Short chapter is short, the reason behind this is that I was running on fumes when I was writing this chapter. Thankfully I wanted the the chapter to be short anyway.
On to the story
Time: 07:00
Date: 5th November
Location: Finishing Patrol route
Roughly just over a month has passed since the big reveal of the exchange program and so far there has been no further news on it since. I think my mom knows something but she isn't letting on. Anyways the hype died down pretty quickly after that and then everyone pretty much settled back into their own routines.
For me however I was hospitalised for a good week after I went on a night patrol mission with Sendai and got thoroughly soaked whilst fighting off some Abyssal patrols. It seems that even Kanmusu can get sick because when I woke up the next morning and did my run, I passed out right in front of Houshou-san as I was talking to her.
I was taken immediately to the infirmary where it was found that I had a really high fever as well as a nasty cold. When mom heard about this she wanted to bust out of her office and come down to see me but luckily Auntie, Yoko-nee, who was visiting mom at the time, and Zuihou-san managed to talk her out of it.
As for my sister ships they were all fraught with worry over my condition and they visited as often as they could but Auntie had to stop them after a while for fear that they could become sick also, I agreed wholeheartedly with Auntie's decision and so I was allowed to recover in peace.
After the week had passed I was back into action, but Auntie had other ideas and put me to work as Ryuujou-san's aide, the reason behind this was so that a relapse wouldn't occur and I wouldn't become sick again. Whilst I was thankful for my Auntie to allow me to work in the office again but man did I hate the freaking paperwork.
For the next two weeks after I recovered I spent most of my time on sorties, trying to catch up on the missed experience. I mostly did resource runs though seeing as I never did them before but I still sunk quite a few abyssals in the process upping my kill count so it was a win-win situation for me.
And now here we are with me coming back from my latest run full of goodies to put in the resource warehouse. I even surprised myself at how many resources I had gathered during the mission, I did however had to take some fuel on the return journey seeing as I was running low. Auntie had expected this and said that it was normal for Kanmusu to take fuel on during the trip so I wasn't in any trouble for doing so.
As I made my way on to dry land I could see that the entire base was in a frenzy with ship girls running around the place carrying wood and other materials. You see today we were going to have a fireworks festival. Auntie had decided to do this in order to let the ship girls have a break and reward them for all of the hard work they had put in over the past couple of months.
Now I loved fireworks festivals as I kid and I still do, so as soon as I put the resources away, reported to auntie and got changed into some clothes that I really didn't care about. I immediately jumped in to help but after lunch had come and gone I was dragged off by Naka as the both of us had a surprise waiting for when the festivities started. What I didn't know however would be that a surprise was waiting for the two of us as well.
It had been a couple of hours of practice for me and Naka and boy were we tired, so before we decided to go join in the fun at the festival that was going to start soon the both of us went to the bathhouse and had a nice long soak. I had to shake Naka awake as she had fallen asleep and was floating around the bath and then we both left to go to our rooms and get changed into our Yukatas.
Time: 20:00
It was now the time for the festival to get into full swing and I was fully rested and set to enjoy it before the main event later on in the night. As I started to walk around I had noticed that there was various cameras dotted about the place, but from the conversation I had earlier in the day when I reported to auntie after my sortie, she had stated that the camera's were for the memories so that we could look back on this time in the future.
I started to have my suspicions but auntie was adamant on her answer, so I had to believe her and so I just ignored the cameras and just went on to to perform my task for the day. You see I had made fried noodles last week and everyone loved them so I was tasked with manning my own booth and make them for everyone, to which I was only happy to oblige.
It had been a hard two hours full of frying, flipping and serving but finally I had run out of ingredients so I could close up and walk around some more.
I looked at my watch and saw that it was starting to get close to performance time, so I said goodbye to my sisters and went on the lookout for Izumi. Luckily I managed to catch her just as she was leaving her booth.
"Izumi-tan" I said getting her attention
"Yeah, what is it Naka"
"Come on we need to get going it's almost time" I said pointing to the clock on the HQ building and it showed that it was really close to showtime
"Right, let's go" she said pulling me along to the back stage.
When we got backstage we started to change into different miko outfits and as we were getting ready the nerves had started to take hold and I was starting to shake. Naka had noticed this and had come over to reassure me that everything would be okay, this really helped me calm down,
Meanwhile outside Akashi had been given the role of announcer and had just sent off the previous group's performance and now she had to introduce the two of us, because our performance was the last one of the night before the fireworks were set off.
