CHAPTER 4: DUSK TILL DAWN

Present Day, Osaka Bay, North of Wakayama City

"Dreamer 2, this is Hayasui. I found her! I have eyes on her, 8 nautical miles northwest of me." The Replenishment Oiler's fairy lookouts had spotted the frigate JS Chikugo using their fairy binoculars from Hayasui's tall compass bridge. The sight had instantly transmitted to her brain as if she were seeing it herself.

The ship shouldn't have been visible over the horizon from her own physical human shape's height. Radar, sonar, ESM, and other sensors were just as good as eyes and ears for a shipgirl as well. Human researchers had spent a decade and a half trying to get to the root of all that sparkly magical bullshit with only a dozen nervous breakdowns and mental hospital stays to show for it.

"How the hell did you find her before we did?!" Yuubari had been coordinating the search for the JMSDF frigate from aboard Dreamer 2, one of Kushimoto's assigned helicopters. They had criss-crossed over the Osaka Bay for the past two hours and found nothing. Dreamer 1 had also been searching, along with a flight of Hayasui's Tenzan torpedo bombers and her lone HRP Rescuer helicopter.

"Ehehe. I just stumbled on her by accident, Dreamer 2. She's actually outside our search area, drifting towards Awaji-shima."

Yuubari groaned. As they were ashore, the CO and XO couldn't possibly be looking over her shoulder. But she could swear she could feel the heavy weight of their stares pressing against her back. "What's her status?"

"She's listing to port! No smoke and no wake. I don't see anyone on deck, but I might just be too far to make them out."

"Roger. Have you tried to make contact on VHF?"

"Yep, no response on any channel. I'll use my signal lamp when I get close enough."

"This is Dreamer 1, we can be there in 10 minutes. We're swinging around to pick up DesDiv29 first, they're the closest."

Yuubari rubbed her temples. "Head straight to Chikugo after you pick up Inazuma and Higbee, I'll get DesDiv30 there a different way."

"Eh? You're totally out of position, I can get both destroyer groups there before you can get to any one of them."

"No, we're heading for the minesweepers. Hayasui, have your HRP prepare its sling."

When Hatsuyuki deployed to sortie that morning, she was 'nervous'. She hadn't operated as a kanmusu outside visual range of a base in years. She couldn't use the excuse of needing to make food-the day's three meals had been tasked to Akitsushima specifically so that Hatsuyuki could go out. Her lucky ducky division-mate Hatsuzuki was allowed to stay home, as she had been on CQ duty the night before and was therefore entitled to an entire day of rest. Her flagship Hatsushimo, along with that of DesDiv29's Hibiki, was at the CO's side.

Ruminating on all that had upgraded her mood to 'furious'. When the search for JS Chikugo reached its second fruitless hour, with her clothes (especially her socks) drenched in salt water and her eyes stung by spray, she became 'extremely furious'.

But now that she was hanging tight on a rope ladder underslung a magical fairy-sized helicopter, all that anger and resentment had washed away. She was now 'pants-pissing scared'. She probably hadn't actually done that literally, but she was soaked to her bones and incredibly sticky. Whatever liquid she had all over her was freezing cold.

"Whee!" Her only division-mate present, Hatsukaze, clearly felt different.

Present Day, Temporary Command Post, JMSDF Naval Supply Depot Wakayama City

"Thank God they found Chikugo already. I was 15 minutes from calling in."

"Please be patient with them, Suzuya-san." Akatsuki admonished. "We can't micromanage from the rear, we have to let them develop their own initiative."

Suzuya held back a snort. She'd just spent the past two hours watching her CO fidgeting in her chair and occasionally standing up to pace around the room.

The radio once again erupted in noise. It was Yuubari, but it wasn't intended for them. Once more, the other two members of the command team had to sit tight and listen without giving input.

"Haysui, drop them off on the forward VERTREP area. Hatsukaze, once you've landed, run up the forecastle and rig the ship for towing, but don't throw down a line until Wanna and Chickadee give the all clear. Hatsuyuki, head straight for the bridge and find out the status of the crew."

