Chapter 8: My place lie elsewhere

Kisaragi sat at a corner of one of the porches, her melancholic expression told a lot about her mental suffering. She had too much to think about that she didn't notice Yukari's approach.

"What are you thinking about?"

Her question startled the destroyer. Kisaragi sighed before she turned her head to the house's owner.

"I don't know what to do anymore."

"Why'd you say something like that?"

"I wish I never made that wish. It hurts more when I come back alive and nobody appreciate my effort" She referred to herself that she willingly turned into demon to stay alive and back, but fear that her sister might reject her if the truth was found out.

Yukari suddenly buried her hand in the young girl chest; the victim coughed up blood violently and was pressed to the floor while her heart was clutched tightly, just beating was bad enough to make normal human lost consciousness to the pain surge through the great pressure applied on the heart.

"Then, I'll gladly take it back right now if you don't mind. Just a confirmation with single nod and you can say goodbye." Yukari told her coldly, she wanted to teach this little girl a lesson, she knew from long experience what the final answer would be.

"Did you truly want to die?"

Kisaragi was still conscious thanks to her endurance as one of demonic races which she hoped she wasn't; the unbelievable pain that throb every time the heart beat was the greatest suffering she ever encounter. The gap hag withdrew her hand quickly when she was satisfied with Kisaragi's horror.

The girl got hyperventilation.

However, the over breathing turned into small sobbing after a short time.

"I'm sorry….I'm not thinking straight…"

The thousand-year-old lady watched with half pity half mockery.

"Until you finally decide your own fate, you can take shelter here as long as you need. Consider this is my extra treatment to my first contractor after a very long time." The youkai hag really knew how to make a kiss after a kick effectively because Kisaragi had fully calmed down.

Kisaragi lost count of how many days she had lived in this fantasy land; she nearly became the permanent member of Yakumo house (because Yukari hadn't done the shikigami ritual with Kisaragi yet), she memorized every big shot of each section of the land, and she made many friends, she was a close-friend with Murasa for their similar in nature and specie.

While her daily life was full of fun, she realized what she had been lacking the whole time after living here. No one could replace her sisters, especially Mutsuki, her older sister.

Yukari knew the faithful day had arrived when the destroyer made her appointment to talk with her alone. That night, she sent Ran and Chen on different errand to distract them off their privacy.

"Let me hear what you've concluded after that day, Kisaragi-san" Her tone was devoid of emotion, it was a hint to warn the girl that she wouldn't accept half-heart answer this time.

"Please send me back to my own world."

"Do you realize that you can't come back here after this?"

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"Yes, I know. I reconfirm my intention, Yukari-san"

"It seems you're more prepared that I expected, I really love your eyes, it's so lovely that I want to see it every day." Kisaragi's eyes shone brightly golden, she accepted who she is. She decided to not fool anyone at this point.

"Farewell, we won't meet again"

Then, the destroyer suddenly got free-fall from where she stood.

Somewhere in Pacific ocean

"Retreat! Retreat! I'll hold them off" Mutsuki ordered the other ship girl during her fleet being ambushed. Everyone even the battleship obey the small destroyer without any complain, they witnessed how much caliber the being called Mutsuki held.

To summarize, Mutsuki was very desperate when she learned that Kisaragi had been mutated (it was the official announcement at the base as to why Kisaragi was missing, she had been posted as wanted alive all over. Somehow, it might be the work of a certain boundary master that made every one forget about fake ship girl)

Of course! She refused to believe that, just a day she talked to Kisaragi like normal and the next day her younger sister had been branded a mutant!? She was so furious and lashed out at every one who believe this shit, even Fubuki and Yuudachi got frighten of her drastic outburst.

The Admiral ordered her to be locked up, he said that he would release her when she came to term with the fact.

At first, Mutsuki felt betrayed. When she calmed down, she thought that she should go along with their lie so she could do her own investigation. She made her greatest goal that she wouldn't die until she knew the hidden truth.

