Shigure was with her team, enjoying a well-earned break in the pub that was the Shinsengumi after a day of harsh training, the bar managed by the mother of all carriers, Houshou.
A dark-haired ponytail atop a gentle female adult's gently parted hair with a scarlet kimono top, and a dark hakama, or a form of heavily pleated loose trousers, beneath.
She was smiling down on the 1st Fleet, patiently listening to their troubles as she served them some food and drinks.
Or to be more specific, Junyou's complaints as she rambled on while drunk. The light carrier had certainly kept her promise to Shigure, trying to lower her alcohol intake, but this was a Friday, which meant that she didn't have to worry about staying sober, since there was no official training on the weekends.
"… And then, that damn drill freak commended on our Fleet performance, and you know what she did? She ran us through another set! AGAIN!
Oh my god, I was so lonely without my best friend sake right here…chu, chu!"
Junyou started making smooching noises as she puckered up her lips to kiss her sake bottle. The team simply sighed, accepting their teammate's alcohol dependency as her coping mechanism.
Tatsuta was sharing her well-done steak with Tenryuu, the name ship trying not to look grateful for having a bite of that oily, yet delicious and tenderized meat that her sister ordered. Tatsuta certainly seemed to like spending quality time with her, and didn't seem to mind the company of others.
Hiei was a passive observer, drinking her soda and observing both Shigure and Junyou. Ayanami was chatting to Shigure about her sisters, and about her past experiences on this base.
Shigure was content to sit back and enjoy the company of her Fleet, especially its livelier members. She would enjoy their boasts and their exuberant natures as they filled the bar with their jovial voices that helped to keep Shigure busy with trying to keep track of everything they said.
She then focused her attention onto the manager of the bar.
According to Houshou's introduction, she constructed the Shinsengumi to accommodate the ship girls, and also as a way to help out in her own base after her 'retirement'.
She wasn't an active ship girl by any means, considering her own design to be too antiquated to be of much use in the field.
However, she was one of the few ship girls who also garnered everyone's respect through her seniority and dedication to serving the base and the ship girls who still fought on the front lines.
Tearing her eyes from the light carrier that was behind the counter, Shigure finally asked Ayanami,
"So, what do you think of our team so far?
I think we're a pretty good team, with good teamwork and a pretty good Fleet composition."
Ayanami looked down to consider the question, taking into account the characters of its individual members, and their performance in practice, and potential problems in the future. She didn't seem to want to give a half thought-out answer to such an important question.
"I think that we can accomplish a lot together, but something of concern may be our personalities, especially our interactions and whatever individual issues that might need to be addressed."
"Oh, I agree with Ayanami-san here, but I also believe that if all of you learn to trust in each other to listen to you voice your woes, you'll certainly mature as a team and further improve your team dynamic."
Houshou politely interrupted, adding in her own opinion to try and help out the duo and their team.
"But the important thing is whether you learn to trust each other to such an extent.
If you don't, then there's only so much you can do."
"But how we supposed to do that? Bonding time? Living with each other?"
Junyou drawled lazily as she sipped from her bottle.
Houshou only smiled, and replied.
"If that's what it takes."
Shigure wondered about that. She certainly understood the importance of Houshou's advice, but as she looked around the table at her teammates, she wondered how she was going to achieve such a level of trust with her current teammates.
Junyou was a drinker, her reliability and ability to garner respect as a senior rather questionable, despite her inner kindness that was hidden beneath her indifferent and drunk exterior.
Ayanami as well as Hiei could be trusted due to their trustworthiness and desire to do their best as teammates, and with their good service record.
Tenryuu was a good senior, but she was always trying too hard to impress everyone in battle and be stronger, not unlike her own attitude to try harder at the expense of her own safety, and seemed as if she was aiming to protect everyone by risking her own life in battle.
Tatsuta was downright scary, and Shigure wasn't sure if she could even approach the light cruiser without being downright terrified of her killer aura and her creepy smile.
But she wasn't going to sit around and theory-craft all day, and determine that such an effort wasn't worth attempting without actually trying.
She really wanted to go far with her team, and help them all through their problems, whatever they may be.
