A/N:

It's time to go back to writing some more serious one-shots. JennyTalia, I got you.

-Akyuu no Joshu

"So? What did Tommy say 'bout the war in the Atlantic?" Phoenix calls. "Are the Royal Girls makin' any progress on their own?"

"They cleared out the Abyssals from Faroe Island just the other day, the day of my departure," Johnston calls back. Her Cherokee accent, while very subtle, makes her English sound exotic to the Japanese ship girls who hear it. "But they have taken heavy casualties. No fatalities, thankfully, but they will not be able to launch another offensive campaign for at least another week."

Johnston, with one of her modernized tomahawks in her right hand, throws it at Phoenix as though she is throwing an American football. The tomahawk hurtles through the air, the serrated blade sharp enough to cut the air itself, and Phoenix deftly catches it by the handle.

"Not for another week? Damn, that sucks," Phoenix groans, twirling Johnston's tomahawk around with her fingers. "Can't the Atlantic Fleet pitch in? What're they up to?"

"They are currently deployed to the Falkland Islands. Argentinian sources stated that Abyssals had taken over the Falkland Islands, and we think that the Abyssals are trying to establish a forward base there to launch campaigns against South American coastlines."

"Huh, that so." Phoenix hurls the tomahawk back at Johnston, and it darts straight for the latter's face, but Johnston, unflinching, simply lifts her hand up in front of her forehead and the handle of her war hatchet smacks hard into her palm so that she can close her fingers around it, catching it. "How many of us're down there? Who's there right now?"

"The First Atlantic Fleet is already there with Carrier Strike Group 12 - when I departed, they were already operational," Johnston informs.

"As in, they - "

"Yes."

"Ah, okay."

Johnston throws her tomahawk again, and Phoenix, instead of catching it normally, decides to get all fancy and plugs her index finger into one of the perforated holes along the back end of the hatchet blade perfectly, causing the weapon to swing around her finger like a swinging keychain.

"Shouldn't that be somethin' the Royal Girls would take care of, though? I mean, didn't they fight there, at the Falklands, before?" Phoenix wonders aloud.

"From what I heard, the naval committee contacted the Royal Navy in regards to it, but the Royal Navy declined. The European theatre is already occupied enough as it is," Johnston shrugs. "The French and the Germans are already stretched thin as it is. Had we not had so much Abyssal threats in the Pacific threatre, we would already be in European waters clearing them of hostiles."

Phoenix throws the tomahawk back again, and Johnston reaches out her finger and taps the bottom of the flipping handle to pop the weapon up into the air, then catches it on its way down.

"By the way, that tomahawk's feelin' good. Did you make that yourself?" Phoenix asks. She and Johnston are standing about thirty meters apart along the dock next to the water in the morning sun.

"Yes. I felt that I needed something else to supplement by firepower. The guns, they certainly have built them much better overall than the ones we used to use before, but given how close quarters we destroyers must fight - "

"And your habit 'a constantly gettin' up in the Abyssals' faces - "

"Yes, that too - I felt that I needed something more. A weapon that doesn't rely on ammunition, can be deployed immediately when I need it, and is lethal."

"Hence, tomahawk."

Johnston tosses her weapon up a bit like a pitcher tossing up a baseball just before winding up for a pitch, and she casually tosses it into the air so that the hatchet tumbles through the air in an arc. Phoenix catches it by the blade on purpose, taking hold of the handle with her right hand and glancing at her left palm. A large, clean cut is pressed into her hand, and blood is slowly oozing out.

"It's awesome, I can tell ya that much," Phoenix grins, looking at the hatchet blade, which is so sharp that it has none of Phoenix's blood on it.

"If you'd like, I can let you have one of mine," Johnston offers. "Try it once during a sortie. You are an aggressive light cruiser, judging by your flamethrowers. You can set the Abyssals on fire, and then cut them to pieces."

Grinning dubiously at the juicily bloody thoughts, Phoenix still shakes her head. "I'm good, juggling my flamethrowers and main guns is bad enough. Still, not gonna lie, havin' a straight melee loadout doesn't sound bad. Sounds fun, actually, to be honest." Phoenix lifts her hand to her mouth, licking some stray blood trickles off her hand before throwing the tomahawk back to its owner.

"I remember when I first starting using these, the Abyssals didn't expect it at all," Johnston smiles as she snatches her tomahawk out of the air. "A destroyer packing up her weapons and resorting to butchering them with hatchets? Nobody expected it. That's why it worked so well."

"So how about now?"

"They've wised up a little. They are trying to avoid me in close quarters combat now whenever they can, I've noticed."

"They're scared, brah. They scared."

"Indeed."

"H-Hawawaaaaa..."

The small squeal from one of the Japanese destroyers catches Phoenix's attention, and glancing to her left, she realizes that the Shiratsuyu-Class and the Akatsuki-Class destroyers are watching them play tomahawk catch with horrified amazement.

"Hm? Hey, girls, what's up?" Phoenix calls over in Japanese.

"A-Are you, like, playing catch with that thing?!" Yuudachi cries out. She's trembling like a scared puppy, her eyes glued out of paralyzed fear to the hatchet spinning in Johnston's hand.

"Yeah! Wanna join?"

"N-No, poi!"

Phoenix bursts into laughter at Yuudachi's scared rejection. "Aw, it's fun! Once ya get over throwin' around the hatchet."

"L-Look at what it did to your hand!" Akatsuki bawls out, pointing a shaking finger at Phoenix's cut left palm. "That looks bad! W-We need to get you to the docks - "

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Phoenix just keeps laughing at everyone's overreactions. "See, look!"

