Chapter 3: Dark Faction
"Kisaragi-chan! Kisaragi-chan! Wake up" Mutsuki slightly shook Kisaragi to wake her up from her dead-sleep.
Kisaragi slowly rubbed her eyes "Mmmmm…Can't I sleep longer? I got a detention so I don't have to go class." She continued to sleep when she finished answer.
" ...Sadly, Kisaragi-chan~. Detention doesn't mean you can skip class~~" ?.?.?
Alerted by the familiar dreadful-calm voice, Kirasagi sprang herself up 90 degrees quickly. The sight of Ashigara evil smirked scared Kisaragi to an extreme parameter. "A…Ashigara-sensei!, why are you here?" She sweated drop. "Mutsuki-san, you can go on ahead. I'm going to make Kisaragi-san properly attend class for sure." Ashigara gave a hand sign to Mutsuki to follow her instruction.
"Why do I have to attend class? Ain't I under detention, am - ?" Kisaragi's confusion was interrupted by Ashigara's words "Didn't you pay attention to what the Admiral said yesterday? He said until further instruction. This early morning, the Admiral assigned me to be your close observer as he want you to relax and resume normal routine. That means you can move out of the detention area under my accompany, understand?"
"…." Kisaragi was at lost of word while Ashigara was expediting her to dress up and eat breakfast before heading to class.
Classroom atmosphere was very awkward; everybody except YUUDACHI, Fubuki, and Mutsuki didn't pay attention to the subject as always, the attention was focused on Kisaragi alone. Ashigara, noticed the situation, tried to act normally and continue the lesson."Alright! Before the class finish, I want to review what you learned today. Yuudachi-san! What is the difference between AP shell and HE shell?"
Yuudachi, who was regularly chosen as she always was forgetful, stood up.
"AP shell is designed to cause damage to heavy-armor vessel, such as battleship, by penetrating its' armor and explode inside. However, it contain less explosive substance to compensate for more mass of sharp-metal head. HE shell can be likely called standard shell; it is a multipurpose shell for various target type: wide-area bombardment, destroy specific target, etc. The round is lethal enough to disable or sink light-armor vessel; sometime despite its' less effectiveness on heavy-armor vessel, it still frighten or kill the crew onboard…Poi"
"…Thank you for your great answer Yuudachi-san, you really pay attention to my lesson this time" Ashigara was a little bit shocked with Yuudachi sudden good memory, she still felt good nonetheless.
"Hey..hey..Mutsuki-chan, Yuudachi-chan is out of her character today what happened to her?" Kisaragi whispered. Mutsuki whispered back "Nothing happen, but I'm surprised as well."
Ashigara sensed Kisaragi was talking during class. She immediately threw the chalk in her right hand: expected to knock some manner into her student, but the next event was totally unexpected.
At the moment the chalk was sent flying to Kisaragi, her inhuman sense picked up danger from it. Her involuntary reflex acted in a split second; the chalk was fully stopped by her right thumb and index finger. All ship girls present in the room were stunned and speechless as they expected Kisaragi to got bounce off her desk.
The silence remain for almost eternity until YUUDACHI got the class back to their sense "Sensei, Time's up, poi!"
Ashigara recovered from the shcock "Alright class, that's all for today. You all are dismissed. I must praise you Kisaragi-san, you reflex is very good, that reaction is on par with Kongou-san when she's serious."
The comment was hung in the air while the rest of the class went out of the class room. There were only 5 ship girls remaining: Ashigara, Mutsuki, Kisaragi, Fubuki, and YUUDACHI.
"Sensei! If you're free, I'd like you to accompany me to the library." Kisaragi proposed.
"I'll go with you once I finished talking to the admiral, it's that OK with you, Kisaragi-san?"
"Of course!, sensei"
YUUDACHI, who kept quiet for the whole time after class, opened her mouth "I'm going too, POI!"