Present Day, JS Chikugo, Osaka Bay

Ugh. So many ladders. Hatsuyuki's legs were wobbly when she touched down. They were now additionally on fire. Navigating up four levels on a listing ship did not improve her fatigued state, but she was back to being angry instead of terrified. If only she could ask the crew that she'd passed to carry her up, but alas...

"Dreamer 2, I finally got to the bridge."

"How did it take you that long?!"

Tchk. "The crew is dead. Everyone I passed on the way as well as everyone here."

"Oh great. Just great. Go down to Damage Control Central next and report status."

"I have no idea where that is."

"Uh... Ask a crew member?"

"Yuubari-san..."

"Oh come on, it couldn't hurt."

Present Day, Temporary Command Post, JMSDF Naval Supply Depot Wakayama City

"Wow, Captain Sugiura does not screw around." Suzuya whistled.

"First the list, now this... I'm sure everyone above the main deck is dead and everyone below is stranded and wounded and will have to be guided out by hand."

"Poor Hatsuyuki-chan."

Present Day, JS Chikugo, Osaka Bay

Once Wanna and Chickadee finished clearing the mines surrounding the ship, DesDiv29 approached Chikugo at high speed-Inazuma charging off towards the bow to receive a line from Hatsukaze, and Higbee towards the stern to climb aboard via a rope ladder that had thankfully already been deployed.

She was met by Hatsuyuki on the quarterdeck, who was surrounded by a dozen figures laid out on their backs.

"Everything forward of Frame 40 is supposed to be flooded up to the second platform, so don't bother going there. I already cleared most of the midships compartments above the engine spaces but I need help with the rest."

Higbee stared at the crew members on the deck.

"Ugh." Hatsuyuki noticed her puzzled expression. "Could the guys who are only wounded at least sit up so we can tell you apart from the dead? And stop looking up my skirt!"

Present Day, Temporary Command Post, JMSDF Naval Supply Depot Wakayama City

"That could have gone better." Yuubari was splayed out on an office couch. "I should have dropped all the destroyers on the ship instead of having half of them wait and do nothing while the mines were taken care of."

"Don't be so down," said Commander Sugiura, skipper of the Chikugo. "You actually cleared the mines first. Most commanders get so impatient they forget to check, then boom."

"Don't second-guess yourself, Yuubari-san." Akatsuki began her AAR. "Having only two onboard slowed down the rescue of the wounded crew and the damage control efforts, but having two outside ensured the minesweepers would have been safe if there were abyssals lurking around. Yes, crew members would have died that you could have rescued, but it's better than the alternative scenario where everyone dies because you neglected force protection."

"Thank you for letting us use your ship for an exercise, Sugiura-san." Akatsuki had changed into her dress whites from her standard kanmusu sailor outfit when she found out that Sugiura was going to follow Kushimoto's exercise team ashore. She stood in contrast to the frigate captain she was trying to impress, who was in her working uniform of blue coveralls.

"No problem, Akatsuki-chan! My people got great use out of it as well-I induced that list for them as much as for your girls." She remembered Kushimoto's helicopter crews. "And boys."

"Could you, ah, please not use that honorific when there are others around..."

"Commander!" Sugiura was wide-eyed. "You and I are peers in every sense and we have gone through so much together. Can't you give your old friend this one itty-bitty indulgence?"

"U-umm..."

"Just kidding! I just love seeing you squirm. Don't worry, I promise to stop calling you Akatsuki-chan, Akatsuki-chan."

7 Years Before, Changi Naval Base, Singapore

"H-haaa?! That's unbelievable. How can it be impossible to cross such a small distance?" Murasame pulled her twintails straight down in frustration.

Days after the battle-no, massacre-7th Fleet and allied forces attempted to probe the South China Sea to clear its sealanes for traffic and conduct search and rescue operations. All were repelled. USS Montpelier, a nuclear submarine, barely made it to Manila under her own power and was deemed a constructive loss on arrival. Shipgirl cruiser Leander and shipgirl submarines I-8, Haddo, and Comandante Cappellini failed to report back and were presumed sunk.

"It's the Spratlys." Lieutenant Sugiura lolled her chin on a desk. "It's been a no-go zone for twelve years, but it's turned to something else this week. It's like every little coral atoll and every low tide rock became a Hime-class fortress. And hundreds more islands and weird structures have popped up on top of that. It's a miracle we even know about this-all overflights keep getting shot down."

