Chihaya's House, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
A week had passed since Yamato was missing.
The Incident, regarded the missing ship girls & student, and the murder of 2 base guards, caused some major uproar among the naval base. The human suspected that the missing ship girls were the culprit, Yamato's status at the moment was MISSING because the officer couldn't find her corpse yet.
The intense investigation was scheduled afterward: causing the school to be closed for more than a week for investigation's team convenient, Gunzou doubted it was possible to extend to a month. That was the sole reason why he was at his home with Musashi right now; Shouzou's holiday period had end so he resumed working at the current assigned place, Kure naval base.
Gunzou already spoke with Musashi about the missing case of Yamato. Much to Gunzou surprise and suspicious, Musashi seemed to take the news well….no….TOO WELL (?) Her reaction seemed unnatural!.
Musashi's personality was to blame; she was an honest and strait forward person, she was not good at acting at all unlike her tricky older sister. She tried her best to be panicked and sad upon hearing that her sister was missing with high possibility of dead. Of course! She didn't know that Gunzou wasn't convinced by the act one bit.
Set that aside, the moment she heard about this news, she knew that this was the hint her older sister had been talking about. Yeah, she hadn't thought about disappearing plan yet, and it wasn't difficult to think of one. However, Gunzou school's temporary force stop was out of expectation. It made things more difficult with Gunzou around; she cared for Chihaya family more than her sister, so she found herself unable to just walked out of their life like that (refer to Yamato). She needed to consult with her sister later.
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Honestly! She wished she could continue to be part of this family until death did them apart. As long as she was with them….especially with HIM, Admiralty Code or whatever didn't matter to her.
But…would her sister care for her feeling, she wondered?
Kure naval base, Honshu, Japan
Another week passed by.
The event of Yokosuka naval base: unusual behavior of Fog vessel and the possible rebellious act of ship girls, forced all the naval bases to carefully observe Fog patrol route and ship girls' daily life (as possibility of another threat to humanity). Ship girls at Kure naval base, such as Kaga, Akagi, Taigei, Shiratsuyu, Murasame, etc. could feel the pressure that their human superior put on them.
"Shiratsuyu-nee, I heard some gossip saying that the missing ship girls of Yokusaka base were actually the murderers. Do you believe that?" Murasame talked to her eldest sister while they were preparing to leave the firing range.
"I don't! Our existence purpose is defending the humanity from the Fleet of Fog. Why and how can we kill human?"
"I think so too…..because if I do….that means I believe that Shigure-chan is a murderers…" Murasame's sound was a bit shaky as she imagined Shigure shot the human guards.
Shiratsuyu hugged her younger sister.
"You know what Murasame-chan,….actually, my real reason to deny that gossip is the same as you…..Ah! Taigei-san, Hello!" She suddenly greeted Taigei as she was passing by.
"Hello. What's wrong? You look depress."
"Um…it's about the gossip regards the Yokosuka incident-" Shiratsuyu was interrupted by the older ship girl.
"You don't have to tell me, I know how you feel….Just don't think too much about it, the case isn't close yet." She comforted the destroyers.
"How's the base doing?" In the admiral office, Shouzou talked to his secretary ship: Taigei. As the previous admiral had retired, the high board of navy assigned Shouzou, as the remarkable officer, to take care of the base temporary for sometimes now. Shouzou knew that he couldn't manage by himself, he needed a helping hand.
"With order from the board to pause construction ship girls, our resources are added up fast from mining and expeditions within recent weeks." Taigei reported. Taigei was much appreciated for the job because she was unable to do anything in the front line due to her lack of fire power as a submarine tender. She had known him for a few years since he was assigned to this base, she knew his caliber: the most trustworthy and reliable captain they ever had.
Shouzou taught her many things, he viewed her like his daughter (When it came to the Position of Wife; no one could beat his Musashi, NEVER!). Even Taigei knew that her Captain has a lover, she couldn't help but felt one sided love for him.
"So the rumor about missing ship girls' defection is true?"
"Precisely, sir. The information I got from others base and ship girls also point out that the board will likely decide to make a hybrid fleet by increase actual warship vessels and decrease ship girls' vessel.
