The fighting was intense. Ships on both sides blasting each other with whatever they had. We had sunk most of the Abyssal ships already but suffered casualties of our own too. Destroyers Samidere, Tanikaze, Harusame and Kisaragi sunk while Shiratsuyu, Mutsuki, Inazuma and Akatsuki heavily damaged. Cruisers Takao, Chikuma, Aoba, Furutaka and Kiso sunk while Kitakami, Ooi, Isuzu damaged. Fortunately none of our battleships were sunk but Mutsu and Ise were damaged. Us carriers suffered the most casualties. Almost all of our light carriers were either sunk or damaged, with Zuiho the only light carrier still doing fine. Akagi and Soryu were mid-damaged.
Now that most of the abyssals were sunk we could turn our attention to the American ships. As I turned, i saw the American carrier USS Enterprise. Both of our eyes were grid-locked at each other. This was it! The one who managed to launch her plane first would win. It was either her or I that perished. Instinctively I held bow and arrow in my hand and she did the same too. Both of us fired off a wave of planes at the same time. As our planes approached each other they began firing a barrage of machine guns. For some reason my planes managed to destroy the majority of her planes(maybe she was using the older planes). The path was clear for my planes to attack her! As i waited for the bombs and torpedoes to drop, someone cried out "Shoukaku look out!" I turned my head to the left. I saw nothing. I only felt the pain in my body as bullets ripped through me. "AHHHHH!" I screamed in agony. My flight deck had been damaged.I couldn't launch my planes anymore! I was a sitting duck for any enemies that could see me!
"Shoukaku-nee!" Zuikaku shouted and came to me. "Are you okay? Who injured you? I'll definitely kill that person!" Zuikaku asked and shouted in anger.
"I'm ok Zuikaku. Just took a little bit of damage that's all." I reassured her. I don't like my sister to be worried for me.
"But... your flight deck is damaged and look at you, you're a mess. You can't carry on fighting" Zuikaku protested.
"it's ok Zuikaku. If I die it would be for the Admiral and for everybody else here. Especially you', i said to Zuikaku.
I turned to look at the Enterprise. She was as badly damaged as me. Most probably from my bombers, I thought. The Enterprise retreated to avoid being attacked again. However, her sister ships, Yorktown and Hornet, were still in the fight, as so were the majority of the American carriers. They looked at their damaged sister and then turned to look at me. Their eyes were filled with anger and hate. They wanted revenge for their damaged sister. They didn't just want to damage me more. They were all out to sink me! I said to Zuikaku," If I sink, just run! Run as far away as you can, and don't let them(the Americans) catch you."
"But Shoukaku-nee, I can't just let you sink and leave you behind. NO! I'll stand by you till the very last moment, till my very last breath", Zuikaku retorted.
I processed what she said to me in my mind. The thought of losing Zuikaku was too painful. But at the same time, she was so determined to stay with me. What should I do?
Finally after some thinking I said to Zuikaku,"Fine then Zuikaku. If you want to stay you can stay."
During that period of time, the Americans stung us. Hiei, Kirishima and Haruna were badly damaged. As were most of our ships. We were fighting a losing fight. Yet we couldn't retreat at the same time as we were surrounded. There was only one option. Fight till the last man.