The Blizzard and the Inner Shore
Coughing and spluttering at the clouds of dust filling the storeroom, the years of build up get to even Mutsu as she searches through the countless cardboard boxes and folders crammed into an often forgotten room in the heart of the Administrative Offices. Behind her Fubuki suffers the effects of the dust even worse, repeatedly sneezing and eventually forcing the battleship to stop and wait for the air to settle before she can continue sorting.
"Sorry about all the dust. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen anyone take out or put anything in here in all the time I've been posted to this base. Rumor has it that half of this is paperwork we don't actually need to keep anymore, and the other half is just stuff that's been forgotten in here since they rebuilt the base."
Shifting another box and waving a hand to clear the air of disturbed dust particles, Mutsu then sighs.
"I think I actually believe those rumours now."
Behind her, Fubuki gives a sigh of her own, this one filled with disappointment.
"I'm sorry. I guess I should have realised even if the base still had those files, after so long in storage it would be hard to find them. Thank you for at least letting me check and helping."
Mutsu just smiles and shakes her head.
"Don't worry, there's no reason to be sorry. As much as there is in here, there seems to be some method and organisation to this madness. I asked Kongou earlier, and if she's right..."
Shifting a box out of the way and pausing, Mutsu then blinks in surprise and carefully brushes her hand on the face another to clear off some of the layers of dust. Seeing the faded lettering labelling the box's contents, then locating two others with similar markings, Mutsu looks to Fubuki and gives a sadness tinged-smile. On the one hand, they've finally found what the destroyer has been looking for in her latest search for some kind of genealogical lead. On the other hand, it's a rather tragic source to be checking if they do find anything.
"You found something?"
The raw hopefulness in Fubuki's voice is audible, not matter how hard she tries to hide it.
"Yeah, three boxes. Just let me get them out for you, I think there's some old tables and chairs back on the other side of the room we can use."
As it turns out, extracting the boxes from the heart of the mountain of cardboard and records is one thing, actually making their way to the table is another. While most of the room has been dedicated to excess paperwork storage, the corner by the door seemed to have become a maze of old chairs, desks, furniture and other odds and ends that must have once adorned the base, then been moved to the room for whatever reason and eventually forgotten about. Manoeuvring her way past a vase obviously only held together by superglue, an ancient looking lamp and a stack of faded old recruitment posters still in their wood and glass display frames, Mutsu gingerly places the boxes on the least dusty table she can find as Fubuki takes a seat in a horrendously out of fashion and now tacky looking chair.
Flipping the lids off the boxes, Mutsu grimaces, not just at the contents, but also at the sheer number of faded Manila folders contained within.
"Are you sure you don't want any help looking through all of these?"
Fubuki shakes her head, even as she looks tiredly at the Herculean task she has ahead.
"Thank you for the offer but... I feel like this is something I have to do."
Mutsu just nods even as Fubuki quickly leafs through the folders in first box. The Destroyer had already been nervous enough about approaching her and Nagato for help in her search hunting down what old records she had the clearance to access, even if she had the Admiral's permission to get assistance in her little quest. While Nagato never said anything, Mutsu knew her sister really felt for the poor destroyer and her strangely fruitless search for her parentage.
The second box takes slightly longer as Fubuki's eyes pass over a number of kanji and family names that should be leading up to and flanking the one she is looking for, but again there is nothing. Desperately she then quickly fingers the tabs for all the folders in the third box, praying the file she is looking for has been merely misplaced. Instead there is nothing.
Seeing Fubuki sink back into her seat in defeat, Mutsu sighs and places a hand on the Destroyer's shoulder trying to convey what hope and comfort she can.
"Don't worry Fubuki, I'm sure there's something in here. You'll find something eventually."
"Yeah... hopefully... I'm really starting to wonder if Kongou was right and I was hatched or something..."
Mutsu can't help but feel the corners of her lips tug at such a typical Kongou thing to say. The battleship must have spouted that gem during one of Fubuki's more fruitless searches to try and distract her.
"Well... there's still a lot more records to check in here, and supposedly some of the stuff right at the very back is files they saved from the old base after the attack."
Looking back at the monument to a dead forest taking up the majority of the room and the amount of time it took her to find just three boxes that turned out to be a dead end with Mutsu's help, Fubuki slumps.
"This is going to take forever to sort through."
Gazing past the the forgotten decorations and refuse of the base's past at the paperwork however, something catches Fubuki's eye. Seeing the destroyer frown and tilt her head in confusion, Mutsu follows her gaze and laughs when she sees what has attracted Fubuki's attention.
"Oh yeah, those. I'm pretty sure some of those are practically collectors items now."
Getting out of her seat and walking over to the old frames leaning against the wall, Fubuki carefully wipes away at least a decade's worth of dust to reveal the faded, but still protected poster underneath.
"That's Akagi-sempai..."
Mutsu nods, taking off her gloves to save them from the dust as she cleans up another framed recruitment poster out of curiosity and then admires the finds Fubuki has uncovered and that she overlooked.
