A/N:
One of the few things that I pride myself on about being a writer is the dialogue that I put into my stories, because one of the gripes that I have with anime and other shows, subbed or dubbed, is that the conversations rarely ever feel smooth or natural; they always seem somewhat forced all the time, like it's too obvious to tell that the voice actors are reading off a script. Therefore, I've always made it a personal goal of mine to produce dialogue that's believable, dialogue that sounds exactly like what a normal, every-day conversation would sound like.
Thus, the second entry was more straightforward this time, but it focused solely on the dialogue. The intent behind "A Lunar Night" was to have the readers imagine the scene for themselves as much as possible using only sensory details provided in the dialogue to build and capture the scene. While writing has its clear limitations, its one advantage over other entertainment mediums like film and anime is the ability to provide natural narration, but by removing this one advantage, you're basically left with what's essentially a script, like a movie script. Therefore, by writing this way, the dialogue itself must be rich enough to make a scene easily imaginable to the point where a narration isn't needed at all. Hopefully I was able to do what I aimed for.
I guess this story's becoming a sort of personal thought process for me as I continue to experiment with different ways to write. I wonder if this's against Fanfiction R&G. Hopefully it isn't.
-Akyuu no Joshu
"Mamiya, Irako, are you alright?"
The naval base has been attacked. At 1729 hours, just as Akatsuki and her ship sisters Hibiki, Ikazuchi, and Inazuma were heading inside Mamiya's cafe to enjoy their traditional afternoon treats of sherbet parfaits and creme brulee, a large squadron of Abyssal vessels had found and assaulted the naval base, catching the base completely unawares. Because of this surprise attack, none of the ship girls at base could be deployed fast enough to defend the base, so all they could do was dig in and wait for the attack to cease, hoping that whatever they were hiding behind during the raid would hold up long enough to prevent a bomb from dropping right on top of their heads.
Nagato, having been invited by Akatsuki to join them while heading back to the docks from the Admiral's office, therefore was trapped inside the cafe with Akatsuki and her destroyer sisters and the two supply ship girls. Tossing aside the heavy classical painting of a fruit decoration on a table that she had ripped off the wall in her haste and used as a shield to cover herself and the others, Nagato looks at her arms, annoyed at the small cuts all over her arms. The cafe had taken a bomb explosion just outside the front entrance, blasting the windows in and sending glass shards of all kinds showering through. Nagato's arms were the biggest parts of her body exposed to this glass shower due to the way Nagato was holding the heavy painting, so now her arms are filled with small cuts that feed blood like tributaries of a large river system pooling blood and delivering it down to her elbows.
"Y-Yes, we're alright!"
Mamiya's frightened voice that is trying to keep calm despite the shock of the unexpected air raid reaches up to Nagato.
"Girls, are any of you hurt? Tell us now, because if you are - "
"N-N-No, Mamiya-san, we - we aren't hurt!"
"Yeah, thanks to Nagato-san, we aren't scratched one bit. She might need some first aid, though."
"My goodness, you're right! Nagato-san, please, wait here while I - "
Nagato shakes her head. Being the secretary ship girl of the base for a very long time, Nagato wields a certain air of authority about her that puts her virtually on par with the authority of the Admiral. It was an unspoken rule: when Nagato spoke, everyone listened. Speaking over her was simply not an option - not even the carriers or the supply ship girls dared to have the courage to break this unspoken rule. The fact that Nagato can simply shake her head and make no noise and still demand an obedient audience is proof of this.
"These wounds are negligible. For now, I am assuming on-scene command. You girls, defend Mamiya-san and Irako-san in case there are follow-up airstrikes. If there are none, look around and make sure our comrades are safe. I shall head to the Admiral's office and confirm his condition."
The bomb that shattered the windows also caused some of the support beams to collapse, caving in the low-lying roof on the right corner of the front of the cafe. Nagato's boots crush large splinters of wood, frighteningly grotesque chunks of glass, and shattered silverware as she hurries outside, not bothering to duck underneath the top of the door because it is too low for her and simply smashing her fist through it instead.
Fires run amok, blazing atop tiles and roofs of the various buildings of the naval base. The enemy aircraft, thankfully, had not used any incendiary bombs in the raid, it seems, judging from the relatively low number of fires, all things considered. The ship girls throughout the base, sensing that the air raid has stopped, are rushing about, shouting orders at each other to coordinate a frantic yet controlled operation of firefighting and salvaging.
