Bit of a shorter chapter this time, sorry. Not only did I have to cut it in half, but also had originally been writing the alternate mystery POV, so things got a bit muddled, but both have good progress and should be releasing soon, or at least the second half to this is, I might have to add another chapter in front of 'Stranded, 2" to clarify events.

-o-

The steady clicking of the train's wheels gave way to a slightly worrisome groan as the carriage the group found themselves travelling in meandered wearily around a corner, taking with it the weight of the warships and the few passengers at the far end of the car politely and patiently ignoring the squabbling destroyers.

While the train spirited the Shipgirls inside to their destination, Haggard and Hailey excitedly studied a tourist map, with Franks quietly glancing over it intermitetantly.

Ushio meanwhile seemed content to read some sort of comic book, Iowa was tempted to point out to the poor girl that she was flipping the pages from right to left and thereby reading it backwards but the destroyers contented smile and near total investment in her reading seemed too much for Iowa to pull her back into reality.

Besides, Iowa was too busy watching the passing urban sprawl and reflecting on the events before, leaning against the window on the opposite side of the train and pondering the two sets of news she had received earlier that day.

"So where do we want to go first?" Haggard asked enthusiastically.

"I thought we needed to go to the bookstore?" Asked Hailey.

"We can let Iowa go to the bookstore, let's go somewhere fun."

"But that's mean!" Franks piped in, "besides, the bookstore sounds fun."

"What about food?" Haggard asked flipping the map over, "Jap food is supposed to be pretty good."

"Well, we could look into-" Hailey began.

"Ushio!"

"Huh?" the destroyer asked, startled.

"What's the best Jap food?!"

"Uh I-" she thought a bit "I guess I like tempura." She answered hesitantly.

"Is that squid?" Haggard asked with a frown.

"Not even close." Hailey deadpanned.

"Pretty sure it's squid."

A particularly flashy billboard caught Iowa's eye as she continued to stare out the window.

"Iowa, what's tempura?" Hailey asked.

"Dunno."

"Well that's no help at all."

"It's-" Ushio began quietly before being interrupted again.

"Please stop fighting and just Google it." Franks pleaded.

A phone came out and Hailey began hesitantly pecking keys.

"See!" She finally declared, "it's fried vegetables."

"And seafood!" Haggard declared, "inducing squid!"

"Well yeah! But my point is that it's not only squid!" Hailey bluffed.

Iowa lazily watched a small boat meandering down a river as the train found itself passing over.

"You want to go back?" Franks asked. It took Iowa several seconds to realize the girl was addressing her.

"No-" Iowa asked confused, "why would I need to go back?"

"You look like you're falling asleep."

"No I'm fine, just thinking."

"Something bother you?"

Iowa shrugged, "It's just a lot of info to take in." She mumbled into the window.

"Is that why you're so boring today?" Haggard asked. "Man, I thought a battleship would be-" she paused as if searching for a word, "exciting." she finally announced.

Iowa frowned, "I'm sorry I'm not entertaining to you." she announced with slight frustration and turned back to the window.

"Are you sure it's nothing?" Franks asked with a worried tone.

"Don't worry about her Fran, I bet she's just upset that the Spanish beat her so hard back in the day." Haggard added as a loud aside to her sister, eliciting amused laughs from Hailey and worried grumbles from Franks.

"Okay, yeah, for your information we laid waste to the Spanish." Iowa began, "there wasn't a ship in that harbor that didn't have our expressed permission to exist."

"I just expected a big gun boat would have done it a bit faster." Haggard said with a sly grin.

"Yeah and back when I was around, destroyers were expected to be nice and quiet. They only talked to us when they had something they wanted us to kill."

"Back in my day!" Haggard began in her best 'old lady voice', eliciting a loud laugh from Hailey and stifled laughs from Franks and to Iowa's surprise, Ushio.

"Yeah, sorry for being nostalgic for the time me and my sisters beat down every ship that got in our way." Iowa teased, a slight grin developing, "crammed in a railcar four to one and of course the destroyers have an upper hand."

"Pick your fights better." Haggard added.

"But you started it." Franks defended, eliciting a shrug from Haggard.

"Okay, but back to business," Hailey suggested, "where are we going first?"

"I was just planning on letting Ushio show us around." Iowa suggested.

"Ooshoes doesn't seem the type to make suggestions, no offense to her." Hailey explained. "We need a plan of attack," she announced again, dramatically unfurling a tourist map.

"Well first the bookstore." Iowa suggested.

"That's boring." Haggard challenged.

"But Iowa needs her books." Franks began, "besides, Oohshoes said it'd be fun."

"Fine but afterwards-" Haggard began as the train announced, prompting action from the regular passengers, "oooh! Apparently there are great bars around here! Rum ration here I come! I bet those times were fun huh Iowa?"

"Okay, first off Haggard, you suck, I'm not that old." Iowa began,"Secondly, you're a pain in the ass enough sober." She added, "and thirdly you're too small to drink."

"I'm nearly eighty!" The destroyer protested.

"I said 'to small', not 'too young'."

Ushio stood up and began to collect her things in the small pink print backpack she brought.

"I guess we're there soon?" Iowa asked, glancing at the oncoming platform in the window.

Ushio nodded and the train began to slow, pulling smoothly into the station. To a further announcement by the conductor over the train intercom.

"Well, too late," Iowa admonished, "we'll figure it out on the fly."

"Alright! Let's get to it!" Haggard announced loudly, turning a significant number of heads from other passengers.