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"...Ship girl is the most effective weapon against Fleet of Fog, isn't it? Why they would bring actual ship back to the fight, the battle result before ship girls history had proved it." He wondered.
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Taigei hesitated.
"Captain, can you promise me not to reveal the information I'm going to tell you to anyone?"
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Shouzou considered for the moment before accepted.
"I promise"
"My sources inform me one critical information which is believable to be the factor of defection…An official order to scrap Akatsuki and Yuudachi to repair damaged Shigure, Hibiki, and Jintsu. The navy board started to have doubt about trust and faith in ship girls. They unofficially believe that some unstable mind especially destroyers should be scraped. "
Shouzou got the message immediately. He was a little displeased to hear it.
"No wonder why those girls acted harshly. While some human like me, Komaki, and Uragami acknowledge you girls as human being, most of human officers are still view ship girls as object even you girls can interact with us humanly unlike your past selves.
I imagine they may get some kind of great emotional break down so they were driven to go so far as breaking navy protocol." He gulped hard.
They continued conversation until many series of gunshot sound roared.
Rewinded for a few minutes earlier;
At the entrance gate of the base, two guards spotted grey-military-mini SUV with dark-shade front windshield: Mitsubishi type 73 light truck, drove toward their direction in FULL THROTTLE. The sound of red-zone-accelerate engine was extremely noticeable.
"Hey Dude! It's going to crash us!" the left guard yelled when the mini SUV was coming closer and closer, the distance between them was only 80-90 m.
"I KNOW!" the right guard quickly hip fired his Howa type 89 full-auto; it was futile though, the spiky 5.56 mm. NATO bullets bounced off the armor-SUV harmlessly.
The grey SUV responded to this violent welcome by lowering both driver seat and shotgun seat window. Right-hand holding the metallic-black Glock 18 pistol with 33-round extended magazine emerged from the driver seat window, the driver triggered full-auto sending half of the magazine ammo on the right guard. The round nose leads were entering his body into a group above his midsection. Set him dead on track.
At the same time, the left guard was taken out by continuous burst of the same standard NATO 5.56 mm. fired by IMI Galil assault rifle with left handed aim.
Then, the truck sent the metal-entrance-door flying with its' full momentum.
"Jackals are on the HUNT." The driver opened her communicate window.
"Good Luck, the Transporter will be waiting at the building coordinate XXXXXXXXXXX." The unknown coordinator advised.
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While the base was unprepared, the car drove through the drop points.
"Point 1! GO!" The car slowed down in front of the security control office.
Long silver hair girl, wearing white cap with small golden sickle and hammer embedded on it, leaped out from the rear of the car. She looked like 14-15 years old in white shirt: black belt, and black skirt. She'd be adorable if you ignored the fact that she wore special-force tactical vest and armed herself from-head-to-toe with weapons visibly: carried MRO-A single-shot disposable rocket launcher from right shoulder down to the opposite hip, held AN-94 as main weapon, MP-443 Grach in the mounted-right-thigh holster. More weapons were invisible at the moment as they were packed inside the vest pockets.
She wasted no time running into the building; the sound of gun fight could be heard a second later.
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"Point 2! GO!" The second place was near the administration office.
A girl looked similar to 14-15 years old Akatsuki in her Kai Ni form (what was the different with the normal form anyway? Just background changed? YOU DON'T SAY!...), jumped out from the rear. She wore tactical vest too. Her main weapon was FN P-90, secondary weapon was the Duo-FN Five Seven resting on chest holsters. In additional, she also carrier the famous M72 Light Anti-tank Weapon in the same style as previous girl on her back.
She calmly walked into the target building afterward, regular burst shot could be heart after her entry.
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The third point was the admiral office, the mini SUV came to halt.
"We will get off here. Jintsu, don't forget to drop Yuudachi at the ship girls' arsenal. We'll signal you when to retrieve me and everyone later. Until then, guard the entrance well!"
"Roger!" She saluted. She appeared to get older to 20-year-old (in Kai Ni form)
"Be careful, Shigure" looked like 18 years old Yuudachi (in Kai Ni from) spoked.
"I should re-direct it to you, Yuudachi. Explosive wasn't something to be taken lightly" She muttered.