"Okay, everyone it's time for the last performance of the night and boy you are all in for a treat let's all welcome Naka and Izumi to the stage!" she said before walking off leaving the stage to the two of us.
We walked on stage and took our positions before naka started to speak….
"Hi, everyone thank you for having us"
"We hope you enjoy our song"
"So here we go, Happy Natsu Matsuri!" we said both together
The midsummer sky deepens in color, the festival's beginning
I put off my homework until later - duh, of course I did
Is that the goldfish-scooping booths calling to us in our yukatas?
Let's start running on the count of three once we cross the bridge
I can hear the sound of taiko drums somewhere
The string of paper lanterns lures us in
Happi happy* summer festival
Happi happy, fireworks go boom (boom!)
Red, blue, yellow, green, vivid and brilliant
Glittering smiles on our faces
Lucky lucky, a shooting star!
Lucky lucky, a wish!
Frozen solid shaved ice (crunch)
A happy happy day that's about to melt away
A happy day
An apple hard candy for cotton candy, let's drink some soda too?
Putting off the shrine visit until later - that would be outrageous!
Are you going to get an omikuji? My fortune says I'll have great luck!
I wonder if I'll be able to see that person who's been on my mind today?
Off in the distance, fireworks explode up in the air
I'm wishing for a miracle on the sparkling, starry sky
Happi happy summer festival
Happi happy, a premonition of love? (Premonition!)
These feelings that make my heart start pounding
Scenery I feel like I've seen in a dream
Lucky lucky, could it be?
Lucky lucky, is it just the two of us!?
Heart pounding, chest tight, I feel so uneasy (so tight)
Something's about to happen on this happy happy day
A happy day
Catchy catchy, this moment
Don't disappear all at once
A summer break that keeps giving me butterflies
Popping, crackling sparklers
Happi happy, let's make
Happi happy, lots of memories
That we'll never ever forget!
Let's break our curfews just for today!?
Happi happy* summer festival
Happi happy, fireworks go boom (boom!)
Red, blue, yellow, green, vivid and brilliant
Glittering smiles on our faces
Catchy catchy, I won't forget
Catchy catchy, this moment
Heart pounding, chest tight, I feel so uneasy (so tight)
Something's about to happen on this happy happy day
A happy day
We finished our song and cheers erupted from the crowd as we waved to them, sis was near the stage and passed us two ice cold Ramune to which we chugged down seeing as the two of us were panting like crazy.
"Good work you two, excellent performance" we turned our head to the right to see someone walking on to the stage
"Auntie/Admiral!" we said together
"Now they have shown us their surprise, how about we show them ours everyone" auntie said getting a roar from the crowd.
It was then that a giant screen flipped upright and then the whirr of a machine could be heard as a picture was starting to be displayed on the screen and when it came fully into view my jaw hit the floor.
"Kaa-san, Nee-chan, Zuihou-san!" I yelled, the video feed then split and I saw multiple feeds from the many Kamusu fleets dotted around the country.
"Thank you for the performance!" everyone on the screen said as I looked shock, awe and confusion at Auntie.
"I guess an explanation is in order huh, well you see what I said about the camera's to you Izumi earlier today was only half the truth. Naka had let slip about the performance a couple of days ago and since every fleet was celebrating I decided to stream all of the performances that happened tonight live to the various fleets" she said
"I would have never expected that my dear Izumi could sing so well" mom said
"Kaa-san!" I yelled in embarrassment getting a giggle from the three of them.
"Now, now it's time for the main event, everyone to the slipway" Auntie said as the video link ended and the screen was taken down.
Everyone then headed to the slipway and when we were all in position auntie handed me a button and gave me the 'when you're ready' gesture. So with great anticipation a pushed it and soon the sky was filled with pretty much all the colours of the rainbow, just like the song we had sung earlier, and my god it was an awesome sight to behold. Naka had grabbed my hand and gave me a big smile as the two of us watched on as the sky was filled with colour.
After the fireworks had died down everyone split off and went around the festival grounds one last time, as for me I decided to go the bathhouse to have a nice long soak and as I looked out of the open air bath at the starry night sky, I made a promise to myself that through anything that the future throws at me, I would never forget the best fireworks festival that I had ever been too.