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That leaded to who she was today.

It has been long enough that all of the ship girl from her generation was sunk, and many admirals arrived and leaved. Mutsuki was the only one who was still standing on her legs with the same manifestation. She survived through countless battles despise her low stat, plus this isn't the work of miracle. She pulled through with her sheer determination alone.

Even these day, her entire investigation turned out to be failure works. She was still keeping it on, because she had faith that Kisaragi must be alive somewhere; if one of them hadn't kick the bucket, they will definitely see each other someday.

Fortunately, the documents regards mutated Kisaragi was lost after a long time and the newer generation officer got less and less cautious about this hallucinating issue. Plus, who cared for a single missing poor-destroyer when they had been building a lot of destroyer Kisaragi regularly, 8 out of 10 (Such waste of resources, cursed lady luck!).

Though one of the Kisaragi destroyers was assigned to her base, Mutsuki wasn't able to fully bring herself to accept her new younger sister. She remember the way she showed her rejection a bit vividly that sadden the poor new girls for many days before she reconciled. She knew it wasn't this Kisaragi's fault, but her Kisaragi would always be the one in her mind.

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Enough for the retrospect.

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Right now, she only got minimal damaged to her blue sleeve jacket.

"Mutsuki-san! The enemy reinforcement is coming, you shouldn't stay behind for too long" The new gen. Fubuki send the last warning before she flanked away at full speed.

"I know what I'm doing, Fubuki-chan!" It was ironic that her best buddy was still Fubuki, yet Fubuki thought of her differently with her Fubuki: a veteran senior not a close friend.

She tried to struggle as best as she could, avoiding bombs, torpedoes, and many deadly bullets from varieties caliber. In the end, she was so catch up in the storm of skirmish to realize that enemy reinforcement had arrived, too late too get away unscratch now.

"Ha..I doubt I could make it out alive this time." She smirked at the surrounding enemy, her confident wasn't limitless after all.

KABOOM!

One of Ru-class main guns scored a fatal hit on her belly; the blast shitted out her organs everywhere, she vomit a lethal dose of blood to fuse the water red.

'I pray to whoever witnesses this event, either god or demon, please grant my greatest wish to see Kisaragi-chan again-'

Her fall was stopped by something surfacing in front of her, it appeared to be a destroyer and she was held tightly. The remaining attached internal organs were kept at bay by arm and body-press.

She wandered who dared to break the protocol of a flagship, she tried to yelled but her eyes widened a bit in contrast to her nearly death state.

'Beautiful…..' That was the only thing implanted on her mind when she perceived the shinning golden colour of her supporter's eyes before darkness claimed her vision.

Yukari warped Kisaragi into such Oh-my-God! Scene. She saw her sister got shot in the belly and began to sink! She didn't need any prove to know that a girl was her real sister, her strong sense told that much.

She quickly made a course under water to avoid abyssal detection and rescued her sister. She dashed from the scene with mach speed after she got Mutsuki.

The reason was simple; she weighted Mutsuki's life above revenge, the heavily damaged destroyer got short time to live with this nasty wounds. She needed emergency treatment.

Luckily for her, the retreated fleet was still in her surface radar.

The fleet was in daze, the destroyer flanking at the speed of sound which was unheard of!

"K-K-Ki-Ki-Kisaragi-chan? I thought you have another mission, how can you be here!?" Fubuki panicked.

"Calm down and give me the most update map, I want to know where I am and which direction to the base."

Fubuki did as she said; for some unknown reason, Kisaragi had a heavy awe aura she normally didn't possess.

The ocean surface under her feet suffer phenomenal explosion from the result of Kisaragi's full throttle. She put the SR-71 Blackbird to shame as she under the rush of saving her sister, the sonic boom the feet suffered explained that 10 mach was still underestimate her.

'Hang in there Mutsuki-chan! I won't forgive you if you die on me'