"Yuubari, there's a fire hose inside the workshop! Bring that over, we need it right now!"
"We need more buckets over here!"
"Everyone, get away from that storage building, it's going to collapse from the fire!"
"Tch...I'm gonna make all those Abyssal idiots sink to the bottom of the ocean for what they did to my picture of me and Kitakami-san!"
Nagato can't help but wonder to herself why a ruined picture is a top priority in a situation like this as she cuts behind the storage buildings and workshops straight for the schoolhouse and track field. The track field was not targeted by the air raid, but the schoolhouse took a few bombs, and the north wing is on fire. Beyond the schoolhouse, however, is the main logistics building, in which the Admiral's main office is located. If she knows her Admiral well, he should be there. The problem right now is that judging by the small amount of smoke coming from beyond the schoolhouse, it appears that the logistics building, too, is on fire, though the fire shouldn't be raging out of control just yet.
Nagato grimaces. As much as she wishes to assist everyone else, to put the power of the Big Seven into good use, she is more determined to check on the Admiral. The Admiral first - first and foremost.
Before all else.
"Nagato-nee! Nagato-nee!"
A familiar cry grabs Nagato's attention, causing her to stop abruptly and kick up a small cloud of dirt on the outermost lane of the track field and turn towards the direction of her name being called.
"Mutsu!"
"Nagato-nee, this is bad. The Admiral - "
"Where is he? I'm on my way to check on him. Did anything happen to him?"
"He's - he was with me, Fubuki-chan, and Mutsuki-chan right when the air raid hit. He told us to get everyone to cover while he - while he - "
"While he what? Tell me, Mutsu!"
" - while he ran back to the office!"
Nagato's blood pulses cold as she feels her own breath freeze inside her lungs.
"He said - he said that he needed to do something before - "
"THAT IDIOT!"
Mutsu's words get caught on her tongue abruptly, and this allows Nagato the chance to tear herself away from her beloved young ship sister.
"N-Nagato-nee! Where are you - !? Oh, goddamn it, Nagato-nee!"
Stupid Admiral. Valiant, but stupid. Naively stupid. Why the hell did he run back to the offices, in the middle of an air raid? And did he even reach it in time? He never thinks about himself. He always thinks about others. There's no point to his altruism if he can't live past twelve months of his post here at the naval base.
Nagato's loathing thoughts dulls out the world around her. She begins to fail to notice the suffocating thumps of her large, heavy boots and those of her sister's following closely behind, the crackling of fires growing more and more ravenous, the falling of wood, glass, and debris -
She's worked so hard for him. She was one of his very first battleships - his very first one, in fact. All this time, all these months of sortieing, fighting, and finally becoming his secretary ship - and he still thinks that tossing his own life away like a sakura blossom falling in the spring is completely acceptable.
The main doors that are in her way almost get shoved off their hinges as Nagato pushes them open without bothering to control her power, but she doesn't care. The tapping of military drums, chants of Banzai'ing Japanese soldiers, the military orchestral music...
"This is a holy war! Give your lives for the glory of Japan! Give your lives in the name of the Emperor!"
Nagato rips away the door to the Admiral's office with much more excessive force than is needed, and the door that is stuck because of a few collapsed bookcases on the other side gets launched backwards and stabs into the wall, hanging there as Nagato kicks the heavy bookcases out of the way.
"Admiral! Admiral, are you here!?"
Mutsu enters the Admiral's room after her to inspect the damage.
A bomb has torn open the room, exposing it to the air. Small fires are using what's left of the curtains on the jagged, ripped walls as fuel to burn in their respective corners. Papers, broken and unbroken bottles of ink, spare quills, wood splinters, glass shards, books, and embers lie scattered like wild confetti. The desk that the Admiral has sat in for twelve months has been blown apart into two halves, split down the middle, and the two halves have fallen forward, unmoving, letting the fire from the curtains lap at its feet.
"...he isn't here. Where did he go?"
Nagato barely hears Mutsu talk as she kneels down to pick up the scattered papers in front of the collapsed, broken desk. The afternoon sea breeze flows in liberally through the giant, gaping hole breached through the room, now that there are no walls to stop it. It flutters the papers about and fans the flames, causing them to grow restless and energetic with the fresh infusion of oxygen.