Mutsuki and Fubuki excused themselves to hang out at Mamiya café. After Ashigara finished reporting about sudden drastic change of Kisaragi's reflex, the trio continued their way to the library.
"So..which section is your interest, Kisaragi-san?" Ashigara asked as she needed to follow Kisaragi anywhere outside of the her detention area.
"Literature, sensei. I want to get my mind out of the stress everyone put on me." It was not a lie though, she felt very stressful since she came back. Another objective was to find more information regards her current species, Ship Phantom, to understand more about her nature. In the meantime, YUUDACHI roamed herself around the weaponry section.
At a certain table in the most silence area, three ship girls concentrated on their selected books.
Ashigara was reading a romance novels and dating tips magazines. She wanted to learn how to make a man to fall in love with her, she hoped the novels or tips would give her some idea, simulation, and experience of the author to her. As a matter of fact, she was the only one who still SINGLE!. She envied all of her sisters; Myoukou already married with naval officer of this base, Nachi at least got a long-life boyfriend, Haguro had a mate who was waiting to marry her once she was release from naval duty. What about herself?! It was depressing that she looked like an office lady in nearly thirty-year-old (Very very optimistic! Actually, she tricked herself to believe that) But she could guarantee that she was fresh as girl's blossom age (REALLY!?). No matter how many roles she played: innocent, seductive, talkative, etc., every man seemed to break up with her after their first date.
She could not give up. She did not want to be left SINGLE behind, ABSOLUTELY NOT!
In front of Kisaragi lie a varieties of Ghost Ship story, she assumed that it was the closest thing to Ship Phantom. General knowledge about ghost ship; it was originated from the passengers' grudge who died with the sunken ship, their negative emotion, stimulus from survival instinct that wanted to live but could not be fulfilled, combined into one mass of great-supernatural- energy which only sought the sunken of other ships which cruised through that area. The most reference sight of its' appear were; heavy fog, sea state zero, cold temperature, then the phantom image of said ship in her prime time would suddenly appeared out of nowhere and crush the target ship without warning which completely sank the target in one hit.
Basically, she assumed that she would got the field advantage during naval fight?, plus extra boots against enemy ship as she was their natural killer? Was it correct? She did not know. It had to be proved in the real fight only..no…might be some naval exercised was enough..? She needed to find some free time to prove her theory.
YUUDACHI scanned through many weaponry documentaries. All weapons were very outdating! Seriously, if they had some advance technology to build a living weapon like ship-girl, why the hell they used only unguided ammunitions!? She accepted that unguided ammunition like small arms ammo, cannon round, mine, general purpose bomb, etc. were still the main power of war in modern warfare as they were cheaper; Still the guided weapon, even they were more expensive, played important roles as most effective and reliable to destroy specific target, such as JDAM, ICBM, SAM, etc.
She also noted that the Bloody Nuclear bomb concept was not presented in this world….Such inconvenience!
At the time she grasped the general idea of this world, she sensed that something was off. When she duplicated Yuudachi's memory; she was sure with the information. The third source information from these books especially nailed how correct she was about this. This place was high-tech and low-tech at the same time, no wonder why they could not finish the job quickly.
Well, fighting with unguided weapons was classic and stylish in its' way, to watched the enemy got destroy with your own eyes was enjoyable and satisfied, she did not deny this fact. She hoped to get into action soon.
The time flied really fast, Kisaragi's schedule checkup had been completed. Right now, Kisaragi herself was in despair, she hugged her knees up to her chest in her room, she was sure that the result would not please anyone. She enjoyed her time too much so she did not give a thought about anything after the deadline; no, she was aware but she chose to ignore them truthfully. And…she deserved it.
Mutsuki eyed her sister behavior closely, she did not know what to do. When Kisaragi returned from checkup with depressed face, she asked what the problem was or something went wrong. Instead of explaining to her, Kisaragi told her she wanted to be alone in silence.