"Oh wow, you're right. These must be even older than I thought! Zuikaku's always poking fun and bringing up some really ancient rumors and old stories that Akagi supposedly put on weight during the early half of the war and never quite lost it all, but I always thought she was exaggerating!"
Looking at the poster, Fubuki stares at the familiar and yet subtly different Akagi pictured on the ageing poster. She really does look thiner. Not in a bad way, but there's a certain slimness to her waist and face that the Akagi of now doesn't have. Fubuki then blushes and feels a hint of jealousy as she notices another part of Akagi's figure that seems to be bigger now than it was then.
"Hey, they have one with the Admiral as well."
Looking over in Mutsu's direction, she then notices the battleship seems to have cleaned up a number of the dusty old posters. There's one of Kongou by herself protecting some sort of faceless crowd with some sort of slogan at the top, another of Akagi standing back to back with a JMSDF Captain who looks a little like the Admiral in front of the bow of an old DDG, and then the one Mutsu has discovered, with the Admiral and Kaga standing resolute and dignified on the deck of a Helicopter Destroyer. Looking closer, she then notices that his uniform in the poster is only that of a captain and that there seems to be some sort of red-blue theme going on between the two posters of the captains and the carriers. Something about the posters pulls at her memory, but she finds her attention more grabbed by the Admiral's appearance.
There's almost a feeling about it that seems weird. He's aged about as much as can be expected since whenever this was taken, but... there's something more than just the uniform and age of the Admiral on the poster that's different from the Admiral she knows.
It's the way he holds himself she realises.
The man on the poster seems collected and sure about whatever he may face. The Admiral she knows however, sometimes seems like he's constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like the difference between a rock that knows it can weather the storm without issue, and an old oak tree that though still standing, is bent and bowed after the generations of storms it has survived.
"Okay, these are definitely really old. That's the JDS Kongou and JDS Kaga still with their pre-war builds!"
Turning her attention to the latest frame Mutsu has just cleaned up, Fubuki finds herself looking at a poster bearing the tag line "Keep Them Sailing!". Looking down a long pier stacked with supplies, parts, and ammunition, on the left is a DDG and on the right is a DDH, likely the ships from the previous two posters. Standing front and center in the foreground of the picture however, and backed by the stacks and piles of war materials needed to run just two ships, are five figures.
Two humans, and three kanmusu.
In the middle is Kongou looking confidant and ready to fight, while on the right is Kaga and the Admiral. Facing their opposites from Kongou's left are Akagi and the unknown captain. Squinting at the barely visible name-tag that however many years of fading have only rendered even more illegible, Fubuki almost jumps in surprise when Mutsu speaks up.
"That's the Admiral's brother..."
As she trails off quietly, something then jogs in Fubuki's memory.
"My brother. He died in the attack here fifteen years ago"
"I didn't realise they all served together or for so long..."
Mutsu shrugs sadly.
"Carrier Division 1 and Kongou were some of the first to return, and the Admiral and his brother made names for themselves in the early days before kanmusu were a thing. Supposedly people used to joke that they were like the power rangers or some sort of sentai team. That was before Haruki Misaki, that was the admiral's brother, died though."
Mutsu grimaces slightly.
"Kongou is probably the only one that'll talk about him if you ask. It was before I was summoned, but everyone says Captain Misaki's death changed them all, Akagi and the Admiral in particular. Even after so long, the Admiral can be really tight lipped and private about anything concerning his brother, and supposedly Akagi refuses to talk about him at all. A lot of people reckon she might have been a little sweet on him or something, though knowing how the other four still tend to be, they were probably just really good friends. All those rumors about her gaining weight did start a while after his death, so maybe that's when she first picked up her comfort-eating habit?"
Fubuki just nods sadly and finds her mind drifting to Mutsuki and thoughts of how even if she's long gotten over her fruitless hope of waiting for Kisaragi at the docks, there is now a subtle difference in her friend who will still sometimes be overcome or effected by random moments and reminders of Kisaragi's loss.
Absently, her gaze drifts over the features of the long dead captain. Obviously the younger of the two brothers, even in this serious P.R. piece the man exudes an air of dashing confidence along with the looks to match, tempered with a wily intelligence that gleams in his eyes.
Fubuki then pauses, though she can't figure out why.
"Oh this is so neat, check out this one."
Putting the thought of Haruki Misaki and his eyes that seem familiar despite being different from his brother's out of her mind, Fubuki turns her curious gaze to the newest poster Mutsu has unearthed from the dusty covering it had been coated in...
Later that night, in the middle of brushing her teeth Fubuki pauses.
Looking at herself in the mirror she frowns.
Tilting her head to one side and then the other, the feeling of oddness remains.
Leaning forwards until she is looking her reflection dead in the eyes, she still can't put her finger on what seems so odd about her image.
Finally giving up, she shrugs and goes back to brushing her teeth.
This story is a collaborative effort between myself, Mashadarof402, lt_agn02, and Lord K. This Chapter was written by Lord K.