We hurried down the ladder and Musashi quickly ushered me into the combat bridge. I noted it was a bit more cramped than your average Eagle Union battleship, likely to do with its location at the top of the superstructure rather than the middle, but it still had everything I needed to command the fleet from here. I hurried over to the holotable and switched it on. What I saw wasn't good.

Off to our port side was Haguro, who was moving in closer to provide additional support if we should recover it. Further away to port were the mass-produced battleship and cruiser that Musashi had yet to sink. Given their damage, I don't think they'd be of much help, or even last that long. Still, they could act as decoys if we needed them. And off to starboard, just coming into range of our detection equipment, were the Sirens. Currently, the enemy fleet was composed of three Knight-class light cruisers, a pair of Bishop-class heavy cruisers, another pair of Rook-class battleships, and a single Queen aircraft carrier that was already launching her aircraft.

"We're in trouble," I grimly announced as I quickly assessed our options. While Musashi was no speed demon, we could easily outrun the Rooks and Queen, leaving us in a running firefight with the five cruisers which I was certain Haguro and Musashi could easily handle. The problem was that we would be under attack from the Queen's aircraft the entire time, and if Musashi took a hit to her engines, then we'd be forced back into the fight, and in an already damaged state. The other option would be to try and fight it out which would be dicey. "How long would it take reinforcements from Truk to get here?"

Musashi tapped a few commands into the holotable and the landscape zoomed out to a map of the overall sector with several red icons flashing at Truk. "Haguro's already managed to contact the forces there. Yukikaze, Shimakaze, Noshiro, and Shinano are all getting underway, but it would take them at least half an hour to reach us at full speed. Shinano could have aircraft here within fifteen minutes, however."

Still not fast enough. Those aircraft would be overhead well before Shinano showed up to provide air cover. "Looks like the only way out is through," I declared before I zoomed back into the tactical view and stabbed a finger at the holographic carrier. "Increase speed to flank and put us on an intercept course with the Queen. I wanna knock it out as quickly as possible so we have a chance at a withdrawal. And have the mass-produced ships set a collision course with it as well, guns blazing. Even if they don't make it, they'll draw fire."

No sooner than I'd spoken the words I felt the ship begin to vibrate as her engines began to pick up steam, driving us faster through the water. "Understood, Commander," Musashi dutifully answered. "Anything else?"

I looked out the window as I saw the black dots in the sky growing larger. "Yeah, how's your AA?"

"It's not quite on par with the Eagle Union's," she ruefully admitted.

"Then prepare for evasive action," I ordered. "Distance to target?"

"Forty-five kilometers."

"What's your maximum range?"

"Forty-two kilometers."

My head whipped around as I stared incredulously at her. "Did you say forty-two? Four two kilometers?"

She smiled proudly and nodded. "I did. Does that exceed the ranges of your Eagle Union kansen?"

"Little bit," I understated. Even New Jersey, with her devastating salvos, still would come up four kilometers short of Musashi's range. "Accuracy?"

Her smile faded and she shook her head sadly. "At that range, not very accurate at all, I'm afraid."

"Better than nothing," I muttered. "At the very least, it'll let them know we're on them. And who knows, maybe we'll get lucky." I glanced out the window again, watching as the colossal turrets slowly rotated to bear on the distant Siren fleet.

Musashi stepped beside me and rested her hand on my shoulder. "Lucky or not, we'll defeat them and get home safe, I promise."

I rested my hand on hers and smiled up at her. "I have faith in you."

Her smile lit up the compartment and she nodded firmly. "And I, you, Commander. Now prepare yourself, we have incoming aircraft."

I followed her gaze and reacquired the Siren bombers as they swooped in low to begin their attack runs. "I'll call out any heading changes to avoid any torpedoes, you handle the gunnery."

"Aye, sir."

Musashi's long-range anti-aircraft batteries began to open up, peppering the sky around the bombers with puffs of black smoke. Undaunted, they came on, each one lining up their shot. But the closer they came, the more of the battleship's guns opened up, and I saw Haguro bolt forward and leap off the deck, adding her rigging's own gunfire to Musashi's. The hail of fire became a curtain of tracer rounds and flak clouds. Several bombers burst into flames and tumbled into the sea, but not before all of them managed to drop their torpedoes. As soon as I saw the Siren aircraft drop their payloads, I bellowed, "Hard to starboard!" straining to be heard over the constant din of anti-aircraft fire.

