headed over to the last zone and performed the same routine, getting the same results thankfully, before it was finally time to head home. Once the dock came into view I saw my sisters waiting for me and as soon as I went onto land and put away my outfit they saw the damage I had taken and immediately dragged me off to the docks in order to get repaired whilst Musashi headed over to Auntie to tell her what had happened.

Luckily due to the light damage I had taken I only needed to spend 20mins in the bath in order to get fully repaired. Let me tell you though being in that bath was the absolute definition of feeling bliss. After I got out and got changed into some fresh clothes I was then dragged off again to Auntie and was made to give a full recount of what had happened during the mission, my sisters had requested to stay and listen as well.

Once I had finished recounting everything that had happened I flopped onto the couch and sighed in relief that the talking was over.

"Damn, your very first sortie and you already have knocked up 8 kills" Auntie said

"I think this is the first time this had happened" Ryuujou then added

"All three of us are glad that you are okay" Yamato said as she handed me a Ramune, which reminded me to ask her how to make later on.

After I had taken a big swig of my drink, I caught sight of my bag and remembered that I had one other very important job. By this time however my sisters had to leave as they had to go on their group sorties soon, so I wished them luck as they did for me as the left the room.

"Auntie"

"What is my dear"

"Can you set up a video call with mom, I really want to tell her what happened today"

Seeing the look in my eyes Aria didn't take long to make a decision.

"Okay Ryuujou, set it up" she said

"Yes, ma'am" Ryuujou replied picking up a remote and turning on a big screen on the left wall showing the typical skype call screen, It didn't take long for the call to be picked up.

Today had been an eventful day for me, seeing that I had just finished off a massive pile of paperwork. I can really sympathize with any secretary ship that was to put up with this stuff on a daily basis.

Anyways as I was about to leave the office in order to fetch a drink for me and the admiral, a call screen popped up on my desktop. I looked over to the admiral and she nodded, so I answered the call.

"Hello, secretary Zuihou speaking"

"Hi Zuihou-san, it's been awhile" Izumi said waving into the camera

"Izumi-san, it's so good to see you again and yes it has been awhile. What can I do for you today?"

"Is my mom there? I want to tell her something"

"Yeah she's here" I replied as I added her into the video call

"Mom!" she yelled happily

"Calm down dear" so she did "Now, what did you want to tell me"

"She kicked abyssal ass today sis, racked up eight kills" Aria said causing the two of us to go wide-eyed in shock "Also she did it on her own, on her very first sortie" she added with a smirk,

It took me and Emika a little bit before we snapped back to reality

"Details now!" Emika roared and so a very abridged version of what had happened today was told to us both, thankfully taking less time than retelling the full version of the story.

"Well, I'm impressed" I said nodding

"You can say that again, I'm very proud of you my dear" Emika said to which she smiled brightly, it was then that Aria took over and spoke to us over various matters giving Izumi-san a much needed break from talking.

Just as the call was about to end, Izumi spoke up once more.

"Mom, before you leave there is one more thing I need to speak to you about"

"And what is that my dear" Emika replied as Izumi picked up her bag and took out a blue object shocking everyone in the room and in the call.

"What should I do with this" she said holding a core up to the camera

"You managed to get a core, why didn't you tell me!" Aria shouted at her

"I'm sorry Auntie but I thought it would be best if mom was present at the same time before I showed them to you"

"This is what the call was really about wasn't it" Aria sighed massaging her forehead

"Partially" she said back

"And you were right to contact me immediately" Emika spoke taking her cap off before continuing

"We need you Izumi to hang onto that core so that we can send someone to pick it up ASAP"

"So you want me to hang on to all five cores for now then?" she asked this caused the room to go silent again before…..

"FIVE!" everyone yelled

"Yeah, five" she said pulling the remaining four cores out of her bag and showing them to the us.

"Two from the wo's, two from the he's and lastly one from one of the ro's" she continued to say pointing out the groups of cores

"Fucking hell, I think Yukikaze just lost her title as the freaking lucky ship!" Ryuujou yelled before slouching in her chair with everyone nodding in agreement.

"Now you really do have to make sure those cores are kept safe, my dear" Emika said

"I know, I think I'll ask Akashi to build me a floor safe and lock them away for the time being until the person comes to collect them" she replied

"Good idea, speak to her in a little bit then" Aria spoke

"Will do" she replied

After that the call had finally wound down and after everyone had said goodbyes, with me asking mom to pass on a message to sis. I was then allowed to take the rest of the day off and so I left the building and immediately headed over to the Arsenal asking Akashi for the safe, to which she had a spare one on hand that I could take. So I used a mini pneumatic forklift to move the safe to my room immediately locking the cores away before returning the forklift to Akashi.

Seeing how exhausted I was by this point I decided to skip dinner and just have some light snacks in the comfort of my room. it didn't take long before night fell and so I got changed and as soon as I hit the pillow I was out like a light. I had pleasant dreams that night and I smiled knowing that today had been a very good day.