And perhaps they'd help her in return.
Shigure was now standing on the training zone with her own fleet as well as the other Fast Response Fleet while ready to sortie, Tone instructing them to only observe the teamwork that the more experienced fleets exhibited.
The importance of teamwork in this day and age, and what it could accomplish in this day and age was something that could only be witnessed with their own eyes as the 2nd Fleet prepared to engage an artificial Abyssal Fleet controlled by Tone through her mind, requiring a respectable ability to multitask and micromanage even by ship girl standards.
Shigure looked around her, observing her seniors that were preparing themselves for combat, Shigure having learnt enough about combat to see that these ship girls knew what they were doing, and they whoever their enemies were, they likely didn't stand a chance against the 2nd Fast Response Fleet.
The 2nd Fleet was the original Fast Response Fleet, able to sortie at a moment's notice to fight the Abyssals, or to provide fast reinforcements to any fleets that were in trouble. They were made up of 3 destroyers, 1 light carrier, 1 heavy cruiser and a light cruiser to lead the fleet.
Sendai was the leader of the Fast Response Fleet, a ship girl with black twin tails and had auburn colored eyes that scouted the area lazily.
She was wearing a sleeveless orange, black and white uniform with a black dress underneath, along with knee socks that were partially covered up by her boat slippers, her arms that were supposed to be exposed to the elements was instead covered up by black, skintight gloves.
Along her arms were smaller cannons, and on her hips were two other torpedo launchers, a flight catapult located close to her right elbow on her upper arm.
She had heard about the light cruiser's infamous penchant for night battles from other ship girls as she slowly learnt about the ship girls of the naval base, and wasn't in the mood to put up with Sendai's enthusiasm for night battles at this point in time.
But Sendai looked pretty tame right now, simply nodding towards them as her eyes rolled over them. Perhaps Sendai was only enthusiastic at night, or was what they would call 'nocturnal', something that wasn't out of the question considering the wide variety of ship girls and their various personalities.
Furutaka was an auburn-haired Heavy Cruiser wearing her primarily white and blue school uniform, with a red ribbon around the front. Her short auburn hair covered her left eye, which seemed to be glowing.
Hiei explained that she had a searchlight as a primary equipment, which was indicated by her radiant left eye which was now rather dimmed. She had a gentle attitude about her, likely to be the Team Mom to tend to the team, as she was listening to the rest of her team talk.
Her rigging was interesting in that her main cannons were strapped onto her right arm, causing her entire right arm to look like a reinforced robot's arm from the shoulder down, an antenna sticking out from the rigging on her right shoulder as another elevated gun platform was sticking out from behind her left shoulder horizontally, all her main cannons 20.3 cm Twin Gun Mounts, while her torpedo launchers were strapped to her left leg starting from the knee.
Hatsushimo the Destroyer was dressed in all black, with long black hair cascading down her back, with her black jacket along with her black dress and a red tie around her neck. She was conversing with Furutaka, her brick-red eyes open and shining as she spoke merrily about her subject of interest.
She was holding a 12.7 cm Twin Gun Mount with her right hand and a Single Cannon Mount on the other, her ship girl antenna sticking out atop the battle backpack behind her while two Triple Torpedo Launchers were stuck to her sides like Sendai.
Shimakaze was… dressed like a fetishist, to say the least.
Her ribbon top above her blonde hair formed black bunny ears, stripped red and white thigh-highs, a sleeveless sailor top and long gloves with a blue mini-mini-skirt that deliberately failed to cover her black G-string.
She was speeding about, often commenting on her fast speed, and how she was the fastest while carrying her 61 cm Quadruple Torpedo Launcher on her back.
Shigure's eyes tried to keep up, before she decided to focus on something else to prevent a headache from trying to follow the Destroyer's speed, due to Shimakaze running circles around them.
Three little robots with deformed body proportions were producing clicking noises with the dual cannons on their heads, along with their happy expressions. They were of varying sizes, the largest one of them seated on a lifebuoy ring that had Shimakaze's name on it,
'ぜかまし'
The three of them were held up by a blitzing Shimakaze, who had no problems whatsoever with her balancing act while running and almost seemed to have limitless stamina.
