Akitsu Maru slowly opened her eyes and found the texture of wood in front of her face, an odd thing to wake up to under most circumstances. Lifting her head and looking around it suddenly made sense to her, she had fallen asleep while drinking with the carriers. Around the entire Kotatsu almost every carrier that had been present was lying on the floor or on the Kotatsu, sleeping soundly among the now ridiculous number of alcohol bottles, glasses and cans that littered the room. The only person in the room who was not sleeping was this base's Kaga, who was carefully sliding bottles and cans away from the edge of the Kotatsu.
"Ah, you're awake too. Help me with all these cans would you. It'll make a mess if someone wakes up and hits them." Kaga said in her usual nearly emotionless tone.
Akitsu Maru nodded and pulled herself out of the Kotatsu, standing up slowly in case she was hung over or tipsy. She wasn't. "There are quite a lot of them."
Kaga looked up to see that Akitsu Maru was talking about the cans as she helped move them out of the way. "Yes, I suppose that's the reason we're only allowed to drink together once a week. The battleships aren't allowed to do it at all though, so it's not that bad."
Akitsu Maru looked at Kaga shocked. "Wait, the battleships here can't drink at all?"
"No, they can but they can't do it together in groups unless the entire base is having a party, otherwise we'd have nothing left in a matter of days."
"Oh, that makes more sense." Akitsu Maru muttered as she looked around, noticing that no one else seemed to even be stirring, despite the amount if noise that moving all the cans and bottles was making. "They're not waking up, huh?"
Kaga looked around and picked up a rice bowl in front of Akagi, sniffing it for a moment before her brows narrowed. "I think Jun'you spiked the rice cooker with sake." Kaga said with an exasperated sigh.
"So, do we just wake them up then or wait?" Akitsu Maru asked calmly as she pushed the last of the cans toward the kotatsu's center.
Kaga shook her head as she knelt down and pulled a blanket over Akagi's back. "I'll wait for them to wake up. You probably need to get going though; you have more work to do today, yes?"
Akitsu Maru could tell that Kaga had ulterior motives for what she was saying, but she could also tell she was thinking of her. "Yes, I may have more orders. Are you sure you'll be alright watching them all alone?"
Kaga smiled and picked up a large glass sake bottle by its neck, holding it like a small bat as she walked past Akitsu Maru and stopped behind the fast asleep Jun'you, "It's fine. I've had to before, and I can always forcibly wake up the one responsible to help me. Have a safe trip, okay?"
Akitsu Maru took the hint and nodded in reply, quickly leaving the room, and hearing a very audible crack as she reached the building's main doors. Crossing the base as quickly as she could Akitsu Maru entered the main building that held its mess hall, and found the bases admiral in the hall just inside the door talking on a phone. As she noticed Akitsu Maru she closed her phone and walked over, a smile crossing her face. "Good morning, Akitsu Maru. Did you sleep well last night?"
"Well, it depends on the definition, I guess," Akitsu Maru said with a shrug, "I slept like a rock, but I don't recall when I went to sleep."
"That happens a lot on the carrier's drinking nights. Ah, before I forget though, was Kaga preparing the bottle alarm when you woke up?"
Akitsu Maru looked at the admiral with a confused face, unsure of what she meant, until it hit her a moment later. "Ah, yes, I think so."
"I figured as much. I did warn her after all, but she never listens," the admiral muttered to herself before gesturing to the nearby set of metal doors. "Shall we get some breakfast then?"
Akitsu Maru looked at the clock on the wall and shook her head. "Sorry, I really should get back. I didn't expect to sleep so late, please forgive me."
The admiral waved her hand in the air as if swatting Akitsu Maru's words away, "Don't worry about it. I kind of figured you'd say something like that, so at least take this and eat it on the road." she said as she tossed Akitsu Maru a plastic wrapped bag of melon bread.
Akitsu Maru looked at the bag and then to the admiral, nodding to her with a smile, "You are too good to me, thank you."
"No, thank you, Akitsu Maru. Without you I'm pretty sure all of our bases would have fallen long ago, keep up the good work," the admiral said as she walked into the mess hall, the door closing behind her with a light clang.