With her fire power, the American light cruiser pumps the fingers on her left hand twice and then sets her entire hand on fire. With the help of her own fire, Phoenix cauterizes her own wound, and after a few moments, she deactivates it, leaving the cut on her hand completely closed and charred.

"See? No biggie!" But when Phoenix looks up at the onlookers, they are all either cringing at the painful sight or trembling even harder, a sight Phoenix finds extremely amusing. "Aw, it ain't that bad! We've been through worse! Hibiki, c'mere! Wanna play some hanetsuki?"

"Hanetsuki?" Hibiki asks, a bit confused as she approaches Phoenix.

"Yeah! Here, watch..."

With her left hand again, Phoenix creates a condensed ball of fire, about the size of a tennis ball, and tosses it up into the air and starts juggling it with her feet, keeping it in the air. She kicks it up twice before kicking it over to Hibiki, who scrambles to keep it airborne.

"Th-This isn't hanetsuki, but - !" Hibiki grunts. She taps the fireball up a few times rapidly with the top of her foot, juggling it onto her knees, and then passes it back to Phoenix.

"Here, Johnston!" Phoenix yells as she kicks it over to the American destroyer. The fireball goes sailing through the air like a comet, its fire trail blazing behind it, briefly outshining the sun for a moment. Johnston, tracking its progress, properly grabs her hatchet handle and continues the chain combo, tapping the fireball up with a flat side of her tomahawk like she's flipping pancakes with a frying pan. After about ten or so taps, Johnston readjusts her grip on her handle like a tennis continental grip and smacks the fireball back over to Phoenix.

"I-Isn't that dangerous?" Hibiki asks hesitantly.

"You mean to me, or to everyone else?"

"Uhhh..."

Phoenix then kicks the small fireball out into the harbor waters. The ship girls watch as the fireball flies about a hundred twenty meters out into sea, then turns into a giant conflagration as soon as it touches the seawater. The Japanese destroyers watch with mouths agape as the flames burn and spread along the surface of the water. The American light cruiser, unsurprisingly, is cheering.

"That's how ya get a fire started!" Phoenix chuckles.

"U-Um, Phoenix-san...?" Shigure stammers, "if...if by some chance, that...that fireball touched the ground here, would it have...?"

"Yeah, it would'a exploded. Ka-boom!" Phoenix just keeps laughing almost obnoxiously.

"Hawawawawaaaaaa, scary, s-scarrrryyy...!" Inazuma is trembling behind Ikazuchi like a frightened hamster.

"Aw, I'm not scary! Here, lemme show ya!" Phoenix walks over to the Akatsuki-Class destroyers, with Hibiki trotting along behind her just in case. Upon seeing her approach, the Akatsuki and Ikazuchi both squeal and bolt for cover, leaving their youngest sister all by herself.

"S-Sorry, Inazuma-chan, b-but we have to sacrifice you!" Akatsuki screams as she runs away.

"We'll always remember youuuuuuuu - " Ikazuchi's voice gets cut off by a door shutting somewhere.

Inazuma, too scared to get herself to run away, trips over her own feet as she tries to back away and looks up with teary eyes as Phoenix stands over her.

"Uuuuu..." she assumes a defensive stance, pulling her head down with her hands. Still chuckling, Phoenix kneels down, scoops up the destroyer, and lifts her up so that Inazuma now sits on her shoulders.

"See? Not scary, not scary~" Phoenix sings. "It's nice 'n warm, ain't it?"

Inazuma sniffles. It is warm, due to Phoenix's enhanced body heat from her latent fire conduits underneath her skin, but she's still a bit traumatized by Phoenix's approach.

"Oh, that looks fun..." Shiratsuyu thinks aloud, watching Inazuma get a free ride on Phoenix's shoulders as Johnston offers Hibiki the same treatment, which Hibiki accepts.

"No, don't, Shiratsuyu-nee-chan! Phoenix, she's - she's going to eat you alive, poi!" Yuudachi says in a scared voice.

"No, she's not..." Shiratsuyu rolls her eyes. "You're just scared of her because you got too close to her fire during one of our sorties."

"She's gonna eat you, poi!"

"Who is?"

Yuudachi practically screams out loud when she hears Phoenix's curious voice pop right behind her ears. Phoenix just doubles over laughing as Yuudachi scampers behind Shigure, her hair flaps lowered like dog ears and whimpering nonsensically. Even Johnston, who usually is seen with a stoic expression on her face, breaks her usual facade to reveal a subtle grin of amusement.

"Scary birdie! Scary birdie gonna get'cha, gonna get'cha!" Phoenix is having too much fun teasing Yuudachi, bouncing her face side to side in front of the hapless Shigure and making Yuudachi dance back and forth to try to avoid Phoenix's sizzling gaze.

"E-Erm, Phoenix-san, please...it would be nice if you could stop..." Shigure murmurs nervously. She doesn't really like Phoenix all too much herself.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop, I'll stop..." Phoenix relents. "By the way, when's training starting today? I'm gettin' bored here! Let's do somethin' already, yeah?"

"We're scheduled for a new arrival. Did you perhaps forget, Phoenix?" Johnston reminds her.

"Oh, right, the Admiral here mentioned something about that. Who is it again? It wasn't another one 'a us, right?"

"No, it was another Japanese ship girl being transferred here."

"Really? What's takin' her so long, then? Where is she?"

Johnston's eyes roll up in thought as she tries to remember. Then, she turns around and points down the harbor.

"Is that her?"

The ship girls peer down the harbor. Walking towards them now is a lone ship girl, and judging by her attire, she indeed appears to be Japanese.

"Oh!" Murasame calls out excitedly. "It's Houshou-san!"