"I thought that kind of thing was behind us. I thought we were winning!" Akatsuki fidgeted in her seat.

When the Abyssal war started a decade prior, these kind of losses were common as humanity and the shipgirls fought on the backfoot. Slowly but surely they got it under control until travel by air and sea became relatively safe again (if you brought heavy firepower, of course). You'd hear about an isolated steel ship or kanmusu being lost once every couple of months, but it was as if there wasn't a war anymore-just a bunch of patrols to ward off occasional stray beasts. But just like that, the bad old days suddenly returned.

"Thailand."

"Hibiki?" Akatsuki turned to her sister.

"Why can't we just travel overland through the Kra Isthmus? Bypass the South China Sea then get home that way."

"We probably can." Sugiura stretched in her seat and yawned. With nothing to do, the JMSDF personnel and shipgirls had taken over various spare offices and broom closets in Changi Naval Base to wait out their days. "Someone higher up must be planning the logistics of it all. We have, I dunno, a few hundred Japanese personnel to move, with a few hundred more Americans, Chinese, and Filipinos as well."

"And who knows how long that will take!" Akatsuki had enough. "Why aren't we talking with the Singaporean shipgirls? While we're here we should be helping them out instead of just lazing around."

Sugiura snorted. "Come on, Akatsuki-chan, it's not like that didn't cross everyone else's minds. We're just waiting for the order to do it. The higher ups are probably in the middle of working it all out."

Akatsuki pulled the sides of her cap down. "What if the higher ups forgot?"

"Oh come on, Akatsuki-chan, that would just be stupid" Murasame rolled her eyes.

"That was just stupid!" Murasame found herself pulling down her twintails again. "How do you forget to order us to cooperate?!"

"To be fair, they assumed they already sent the order." Hibiki stroked her chin. "Though it was pretty stupid not to ever follow up for three whole days."

Sugiura groaned. "I'm getting flashbacks of OCS when one of my instructors kept going 'initiative this' and 'initiative that'."

Murasame raised one of her eyebrows. "How is it that Akatsuki-chan, out of the hundreds of us stranded here, was the only one with the initiative to call Yokosuka and ask about it?"

7 Years Before, Tuas Naval Base, Singapore

"Welcome, Murasame-san and Hibiki-san!" Republic of Singapore Navy shipgirl Kamikaze bowed to her countrymen. "Ah, you two as well, Sazanami-san, Akatsuki-chan."

"Hey, wai-"

"We were wondering when you all would be sent over. Myoukou-san and Takao-san wanted to throw a welcoming party, but they left to do an escort run this morning."

A tall kanmusu with long, flowing red hair walked up behind Kamikaze with a disapproving expression. "Like I told you lot yesterday, I think festivities of any kind after what they've just been through would be incredibly inappropriate."

"Ah, this is Repulse."

"Nice to meet you." She said in perfect Japanese as she curtsied, before continuing in English. "Welcome to the RSN's shipgirl force. I'm sorry about the circumstances that brought you to us, but at the same time I'm quite relieved that we are going to get some extra help. We've been run ragged this past year just trying to keep the straits open, much less escorting this country's merchant traffic overseas."

"T-thanks." Akatsuki only knew a few words of English. "Eto..."

"Ah, my apologies." Repulse returned to speaking Japanese. "Please follow us to the commander's office so we can get you up to speed. We don't know how long we can hold onto you girls, but I hope we can at least keep you busy here before you can go home."

Present Day, JMSDF Naval Supply Depot Wakayama City

"Damn, that's a good idea, I'm gonna steal it." Captain Sugiura stroked her chin.

Akatsuki had scheduled the whole day for excercises, but the "rescue" of JS Chikugo and a follow-up mock battle between DesDivs 29 and 30 took only until the early afternoon. As for the remaining daylight, she authorized six hours of liberty in the city for her shipgirls and helicopter crews before they would return to Kushimoto that night.

"Will it be alright?" Akatsuki asked.

"Eh, as far as my commodore knows, my ship was at your disposal for the whole day. I'll anchor off the harbor and bring everyone ashore by boat. If I don't moor off the pier, I don't have to leave a paper trail."