Yuudachi, Shigure's sister, was wearing a black sailor school uniform complete with black socks protecting her foreleg, straight blonde hair flowing down her back with a ribbon on the crown of her head, golden bangs exposing bright green eyes. She was talking merrily with the light carrier of the team, and Shigure's heart leaped at the sight of her sister.
Although her world had broken down once when her sister died in the war, she had never been able to fully recover from the impact of her death.
However, she learnt how to live with the pain, and 'keep trekking on' was the soldier's path in war, hoping in some twisted way that she would join her sister in death.
But now that she had a chance to be with her sister ship upon the both of them being resurrected in the same base, this was now another reason for her to become stronger so that she would be able to protect her sisters this time, looking at the equipment her sister was carrying.
The chimney stack and antenna were both sticking out of her battle backpack was visible as it was peeking out from behind the golden crown of Yuudachi's hair, her own 12.7 cm Twin Gun Cannon slung diagonally across her torso while two torpedo launchers were strapped onto her thighs.
The short girl wearing a metal visor cap was Ryuujou, who also spotted a red shirt with a black skirt, and was flat as a cutting board, as Shigure noticed.
Her uniform was a little large, her sleeves looking rather wide compared to her wrists, and she had a red magatama in lieu of a tie at her white collar, much like Junyou's orange magatama on her red collared dress shirt, which would make Ryuujou's red shirt much like Junyou's white blouse.
Her spirited conversation with Yuudachi helped reassure her that her sister was being treated well here, her utmost concern at this point in time as Shigure could pick up her heavily accented Japanese as well as the fact that she was carrying a summoning scroll much like the one Junyou used to summon her planes into battle, using paper cutouts that were shikigami.
Tone had told them that although they were pretty well-rounded as a team, there was still so much that they could improve on in terms of teamwork and the development of their own personal styles to complement each other in battle and achieve so much more together as a team.
Hence the demonstration today as Tone summoned the Abyssals that surfaced from the depths wordlessly and appeared on her radar as bright red dots as opposed to the allies on the radar that were presented as blue dots.
Noting the ship girls all tensing up and readying themselves for battle, Shigure could only watch as the 2nd Fleet run up to greet the Abyssal Fleet with a hail of cannon-fire whilst evading the bombers of the Abyssal Nu-Class.
The Nu-Class was a twisted amalgamation of parts that were taken from parts of different beasts, Shigure picking out the deformed, pale childlike hands that propped up the its body, a dark shell covering the entirety of its quadruped body structure with some sort of finger-shaped hind legs behind its main body.
Their bodies had a dark exoskeleton protecting its body as an exhaust port and a cannon pointed forward while positioned on its temples to resemble anything remotely close to eyes, having some other antennas and smaller cannons attached to their flanks while a jaw with eerily white teeth was positioned in between its 'eyes' to summon the Abyssal bomber planes.
Shimakaze boosted away, something that Shigure anticipated and was itching to see as she was told that Kai and Kai Ni ship girls had their bodies upgraded to hold up under great stress, which was required to handle the potent boost gauges that were installed in their boat slippers upon their remodeling.
The ship girls scattered as Ryuujou summoned her planes upon conjuring a ball of light blue fire on the tip of her finger to run down her rolled-out scroll, summoning the planes whose parts were embedded in the scroll, gathering and assembling them in the short time it for Ryuujou to finish running her finger through the scroll, a Fairy Pilot summoned in the process as he pulled up, gaining altitude and taking out a bomber that was swooping down in an attempt to open fire at Ryuujou.
Sendai lazily dashed past the enemy torpedoes as she performed a back flip over two incoming torpedoes as Shimakaze's Rensouhou-Chan provided cover fire, Yuudachi staying behind to provide some protection for the light carrier as Ryuujou did her job.
The Abyssal Ne-Class, possessing short white hair, pale-skin and was about the age of a teenage girl, was wearing something akin to a sleeveless turtleneck and metallic stockings made out of black steel while metallic twin tails that snaked out of her rear doubled as cannons, firing at Hatsushimo and Furutaka as they unloaded a salvo of torpedoes at the Abyssal bots.