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"Remember this Shigure, we're going to bring the target out of here ALIVE"
"You can trust me on that, Yamato-san"
The suppose-missing student; who wore tactical vest and armed herself lightly: black Glock-18 in her right hand, 7.5-inch barrel of Ruger super redhawk .454 casull in her left hand, leaded the way. Shigure (Shigure Kai Ni), who let her hair loose straight down and her manner was more mature like 20+ despite being teenage appearance as Yuudachi, followed her leader.
If anything, Shigure was the only one who hadn't worn the tactical vest. Instead, she wrapped herself with 3 bullet belts of round-nose-flat-point .44-40 WCF: across both shoulders, and waist. With the lever-action Winchester model 1873 slung on her shoulder and single action army in weaver stance, she could be called Cowgirl if you added hat and Mexican shawl to cover her sailor uniform.
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"Yuudachi-san, Your Tur-" Jintsu got interrupted by armed officers fired at the car. Yuudachi grabbed a bag (?) and took out her golden Dessert eagle mark XIX.
"Cover me, Jintsu-san!" She pushed rear door open and dashed out, not waiting for an answer.
Yuudachi ran as fast as she could to reach her target building. Along the way, she gave herself some covering fire. Most of Yuudachi's shots missed their mark since she didn't actually have time to aim. Though the lucky shot was still presented, one armed man suddenly got body-twist and his limb was nearly ripped off from the socket.
Jintsu catched the Galil that she left on the front console. She lowered the window before firing at the resistance. Fortunately, all of them got at least a shot before she detached the old magazine and inserted the new one.
She drove out once she confirmed that her delivery was completed.
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She parked the mini SUV near the same entrance as they crushed in; she moved from the driver seat to the back compartment. Then, she forced open the wooden case they carried with.
Inside the case were multiple types of re-supply magazines loaded with ammunition with additional of light machine gun and RPG-29, with 3 PG-29V tandem rockets. After she applied 3-Galil-mag. with jungle clips, She loaded the light machine gun and 1 rocket to the launcher, she slung the rocket launcher on her back, she carrier the left over 2 shots with one hand to the entrance security post. She returned to the car one more time to carry light machine gun and spare ammo.
"Main firearm (Galil) checked, support firearm (unknown-type light machine gun (?)) checked, sidearm (SIG P-220/Minebea P9 stolen from Akashi) checked, special weapon (RPG-29) checked, spare mag. checked. All clear to engage" She murmured.
Until the High Flagship sent the signal; any reinforcement who dared to intervene must pass her stand first. She awaited them with maximum caution.
Now, Shouzou SWORE that he could hear gun fire everywhere from the admiral office building. Which idiots dare to assault a military base! Did they have a death wish or something!?
Wait A Minute!
Please noted that civilian in Japan absolutely had no way of owning a gun, even a single pistol/revolver for Yaguza or military officer was still very strict! It took him a lot of effort to own his Rolls Royce of Revolver! ! !
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Ahem!
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Analyzing from the thunderclap & ear-jarring sound, they possibly originated from high-caliber handgun up to assault rifle. The intruder must be military force level. The question was, who were they? And why did they have done this?
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Was he locked in the revolve of some sort?...Well, who could he ask?
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"Taigei, catch this!" Shouzou threw her a Minebea P9 from his drawer. He prepared himself by inserting 6 shell of .357 magnum semi wadcutter into his personal stainless 8-inch barrel Colt Python's 6-shot-cylinder one by one.
"What should we do, Captain?" She slid to chamber the first round, but the FMJ 9x19 mm. was ejected to her surprise.
"Oops! Sorry, I forgot to tell you, put the safety off and it'll ready to use. We'll stay here; it's safer this way." Shouzou winked.
Taigei released the magazine; she returned the ejected ammo into the magazine, reloaded and clicked the safety off. She looked worried but not panic. From her professional grip post, it seemed Shouzou had taught his secretary ship MANY (INTERESTING) THINGS!
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Bang!
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Bratatatat!
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Bang!
Bratatat!
Bang! Bang!
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Shouzou and Taigei heard that the recent gun fire sound was located in this building. Sometimes later, they even heard the scream of injured men, women, and ship girl (?)