Kisaragi' body check up result was presented on the projector in the Admiral room. Nagato, Mutsu, Oyodo, and Admiral himself were stunned by what they saw. Akashi already recovered from the result as she knew them firsthand herself, wore serious look on her face.
"As you can see, her structure was changed into something close to the Abyssal but not exactly one. I don't know what happened, but she was completely modified into something inside…only the physical appearance is Kisaragi we know." Akashi explained, her inside thought already screamed that whoever did this to Kisaragi, they messed her up real good!
" I fear that this is some kind of Abyssal's new experiment" Mutsu commented.
Oyodo supported "What kind of experiment indeed?!"
"Admiral, what do you think, sir" Nagato questioned for her superior's opinion.
Admiral lost in his thought. While he was not planning to eliminate or scrap Kisaragi, he was unable to let Kisaragi remain in the fleet. The connection of her new body structure and the abyssal made this matter not to be taken lightly.
Unexpectedly, the door was opened without being knocked. Walking inside afterward was YUUDACHI, she then shut the door and locked it.
"Yuudachi! You insolent FOOL! Where is your manner, entering superior's office without approval?!" Nagato hissed.
YUUDACHI glanced all over the room: …2 battleships, a light cruiser, a repair ship, and a human. Quite an overload here for herself alone, but it was correct decision to have Those two on stand-by.
On a second thought, why did she need to camouflage? Let loose for a bit would not hurt, would it?
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.
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Giggled..?!...
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Everyone tensed up from strange acted of YUUDACHI, the sound gave them the creep they never felt before.
Nagoto sensed something was wrong, she covered in front of admiral instantly. "Yuudachi! What's going on? I demand an answer for this." She shouted with all her seriousness.
YUUDACHI sighed. She closed her eyes while walking to confront Nagato. Then she flashed her purple EVIL-EYE directly to Nagato with psychopathic smirked.
"Yuudachi! What happened to you? What are those eyes?!" Mutsu alarmed when she saw those eye pair.
Something rang inside Admiral mind, he asked YUUDACHI with disbelieve. "Yuudachi….Don't tell me you was also turned like Kisaragi?"
(This) YUUDACHI, who loved mind-reading warfare, simply shrugged "What are you talking about, Poi? I'm your Fourth-Shiratsuyu-Class Destroyer Yuudachi. Nothing more,…nothing less…POI. As for why I blindly walked into your room is simple, I have to protect a secret of SOMEONE. Hope you all don't mind erasing every single information on the projector. Poi."
"I KNEW IT! This is your GOD DOMN PLAN right, ABYSS!? Mutsu! Protect admiral. Oyodo and Akashi alert the base. GO!"
"Roger That!"
Right after Nagato's marked, they did their given duty; Oyodo and Akashi immediately dashed pass both side of YUUDACHI, when Nagato sprang herself toward her target with moving-right-fist, Mutsu leapt to replace Nagato for protecting Admiral. The light cruiser and repair ship did not waste time to unlock the door, they just kicked door open by ship-girl strength. Upon existing the room they saw Yuubari and Harusame standing outside near Admiral office.
Lucky! was their first thought, with the help of additional ship girl means more options in alerting the entire base and prepare more counter-measure against Fake Yuudachi. When they got closer, their thought were shattered upon seeing the same kind of YUUDACHI's split-pupil eyes on Harusame and Yuubari with different colour though.
The latter two give the former two their most innocent smile(?), but for some reason; the former two got chilled down their spine.
As for the situation inside Admiral office; Nagato's fist, which normally could blast a single destroyer away with ease, failed to do its' job with This Destroyer? It connect with YUUDACHI's right palm and rest there for the time being without able to claw back as the palm owner catch it with over-destroyer-level strength.
"If you want to play it the hard way, FINE BY ME" This was the first time for the secretary battleship to feel threatened by a destroyer(?) Those purple-split-pupil eyes emitted menacing auro more terrifying than any abyss.