The Ne-Class managed to squeeze itself into a tight gap in between the incoming torpedoes and prevent herself from getting destroyed, but the reprieve it experienced was short lived as a projectile flew in from another direction, hitting the Ne-Class square in the right shoulder as it detonated upon impact.
Shigure's head snapped back to see that Sendai had pulled out a torpedo whilst holding it in a reverse grip, and likewise had thrown the second torpedo like a kunai knife at an Abyssal Chi-Class torpedo cruiser.
The enemy torpedo cruiser, a dark-haired Abyssal that had an arm cannon stretching the length of her left forearm, wearing a sleeveless dark grey tank top while her most prominent feature was the plain white mask that covered the majority of her face save her lower jaw and her left eye.
Not that the 'eye' resembled anything human, as the cracked mask exposed wires and a bionic eye that left a trail of blue-tinted flames in its wake.
The 'motorcycle' it rode in on was the one which looked even more sinister as Shigure noted the front plate being extended vertically upwards like a windscreen for the Chi-Class to hide behind, beneath that the signature pearly-white teeth that lined the barreled jaws of the hideous machine as several metal plates adorned it, the entire contraption a speeding machine of certain death.
The Chi-Class responded by sliding down while slamming the side of her Beast onto the ocean surface and performing a powerful power slide, Sendai's torpedo passing over the Chi-Class harmlessly and the Abyssal now able to point her arm cannon towards the sky, something that the Abyssal exploited as she pointed her cannon at an incoming Shimakaze who was performing a front flip.
The Shimakaze-Class destroyer grimaced, but it was nothing she couldn't handle as she contorted while airborne and utilizing her boost gauge, narrowly avoiding almost all the shots as she dropped her torpedoes on the Chi-Class, the four torpedoes dropping like dead weights onto the Chi-Class who couldn't come out of her power-slide in time to avoid the hail of torpedoes as her entire body was engulfed in a massive fireball.
Elsewhere, Furutaka was using her powerful spotlight for a eye to blind a school of I-Class destroyers into misfiring while unable to look away due to it being rather tough for them to swim backwards.
Black metallic husks protected their feeble white limbs that protruded from their undercarriage, with mechanical green eyes looking forward upon each side of the tubular shell with their cannon barrels sticking out of their mouths, attempting to retreat or submerge in the face of being unable to damage the superior heavy cruiser.
But Hatsushimo came in running on the surface of the water, using her boost gauge sparingly to go faster than what her boat slippers could achieve while set at maximum speed, the little destroyer engaging in close-quarters combat as she emptied a torpedo at point-blank range into the left flank of a I-Class destroyer.
This caused the afflicted Abyssal to be taken out of the fight as the I-Class destroyer roared in anguish, Shigure noting that Hatsushimo often angled her body such that she wouldn't be blinded by her own teammate's searchlight, Furutaka now turning off her searchlight to buy her teammate a few more precious milliseconds while the enemy struggled to adapt to the sudden plunge into relative darkness, the I-Class destroyers stunned by the lack of Furutaka's blinding ocular searchlight.
Hatsushimo shot at them with her handheld 12.7 cm Twin Gun Cannon while holding her cannon sideways, before some sort of message was relayed to her as she utilized both her recovered boost gauges to boost away, Ryuujou's Type 97 Torpedo Bomber sweeping in to drop its payload while leaving a wide berth to allow Hatsushimo to evade safely.
The remaining Abyssals were easily dispatched as the 2nd Fleet worked together to take them all down in no time at all, Shigure awestruck at their ability to finish up fights so quickly in their favor as the dust cleared.
Seeing the Abyssals taken out but not annihilated due to the amount of punishment they had to endure at the hands of the 2nd Fleet was due to their practice ammunition that was loaded into their weapons before heading out to the training area.
Shigure had been told beforehand that practice ammunition was a lot like paintball bullets to humans, and that despite hurting when hit by one, they were never created to kill, much less sink as these shells could never penetrate ship girl bones that were created to be significantly tougher than their skin and flesh, which was rather comforting when, God forbid, a practice shell was accidentally fired into a ship girl's head, their ultimate weak point.