"Taigei! Lock the door and take cover behind the desk with me!"
She quickly did as instructed.
"Shoot the middle section with first shot, and the second shot would be the head, you got me?"
"YES SIR!"
They aimed their revolver & pistol at the door direction, waiting the attacker to show themselves.
After Shigure reloaded her single-action revolver for the second time, she switched her weapon to the lever-action rifle. Reason? No real reason, she just wanted a change of weaponry. She'd please to know the feeling of difference even though they used the same cartridge type .44-40.
Shigure carefully operated the old-fashioned lever-action weapon; every time she finished firing a shot, she'd replace the ejected fired case with new ammo to the under-mounted spring-loaded tube. That mean her Winchester'd never run dry of ammo as it was always full with maximum 15 rounds loaded.
The more she used it, the more she loved it. She fell for the cracking sound every time she manually ejected the fired case.
Its' accuracy was average. While its' Buckhorn iron-sight wasn't that accurate for shooting competition, it proved to be very efficient in real combat which your enemy always moving without routed themselves at one place.
So far, there were only human target they had killed.
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"Sh…Shi…Shi-"
2 gunshot were fired at the same time.
One shot was .44-40 and another one was .454, they hit target at the same time (but not the same point).
The target yelped in pain; .44-40 caliber hurted her very much, but .454 hurted her WORSE.
"Murasame?!"
Murasame stopped her groan.
"Shigure! I miss YOU!" Murasame, whose voice was still shaking by the pain, was overjoyed with happiness to see her sister, she already ignored that her sister just shot her!?
"Stop right there, Murasame!" She warned her sister. She slowly approached her.
"What's wrong, Shigure? Why are you wielding human weaponry? And you look more beautifu-" Shigure smacked the Winchester butt to Murasame's chin, Murasame soon lost consciousness.
Shigure blushed a little by her sister's compliment.
"Ara~ You're such a Tsundere"
"Please don't tease me; I just think it'll make us finish our objective faster this way"
Yamato shrugged.
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Lastly, the two arrived at their destination: the admiral room.
Yamato found out that the door was lock upon preparing to swing it open.
"Shigure, please" She gestured to the door.
"Can't you break it yourself?"
"What's the point to have underling if you have done everything by yourself, do you agree?" Yamato chuckled.
Shigure sighed, seemed like she have to take much time to understand her new boss character.
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"On my mark" Shigure switched to her single-action revolver, cocked the hammer ready to fire.
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"3"
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"2"
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"1"
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BREAK!
She shoved the door with all her strength; it got flied out of its' hinge into the room.
Shouzou and Taigei instinctively ducked out of the way; Taigei and Shouzou emerged from both side of the table to counter-attack.
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They didn't expect their attacker to be someone they knew….
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'Yamato?!' Shouzou shocked upon seeing his son girlfriend, who was still alive and well, aiming gun at him.
'Shigure-chan?!' Taigei widened her eyes when she realized who was pointing a gun at her.
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While the defenders paused in their track, the intruders used this opportunity to their advantage.
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Shouzou got forcefully disarmed; his beloved Python got its' first scar by a single powerful .454 caliber bullet, resulted in its' fallen off his hand.
Taigei was unfortunate. Shigure hip fired all 6 rounds consecutively; her left palm slapped hammer and her right index finger pulled the trigger mercilessly, Taigei received great pain from barrage of .44-40 struck on her body
Yamato took the situation under her control, she pointed revolver and automatic pistol at stunned Shouzou and panting Taigei. Shigure released the cylinder, let the fired case fell on the ground and calmly pick ammo from bullet belt to reload cartridge by cartridge.
"I have come to pick you up, Captain Chihaya Shouzou" Yamato mockily saluted.
"W..Wh..What's this about? More importantly, why are you here with guns?!" Shouzou was very bloody confused by the turn of event; he had tons of question, but he could only ask a few.
"I'll hear your entire question at the meeting point, hurry up Father! I want to reach the goal before Gunzou (?)" She expedited the captain by cocking a hammer of her Super Redhawk.
Shouzou had no idea what happened, but the mentioned of his son name diverted his mind to focus on a single prayer.
'Gunzou, please be safe'