Smiling to herself and opening the melon bread's packaging Akitsu Maru left the building and headed over to the bases warehouse. Stepping up beside her truck she took a bite out of the bread. "I wonder how many orders there are going to be when I get back. There's always a lot when I spend the night elsewhere for some reason," she muttered to herself as she finished up the melon bread and climbed into her truck, quickly driving it out of the base.
The roads were the same as usual for most of the way, but as she neared Tokyo, something was plainly wrong. Then she heard the sound of cannon fire and exploding water. Looking out towards the ocean she could see many large craft accompanied by dozens of ship girls, and further out, three Abyssal ships for each ship girl. It was another attempt to break the abyssal blockade around japan and get civilian ships to the mainland.
Akitsu Maru sighed at the sight, not because it was a horrible idea, because it wasn't. But because each time they tried many people lost their lives. She understood the need for japan to regain its connections to the mainland, but seeing so many large ships that could take upwards of months to build made her feel extremely sad, perhaps because it was, in a way, like watching a ship girl fall in battle without having fought back.
Akitsu Maru shook her head about, trying to avoid such thoughts as she drove ever closer to the city. Her work was what allowed other ship girls to fight, and as long as they fought, they could try to regain communication with the mainland. She had a job to do, just like everyone else and she had to do it.
Rolling up the window she drove into the city's outer limits and ducked off of the main road onto a side road, an act that would make getting to the warehouse district, both faster and less troublesome. The uneven surface of some back roads were troublesome to some, but for her truck it was no problem, just a reminder of how badly some of Japan's infrastructure was beginning to fail.
Getting to the warehouse district Akitsu Maru found it to be abuzz with activity, far more than she had seen in a very long time. Every warehouse's doors were open with dozens of trucks parked outside of them as workers piled supplies into them. Along with those parked, dozens of trucks seemed to be leaving the district with haste, the sound they made when they shook telling her they were filled to capacity. Parking her own truck to the side of the warehouse to avoid getting in the way she leapt out and ran into the warehouse, finding the supervisor standing at the doors directing dozens with his voice. "What's going on?"
The supervisor looked to Akitsu Maru and smiled, though it somehow seemed half heartened. "Almost every base in Japan has asked for massive orders of everything. Personally I think the admiralty board has sent out some sort of mass order like last year, but that's just me."
"Do we have enough supplies to give them all? Where do you want me? Akitsu Maru asked, eager to get to work.
The supervisor sighed heavily; something Akitsu Maru had never seen him do when asked if he wanted help. "Go check your desk; I've got to get all these trucks out without delay."
Akitsu Maru could understand his seriousness, but as she walked away she heard him swear under his breath, something about an admiral, but she didn't hear it clearly. She didn't need to once she arrived at her desk.
Sitting at her desk just like he had once before was the R&D head Leo Yomi. His uniform was crisp and clean, but his eyes looked like fire as they looked up at Akitsu Maru. After staring at her for almost a full minute in silence his lips finally parted, "I have a special mission I would like you to do."
Akitsu Maru shuddered as she heard his words. She had done his mission already, she was supposed to be getting back to her usual work, and she was supposed to be out their delivering supplies, not acting like a secret agent! "Does it have to do with the storm of orders that I should be helping with?" Akitsu Maru asked, holding back her inner anger and thoughts to keep her tone clear and unaffected.
Leo Yomi nodded, "Yes, due to a massively powerful fleet of Abyssal ships that has been roaming around, the Admiralty board has put out a large scale bounty. Whichever fleet that destroys them will be able to have their base substantially upgraded, and will be given authority to request either of the Yamato class ships from the Kitakyushu LSC base to assist them in up to three dozen operations. While all our forces are dealing with this group of abyssal, I would like you to move through the Sea of Japan and locate abyssal forces there."
"And what would I be doing locating them, I could beat a few of them, but not if there is many of them." Akitsu Maru asked, nervous about where the conversation was going, and what it could mean for her.