The bombers pulled up and to the right as they tried to get clear of the wall of anti-aircraft fire, but none managed to escape the firestorm, all of them crashing into the sea or blowing apart into so much flaming scrap. I felt Musashi yawing hard as she began turning into the path of the torpedoes, making herself a much smaller target than if they catch her full broadside. Judging by the underwater contrails, it appeared as though one was still going to hit us. I was preparing to brace for impact when Haguro dashed in front of it and stabbed down with her dagger, dragging it through the water. No sooner than she had sailed clear of the torpedo's wake, it detonated, sending a geyser of water that obscured my view of her for a moment before she skated away, her guns still blazing away at an unseen target.

I let out a sigh of relief, only for it to be cut short as I heard a pair of thunderous explosions aft of us and the entire ship shuddered. "What the hell was that?"

"Dive bombers," Musashi grimaced as she watched the range counter continue to spin down. "Hits straddled the aft secondary turret, but no major damage. We'll be in range in fifteen seconds."

"Firing pattern and rate at your discretion," I advised. "The sooner we knock out that carrier, the better. And the status of our mass-produced ships?"

She zoomed out to show the damaged ships limping towards the Siren fleet, seemingly unnoticed. "Still on course. I estimate they'll be spotted in a few minutes, but they'll also be in firing range by then, as well." A green icon began flashing over the Siren fleet. "Queen in range, Commander."

I glanced out the windows at the guns, trained and ready on a target so far I couldn't even see them yet, then nodded to Musashi. "You may fire when ready."

She nodded back to me before the klaxon sounded again and her aft guns fired. Even with the entire superstructure between us and that massive turret, I could still clearly hear and feel them as they roared. "Ranging salvo away. Time on target, ninety-eight seconds."

"Understood." The response was automatic as I stared down at the holomap projection of the Siren fleet, wondering what their next move would be. Would they just keep sending waves of aircraft, or were their capital ships going to get into the fight? My question was answered a moment later when I saw the holographic carrier launching another strike wave. "Well, don't have to spend time recovering a strike package and spotting a new one when you don't have one returning," I quipped. "It would appear that we're suffering from our success."

Musashi grinned at me from across the holotable. "What's that saying you have back home, 'No good deed goes unpunished'?"

I barked out a short laugh as I nodded. "Exactly. Guess our punishment will be here in a few minutes. How far out are Shinano's aircraft?"

Her eyes flicked over a chronometer that was rapidly counting down. "About ten minutes."

Doubt began to creep into my mind. Had I done the right thing in going after the carrier? After all, we were sailing away from our backup instead of toward them. In the end, I realized that this was the right thing for two reasons. First, even sailing at flank speed, taking no evasive maneuvers, would only take a minute off of the rendezvous time. Second, I think I needed this. I needed this fight, this tangible enemy I could definitively defeat. Unlike all of the struggles and fights that I've been having with my own mind, this was something I could easily come to grips with, and hopefully, defeat. I glanced over at Musashi as she intently watched the enemy fleet for shell splashes and wondered if she came to the same conclusion as well. In the end, I never asked her, and she has never volunteered the information. Chalk it up to one of life's little mysteries.

"Impact!" Musashi exclaimed as the shells finally landed, two were wildly off-target, but one shell managed to strike the carrier, gouging a hole into the side. While the damage didn't look severe, it certainly elicited a reaction from the Sirens, who immediately scattered, each one taking evasive action to avoid any further incoming fire. The kitsune grinned down at the panicked ships like the fox who'd finally cornered its prey. "Commencing rapid fire."

Outside, the guns bellowed and the bridge viewports were nearly constantly obscured by smoke and flame as each gun took its turn to fire. Meanwhile, I kept an eye on the incoming attack craft, and as they began to separate for their attack runs, I noticed something odd about their patterns. While the dive bombers climbed up, the torpedo bombers stayed up at a much higher altitude than before.

"Hey, take a look at this," I beckoned Musashi over, pointing at the errant aircraft. "These guys are way too high for a torpedo attack."

Musashi leaned in closely, inspecting the holographic planes before she made her determination. "Rocket attack," she pronounced. "Looks like they're trying to knock out some of the AA guns before sending in the next torpedo attack."

"How effective is that going to be?"

Musashi shrugged. "I'm not sure. We've heard reports, but this will be the first time I'm facing them down in person. I'm hoping not very."

"Agreed."

I watched as they grew closer, settling in on their attack runs. As they fired their rocket volleys, they were temporarily obscured by the smoke, and the ship shuddered as the warheads detonated against it. But a quick glance showed the rockets hadn't been terribly effective, only managing to knock out some of the lighter guns. When I looked up to watch them pass overhead, my heart caught in my throat. One of the fighters burst into flame and fell out of formation, spinning out of control and heading directly for the bridge.

Musashi saw it just as I did, and as I was beginning to duck, she tackled me, shielding most of my body with her right as the fighter slammed into the superstructure. As I fell back, there was a blinding flash and I shut my eyes tight, wondering if this was the end. As the light faded, engulfing me in blackness once more, I could smell the pungent odor of burning jet fuel and hear nothing but ringing in my ears for a moment until I heard Musashi call out to me.