The torpedo warheads were also modified to be less lethal than they actually were, any sort of explosion dialed down in intensity and the explosions more to show that a torpedo had hit instead of actually killing whoever was on the receiving end.
Shigure noted Tatsuta coming up beside her, ready to answer any questions she might have about the training as Shigure asked inquisitively.
"Those boost gauges that're installed in their boat slippers...
We get them when we achieve Kai status and above, right?"
Tatsuta nodded calmly, responding in a matter of fact tone while she had a slight smile on, also drawn in by the sight of the far more experienced 2nd Fleet decimating the Abyssals, explaining.
"Ara, but using the boost gauge also consumes fuel as well, so remember that whenever a battleship utilizes her boost gauge wantonly, the Admiral cries a bucketful of salty tears upon refueling."
Shigure sweat dropped upon seeing the senior light cruiser give her a winning smile after saying that, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer simply opting to brush aside that last remark as she considered.
"But to wipe out an Abyssal Fleet so quickly...
They must be really powerful..."
But Tatsuta gave her a noncommittal,
"Hmm."
As the light cruiser considered the question, finally answering.
"Honestly, they aren't considered anywhere near the most powerful fleet in this base, and none of them have reached anywhere near their full potential, which is likely the reason for not being the best."
Tatsuta pointed at them, explaining to Shigure as her finger moved from one ship girl to another.
"Sendai, Furutaka, Hatsushimo and Ryuujou have all achieved Kai status, but have not yet earned their second remodels.
Yuudachi is a newcomer compared to the rest of them, and like you, she's in her default ship girl state.
Shimakaze's achieved her Kai remodel only recently, and hasn't been able to experiment with it for long."
Shigure looked at them as she considered the mind-boggling possibility of the 2nd Fleet being nowhere near the strongest, yet being able to take out so many Abyssals that were admittedly controlled by one ship girl, which might mean that they could only function at a fraction of their true power.
Tone was clapping as she approached them as the Abyssal bot Fleet was wiped out, the Tone-Class heavy cruiser connected to the 1st Fleet through the wireless radio that they all possessed in their minds as she commented on their performance.
"Well done, girls.
You've become a lot stronger than what I had anticipated."
Shigure tuned her radio such that she could listen in on the conversation between the 2nd Fleet and Tone, not that it was on an encrypted frequency anyway as she made out Ryuujou's accented voice speaking up over the radio, the static dissipating to reveal her crisp and clear voice.
"Yeah, ain't muchf'a surprise when we learnt that there was gon' be another Fast Response Fleet like us now, hmm?
Had to set a good example fer them to follow, get what'm sayin'?"
Tone nodded, but pointed out a few things in their performance as Shigure could make out the heavy shaking of her head.
"You're all expanding your skill sets wonderfully, but don't you, for one second, think that I didn't realize the few blunders that you committed.
Shimakaze, you got clipped by the Chi-Class's cannon as you flipped into the air, right?"
Shimakaze's voice, although not outright denying Tone's claim, was rather defensive as she pouted.
"Mouu, I'll just go faster next time, like I always have!"
Tone already predicted her response as she tutted softly, chiding and reminding her of their limits.
"Adopt that mindset for too long, and I promise you, one of these days that speed alone might not save you."
Shimakaze only grunted in response, her tone now holding a grudging acknowledgement of her trainer's words as though she were reminded of it after a serious blunder that she almost forgot, Tone moving on and addressing the heavy cruiser.
"Furutaka, I know you're Kai and turning off your spotlight was the right thing to do to disorient your enemies, but don't be afraid to be on the move when you keep it on, lest you get blindsided by a torpedo or something."
The meek heavy cruiser simply placed her palms together on her thighs as she bowed in response, Tone now commenting on Hatsushimo's cannon firing while holding her cannon sideways.
"And you.
What's your deal in holding your cannon sideways as you fire?"
Hatsushimo shrugged as she answered, slightly unsure of her own answer.
"... Because it looks cool?"