After her arrogant declaration, she gave Nagato an elegent uppercut through her left fist. Nagato, who her shin got smack real hard by monstrous strength: sending strong vibration directly up her brain, got knock out immediately. She then glanced at Mutsu as her next target.
Mutsu watched in horror as her sister was out by a single attack from the destroyer. No doubt that the abyssal fleet already infiltrated the base: first Kisaragi, and now Yuudachi, how many spies which they had dropped into this naval base? Whatever, that could wait. She was thinking of ways to deal with the current situation. She coud not be reckless, or else she would end up like Nagato and left Admiral to face with this monster alone.
"Relax..relaxx..Violence isn't my favourite. Let me erase all these data about Kisaragi, and my business here is done. All I need from you two is your cooperation; just don't get in my way." YUUDACHI proposed the option.
"Yuudachi! Answer he honestly, what did you know about Kisaragi's return?" Admiral already calmed himself down, he tried to bring information piece by piece together.
"You waste my time here, sir. Allow me to finish my job as soon as possible" YUUDACHI walked toward Mutsu and Admiral. She forced them to step back until they were cornered at one of the office's windows.
Mutsu instantly decided to retreat, she hugged Admiral and threw themselves out of the window on the second floor shattering the glass loudy. That action alerted somebody near an area about the commosion: namely Fubuki and Murasame, they rushed to the side of the building where they heard something fell on the ground.
"Mutsu-san! What are you doing?! What happened?" Fubuki exclaimed while Murasame looked up the the broken window.
"Yuudachi-chan? What are you doing up there?" Murasame had no idea what was going on?
"Listen! Run Aw—" Admiral had not finished his sentence as they were suddenly fell into some kind of reality rip. "Way!..." Upon finished his sentence, he and Mutsu plus the two destroyers ended up in his office again facing YUUDACHI pointing a strange-tip-blade design parasol at him. Unconscious Oyodo and Akashi were laid on chairs with YUUBARI and HARUSAME stood on guard each.
"Yuudachi-chan! What are you doing? I don't understand, and where did you get that fancy umbrella?" Murasame confused.
"Let me finish with Admiral and Mutsu fisrt" YUUDACHI quicky tossed her parasol away, use both free hand to grab both faces.
MEMORY ALTER!
She let go off the two lifeless bodies; and continue the same process with Fubuki and Murasame.
"Yuudachi!/Yuudachi-chan! What are you doin-" They screamed, but before they could think of anything, their consciousness faded away.
"Now, the job is done" YUUDACHI sighed
"Not yet!" YUUBARI hinted, she still retained her furious Evil-Red-Eye.
"Why? Please enlighten us, will you? I want to have a nap already." YUUDACHI challenged YUUBARI by her own Evil-eye without backing down.
"You haven't erase information about Kisaragi-chan yet! And how about these two girls here? O~nee~chan!" HARUSAME teased YUUDACHI. YUUBARI felt displeased about the O~nee~chan part somehow consider their real age(?).
YUUDACHI got her point. She began using Admiral's computer to permanently delete every information about Kisaragi's latest checkup, she created fake information to replace them completely. After that, she altered Oyodo and Akashi memoery the same fashion as before. "OK! That shoud do the job. The rest is to clean up the evidence." She collected small glass fraction on the ground outside and replaced the broken glass with 2 swept of dimensional rift.
"You TWO, remember this. We have never been here. Also, don't forget to shut off your evil-eye every time after you go all out" YUUDACHI reminded.
After walked out of admiral office (with not forgetting to repair the destroyed door) while carrying the knocked out witness bodies. A certain destroyer, who observed Admiral room for some times and knew some loud commotion from the room, finalized to uncover from her hiding spot and confronted the three.
"Where are you going! And what have you done to them, Yuubari-san, Harusame-chan, and Yuudachi-chan!?"
The three surprised but not faltered of the unexpected encounter with the Second-Mutsuki-class destroyer, who emitted negative auro to them. Her Evil-eye shined demonic golden light with concern and seriousness.