"We want you to gather information on the abyssal areas of control and any patrol routes they have. And we would like you to go without your combat equipment so that any abyssal are less inclined to attack you. "
Akitsu Maru could feel rage bubbling up with in her, it sounded like she was being ordered on a suicide mission. Worse than that, she knew why she was, "Is this because of those ships that left earlier?"
Leo Yomi raised a brow to Akitsu Maru. "You are awfully questioning for a supply ship, but yes. Japan cannot hold out without trade for much longer, therefore we need to re-establish it with the mainland. Whatever information you provide us with towards that end will become invaluable."
"You're using the operation against those Hime's and Oni's to cover my mapping their movements then?" Akitsu Maru asked, connecting the dots in her head without any problem.
Leo Yomi looked at Akitsu Maru, his face looking more concerned than anything else, "How do you know that?"
Akitsu Maru felt her heart skip a bit, realizing that Leo had not said what the abyssal fleet was made up of. "I heard about it from the secretary ship of the base I was at yesterday, Kaga Under Admiral-."
"Ah, fair enough, that's fine. Simply put, while many admirals join forces to strike at those abyssal ships, their gazes should be on our eastern waters, leaving the Sea of Japan mostly empty, we believe. Use that to map out where their regular patrols are, or any other information that we could use to organize trade routes again with the mainland."
Akitsu Maru struggled to contain herself as she considered Admiral Yomi's words. The plan itself in general made sense, but it still felt like a suicide mission for her. No, it was a suicide mission, without her equipment if she got caught she would sink. "May I request to bring my equipment, without it I would stand no chance if I got into a fight." Akitsu Maru asked, her tone stiff from holding back the anger she was feeling.
"You are leaving your equipment so it does not weigh you down and let you make the choice for combat. This operation is reconnaissance, not combat." Leo Yomi said simply, his tone saying that he was not willing to budge.
Akitsu gritted her teeth together and spoke up again, hoping to change the admiral's mind. "Then let me just take my scroll so I can reconnoitre areas around myself so I don't get caught unawares. It would allow me to protect myself to at least a small amount."
"No. You will bring no equipment and will work quickly and quietly. The admiralty board believes you capable of this, and the R&D department does as well." Leo Yomi said as he got up from Akitsu Maru's chair and walked past her, stopping just a few feet away. "You have your orders, get to it."
Akitsu Maru stood there for many moments after Leo Yomi left, grinding her teeth together as she slowly tried to calm herself down to no avail. She was being ordered on what easily was a suicide mission if anything went wrong. How was she supposed to watch abyssal patrol routes without her planes or without getting close to them!?
This entire situation was completely ridiculous to her, as was its timing. If R&D had wanted her to keep working with them why would she not have been given this mission upon returning with the shells, or why had she not been asked to join R&D permanently?
Regardless of how ridiculous the situation and what R&D was thinking, Akitsu Maru had been given an order from a high ranking admiral, and just like before she had no choice but to comply. Taking her scroll out of its loop and setting it inside her equipment case she pulled out the only piece of equipment she was being allowed to use, her boot attachment pieces, and walked away from her desk. Walking though the warehouse she found the supervisor standing exactly where he had been before, his face now covered with a heavy scowl, and his fists clenched.
"I know that orders from an admiral cannot be ignored or disobeyed. But I wish he would've chosen a better time to send you out again, the bastard!"
Akitsu Maru shook her head, holding in the dislike she now felt for Leo Yomi as she replied as a ship girl was expected to, at least partly. "It cannot be helped. Don't overwork yourself."
"And you come back in one piece," the supervisor said in reply as he turned and began yelling at some other workers in the warehouse, allowing Akitsu Maru to leave without saying anything else.
Stepping around the maze of trucks that were trying to arrive and leave Akitsu Maru made it to her own and climbed on. The most sensible place to leave from would be in the area of the KitaKyushu LSC base, meaning it was going to be a long and boring drive.
Authors note: whoo another chapter, though the next one will be delayed a bit due to me going to a convention/festival. Either way I hope everyone is liking the story and this chapter. Until the next one!