"But without your ship girl aiming system to compensate, would you have hit your target?"
"..."
Tone sighed as she raised her extended right hand in a 90 degree angle, before jerking it back down at irregular intervals to emphasize her next words.
"Never do that. Ever. Again."
Hatsushimo's shoulders slumped at that, Tone clapping her hands to get the 2nd Fleeet's attention as Tenryuu commented.
"Well, they sure do get along rather well, hmm?"
Junyou nodded, a single sweat drop rolling down the side of her face as she wondered out loud.
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure that it's gonna take a lotta work to be that good, and I know that we lot have Kai Ni remodels like the rest of them, but still..."
Noting Tenryuu's slight look of consternation at that, Shigure leaned in closer towards Tatsuta as she asked politely.
"Tatsuta-san, do you and Tenryuu-san both have second remodels?"
Tatsuta's eyes slightly widened at that, but she recovered quickly as she gave Shigure her best smile and answered honestly.
"No, we don't.
And amongst this newly-formed fleet, we are the only ship girls who don't possess a second remodel."
"I saw Tenryuu react slightly upon hearing Junyou's comments, do you suppose that she feels rather upset?"
Tatsuta nodded, looking back at the 2nd Fleet surrounding Tone as she commented.
"Well, I suppose it's a sore point for her, and despite me trying to convince her otherwise, I know that ultimately, she wants to break out of her previous 'play-acting' being powerful and become stronger for real to protect the comrades in her new fleet."
Looking back at Shigure, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer could see that although the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser wanted to help her sister ship, there was also something known as being too protective of your own siblings.
Tatsuta explained herself to Shigure, the both of them watching the 2nd Fleet talking animatedly to their trainer while the 1st Fleet was standing off in the distance.
"I want to help her, but there're some things she has to figure out for herself, and it's made even worse as she wants to be 'independent'..."
Using her gloved fingers to form air quotation marks as her expression betrayed a tinge of solemnity.
"...But I can't help but feel rather sad that we might grow apart, and I won't be there when she needs it most."
Shigure looked down at the murky waters of the training grounds as she thought about Tatsuta's question, finally answering when she felt confident enough to give the light cruiser her answer.
"I haven't lived long enough to be that close with my sisters to feel or understand this fear that you experience, but I personally don't think you have much to worry about.
I mean, you're on the same fleet as she is, so half the job's done when you sortie with her all the time, right?"
Tatsuta shifted her head as she lifted an eyebrow to concede the point, Shigure feeling a little more emboldened by the light cruiser agreeing with her to continue cautiously.
"Well, if she wants to improve herself for the sake of her teammates, why not support her since she's doing it for a greater cause?
I mean, I would feel that the right thing to do is to support her on her path to strength so that she can better protect herself than if you voiced your dissent and tried to hold her back, am I right?"
Tatsuta nodded at that, looking away at Tone seemingly finalizing her comments on the 2nd Fleet's performance as she changed the topic abruptly, having lost her smile and a clear sign to Shigure that she should just go along with the light cruiser and leave the previous conversation topic alone, Tatsuta commenting.
"It's a little strange, though.
That our fleet is formed a fair bit later than them, but they're the ones who are known as the 2nd Fast Response Fleet while we're the first, named according to our fleet numbers."
Shigure shrugged her shoulders as she replied, never really having put much thought into such things as she nonchalantly remarked.
"Well, I guess it would be an administrative nightmare for the 2nd Fleet to be named the 1st Fast Response Fleet and vice versa.
Besides, Admiral Mako and the 2nd Fleet don't seem the type of people to take the name of the '1st Fleet' that seriously, so long as we remember that they're our seniors and are better than us right now."
Tatsuta nodded at that, Shigure now hearing Tone finish up the conversation and walk away from the 2nd Fleet, saying.
"Well, like I said, I'm sorry."
The 2nd Fleet was rather confused as to the heavy cruiser's words as she walked back towards the 1st Fleet, asking unanimously.
"Sorry about what?"
But some sort of presence that was felt underneath them, barely registering on Shigure's sonar as the reddish enemy signatures started rising from the bottom of the ocean at breakneck speed, the 2nd Fleet not wasting any words between them as their muscles tensed, expressions hardening as they boosted into action.