"Paul!" It was the most terrified I'd ever heard her, before or since, and my eyes snapped open to find her looking down at me with a horrified expression. "Are you alright? Speak to me!"

Aside from having the wind knocked out of me and a sharp pain just above my right eye, I was fine. Probably just a scratch. "I…I think so, just have-" I reached up to where I thought a scratch was and found a large hunk of metal instead. My eyes went wide as I realized what might have just happened, and I saw that recognition reflected in Musashi's golden irises as well.

With a shaky hand, I went to remove my officer's cap, which had miraculously stayed on when I immediately noticed the metal shard came with it. I hesitated, not sure if I was about to expose bone or brain before I gently lifted the hat off of my head. I felt the blood dripping down my forehead and gathering in my eyebrow before running down my cheek, but as I gently probed around the area, it felt as though my skull was still intact. "I…I think it's superficial," I finally said in a tremulous voice as I wiped some of the blood away, smearing the rest across my face. I must have looked nightmarish to Musashi.

She gently examined the cut before she nodded in agreement and grabbed a first aid kit that had been violently dislodged by the impact. Wasting no time, she flipped it open, grabbed a large bandage, and pressed it up against the cut. "Here," she said, the fear drained somewhat in her voice. "Apply pressure."

As I nodded and replaced her hand with mine, we both looked down at the officer's cap to see what about it had stopped this makeshift shuriken from burying itself deep in my skull. By a complete miracle, it had been stopped by the metal Eagle Union insignia after cutting through the brim like a hot knife through butter. When I looked back at Musashi, I saw something in her I'd never seen before; a barely concealed fury.

"Keep pressure on that, I'll be right back," she tersely commanded, and I nodded numbly as she got to her feet and strode away.

"Wait, where are you going?" I called out after her.

She stopped for a moment, long enough to look over her shoulder and coldly answer, "I'm finishing this."

By the time I'd struggled to my feet, she'd reached the wreckage of the Siren aircraft that was still embedded in the bridge. With a single, powerful kick, she dislodged the ruined fuselage, sending it tumbling down toward the deck below. Without another word, she grabbed her sword and leapt out of the open hole.

I ran to the edge, steadying myself on a stanchion with my free hand as I watched her gracefully leap down to the forward secondary turret, then onto the superfiring main turret. Above us, the clear sky had disappeared, replaced by dark and ominous storm clouds, and the rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. Her robes and hair began to stir as the wind picked up and the sea began to churn violently. It was as if the wind and waves were beginning to match the dark and deadly mood that had built up within Musashi. In the growing gloom, I caught sight of another wave of incoming Siren fighters, backlit by their afterburners as they swooped in.

Musashi calmly stood there, weighing them in her mind before she slowly drew her massive no-dachi. As she pulled the sword from its scabbard, the blade glowed and crackled with violet lightning. It arced across the turret and up the barrels of the guns as she held it out before her in a slow, smooth motion. Then, in a gesture that was almost too fast for the human eye, she slashed the blade across the sky, sending a shockwave of purple lightning streaking over the waves toward the incoming fighters.

The Sirens barely had time to react before the violet energy crackled across their airframes, overloading their systems and causing multiple detonations that reduced them to little more than debris. I stared in awe at the utter destruction she had wrought in just a few short seconds only to realize she was far from finished. She turned to face the distant Siren fleet, now obscured by the storm that had formed around us, and raised her sword high into the air. Lighting arced down from the clouds and struck the blade, making it pulse with barely contained power, and with a furious cry of "Your time is up!", she brought the blade down in one swift stroke.

Indigo lighting crackled across the waves, headed in a straight line towards the Siren fleet, followed by a massive fireball off in the distance. I managed to tear my eyes off of Musashi for a moment as I headed back towards the holotable. While it was flickering and sparking from the damage sustained, it still functioned for the moment, and I saw one of the cruisers simply wink out of existence. The remaining ships attempted to form a wall between Musashi and the carrier, to protect it with their own lives to give the carrier a chance to sink Musashi. But it was a futile effort.

She slashed and cut again and again, sending out bolts of violet lightning that shattered the enemy ships one by one as her main guns continued to fire on the enemy carrier. By this point, the storm outside was well and truly raging, and as I looked out at Musashi, the wind and backblast billowing through her hair and robes, the lightning arcing around her as she brought her sword down in executioner's blows, I realized what Shinano had said the previous day and what it truly meant.

Musashi was the storm.

A/N-Spotted by many of you eagle-eyed readers, Musashi is indeed the storm. But how does one shelter in her? (Not like that.) Until next week, fair winds and following seas!