"Umm, your logs..."

"I was in a holding pattern, that's all."

Present Day, Wakayama City

The Kushimoto personnel had split into three groups in the city. Hatsukaze, Higbee, Inazuma, and the minesweepers wandered off to a shopping center and ended up in its arcade. Hayasui, Yubari, and Suzuya, had followed them at first but split off to do clothes shopping before ending their day doing karaoke with the helicopter crews. Hatsuyuki and Hibiki had immediately brought Hatsushimo to the most grimy back alley in the entire prefecture and pulled her into its seediest bar.

"Ah! Hatsuyuki-san, Hibiki-san!"

"Shichiro." Hatsuyuki nodded.

"It's been so many months since we've seen either of you. Even longer since we've seen you together. Is this young lady with you also a shipgirl?"

Hatsushimo bowed. "Aye. I was based in Ominato until last week, so I'm not really familiar with the JMSDF haunts in this area."

The man's nostrils flared and his lips curled up into a grin at the mention of the JMSDF. "Ehehe, we don't actually get many sailors here. I hope your stay in Lake Biwa hasn't been too uncomfortable so far."

"Ah, no, Shichiro." It was Hibiki that replied. "We're not AWOL right now. We just got a few hours of liberty after an operation."

"My mistake. By the way, you still have a whole bottle of shochu that we've been keeping since your last visit."

"That's a good start." Hibiki pulled out her wallet. "I hope you have a lot more in stock for tonight."

Shichiro was not lying that he normally didn't host sailors, but with two hundred of them wandering Wakayama City from JS Chikugo, chances were good that some were bound to end up at his bar by accident. Luckily for the three destroyer girls, they had a dark corner with a makeshift privacy partition, and the Shichiro was quite familiar with their need to be discreet (even if they weren't ditching work this time). Despite this, they could clearly hear the sailors just beyond the partition.

"Ah! Captain Sugiura is always such a hardass!"

"No kidding bro, I was working the pumps for the trim and list. It was a huge pain, the chief engineer wasn't happy."

"Did you see her with that little girl, though? I swear that's the first time I saw the captain without a scowl on her face."

"Eh, who wouldn't smile around such a cute-"

"Dude."

"Bro."

"Yeah man, that's disgusting, she's like a little ki-"

"That's not what I meant! Stop looking at me like that! It was the uniform. It was like a friggin officer cosplay."

"Oh, right, yeah. It was a little off. I dunno why, it's not like the captain was that much taller than her."

"Naw, I know why it was off. She was wearing an American uniform instead of a Japanese one."

"For real? I thought she was one of ours. She looks Japanese."

"Yeah, I used to be stationed at Yokosuka, I saw that uniform all the time. Maybe she's a Japanese-American shipgirl."

"No, there's no such thing, we woulda heard about it."

"You moron, we have Fletcher-class Ariake and Yugure. The Americans have Akizuki-class Hanazuki."

"Oh. I guess if they're stationed at Yokosuka or something, then I'd never know."

"Oh my God, you actually are a moron. The two Fletchers are in Kure with us! Still, I didn't hear about either of them getting commissioned as officers."

"Speaking of that, did you catch a glimpse of Lieutenant Commander Suzuya?"

"Yeah, yikes."

"The prettier they are, the more trouble they cause."

"And that's why it's my official policy never to fraternize with kanmusu."

"Haha, fuck off, as if they'd even look at you."

Hatsushimo exhaled visibly when the sailors finally left after an hour. "Well, that was awkward."

Hatsuyuki just groaned while palming the top of her head with both hands.

"Oh come on, if I wanted to sit in the dark and drink quietly, I would have just stayed at Lake Biwa...and gone AWOL." Hibiki began to pour shochu for her two companions. "So. How have you both been?"

A/N: Oh dear, what a long gap between chapters! Sorry about that. I suddenly stopped having time to work on this, but that only lasted one month at most. I continued holding off until I could be sure I wouldn't be interrupted again. Aaaand I could have resumed writing a month after that. But I didn't, and I let that fire burn in the back of my mind until yesterday, when it spilled out and consumed my brain. So I'm back, and so is Akatsuki Teitoku.