"I'll check the other rooms to make sure he really isn't here."
Nagato barely hears Mutsu's clomping exit the room and thump away, echoing through the second floor corridor. Rummaging through the papers, she determines the papers useless and tossing them aside with frustration, and the papers go sailing towards the other end of the room behind her. She looks down again, and underneath the small stack of messily scattered papers lies a small black notebook.
That's the Admiral's command book. It shouldn't be outside of the desk drawer at this time. If it really wasn't, it'd still be inside the drawer of the desk, and the drawers haven't been tossed around and still remain inside the desk.
Nagato kneels down quickly again, sliding the papers that are in the way aside to reveal the rest of the black notebook - but also a small black case that looks like it could sit neatly on her palm. Picking both of these items up with her huge hands, she holds the small black case curled up inside her right ring and pinky fingers against her palm, dabs the tips of her middle and index fingers with her tongue, and opens the command book to flip the pages to the last entry.
Remodel Fubuki directly to Kai Two. Don't worry about the resources. The fairies will be mad at me because I'd done this already for Yuudachi, but this time they'll let this slide.
After rebuilding the base and consolidating the fleet, Nagato is to lead the fleet against the main base of the Abyssal fleet. I've realized with this air raid that our suspicions have been confirmed. Push the Abyssals out of their base and reclaim that territory.
Finally, give this case to Nagato. She will need it for this mission.
Tell her that I'm sorry in advance.
No, this can't be.
Nagato's fingers subconsciously press down harder on the small case, but she closes the command notebook and pushes the small black case into the center of her upright right palm. Tucking the notebook underneath her left arm, Nagato opens the case.
A black and gold ring, adorned with the imperial crest of the former Imperial Japanese Empire, resting on the small pink cushion inside.
Nagato feels as though this was somewhat planned all along - just the execution didn't go as planned for the Admiral.
She doesn't know whether to feel happy or angry.
Probably both.
The crash of falling wooden planks behind her in the room throws her back into the burning reality of the room. Pulling the ring out of the case, Nagato quickly pockets the case in her skirt and slips the ring onto her right ring finger.
To her surprise, the ring squeezes lightly and secures itself tightly over the edge of Nagato's black fingerless elbow glove. The metal of the ring feels surprisingly cold, even though the skin of ship girls are more desensitized and more resistant to extreme temperature changes, but it only takes a second for the warmth from Nagato's finger to permeate through the metal. The imperial crest glows pink, the color of sakura petals at full bloom.
It's too bad that the only sakura petals floating about inside the room are not flower petals, but the embers of fire.
"Nagato, the Admiral isn't here, he must be missing. But I don't understand how, or where he's gone off to...do you know if he's been here during the air raid?"
Nagato slowly turns her head to glance at Mutsu over her shoulder. She sees not fright, but a willingness to work in her younger ship sister's face. This is what the base needs to carry out the Admiral's last orders.
"He has been here. His orders are written here, but we need to secure this base first. Let's get outside and help the others fight the fires and make sure that more enemy air waves don't approach."
"Eh? Well - wait, what about the Admiral?"
"Mutsu, trust me. I know the Admiral better than anyone else here. This is what he wants. For now, we must report him as missing in action. But for right now, we have bigger issues at hand. Now go!"
"Er - well, okay, but - but what about you, Nagato-nee?"
"I have some business to attend to first in this office."
Mutsu gazes at Nagato's back, at the silhouette of the one figure at this base who symbolized the unwavering confidence and hope that formed the foundation of the fleet's morale.
After all, the power of the Big Seven isn't just for show, is it?
"Okay. Don't stay here too long...it's dangerous to play around with fire, after all."
Mutsu's boots clomp away, echoing again down the stairs, isolating Nagato inside the Admiral's room.
The cool embrace of the ocean breeze brushing her long, supple hair back behind her arms.
The touch of the light, smooth texture of the papers floating about and brushing against her shins.
The kiss of the embers on her lips, gliding up from the small fires that are biting at the feet of the Admiral's broken desk.
Instead of the tapping of military drums, chants of Banzai'ing Japanese soldiers, the military orchestral music, these are what she feels and hears and sees.
It's time to make a new memory.
Nagato raises her ringed hand and softly brushes the imperial crest with her lips.
She can almost taste the fleeting softness of the cherry blossom petal.
"I love you, Admiral."