And as two other fleets of Abyssals popped up from the ocean, surrounding them in a semicircle to shoot at them as soon as the seawater was cleared from their cannons.
Tone was barely audible over the gargantuan splash of seawater as a result of the Abyssals surfacing and the shocked expressions of the 1st Fleet, walking towards the 1st Fleet and past the line of Abyssals that had their backs turned to Shigure as the Tone-Class heavy cruiser smirked, answering to no one in particular.
"This."
Shigure couldn't make out the distinguishing features of the Abyssals that were facing away from them, but the firepower they brought to the battle was immense, their cannons blazing a short while after surfacing as the 2nd Fleet evaded their shots.
The Ro-Class destroyers that were flying out of the ocean were shaped much like the I-Class destroyers, save for the fact that instead of a tubular bullet-shaped exoskeleton, they were instead shaped more like the front end of a shark that was cut off from its own body, fins and all.
The Ro-Class destroyers had their teeth showing like a shark's, and each had its small belly conspicuously exposed underneath it as the fish-shaped destroyers propelled themselves out of a wave crest and flew towards the 2nd Fleet with steel barrels protruding out of their throats and unhinged jaws as they fired.
Shigure jumped a little at what she assumed was a battleship firing their cannons which clipped Furutaka in the thigh, heavily bruising her flesh instead of simply punching through it like a real battleship's shell would, fighter planes from both sides frantically buzzing about in the skies as Ryuujou ducked, protected by Yuudachi's cover fire with her handheld 12.7 cm Twin Gun Cannon.
The Abyssals moved up as Tone approached the 1st Fleet, raising a finger as she illustrated a point, expression serious and leaving no room for anyone to break her concentration as she controlled the Abyssal bot Fleets with her mind.
"You see, it's a no man's land out on the battlefield, so you have to be on your guard and ready to respond to an approaching enemy fleet at the drop of a hat, be it coming from atop the ocean's surface or from beneath it."
Shigure couldn't help but agree with Tone as the 2nd Fleet handled the surprise attack rather well, requiring no words to be spoken and yet synchronizing their movements almost flawlessly as Sendai started pulling out all of her torpedoes to throw them like knives at the group of Abyssals that were closing in on them to stave them off.
Shimakaze, too, already had her Rensouhou-Chan all blazing to shoot down the airborne destroyers, as was Hatsushimo as they struggled to get out of the ambush whilst trying to minimize damage to themselves, the three destroyers and the lone light cruiser dumping their torpedoes into the water when they were clear of the line of fire, Ryuujou micromanaging her bombers to coincide with the torpedo salvo and try to box the Abyssals in by utilizing a pincer attack and denying them their available escape routes.
This paid off as two Ne-Class heavy cruisers were engulfed in fireballs upon being unable to evade the salvo of torpedoes, a Ro-Class Abyssal squirming and being physically pushed back by the shells impacting its exoskeleton as Hatsushimo shot at the Ro-Class and her rounds punching into the Abyssal's exoskeleton.
A Ri-Class heavy cruiser had her arm cannons trained on the injured heavy cruiser that was limping somewhat, the Abyssal heavy cruiser's forearms covered with armor plates as two abominable, jet black, beast-like cannons covered the ends of her arms while thick wires led from their rear onto a similarly dark pod on her back, located between the shoulder plates.
Armor plates protected her neck in a neck-brace like structure while her mop of short black hair barely covered her luminescent green eyes that were also streaming fire behind her, the back of her head also connected to the pod via a dark cable and her pale body wearing nothing except a black bikini and boots to walk on water.
The Ri-Class was ready to fire at Furutaka as Shigure gulped, trying to tell herself that there was no way that a ship girl could ever die from training, and by the looks of things, the shark-like arm cannon on her left arm was aimed at her gut, not at her head where a real enemy would likely point at.
But a blitzing figure of blonde hair, white uniform and blue miniskirt came in like a comet as Shimakaze launched herself into the air whilst tucking her bent legs in, still holding her Rensouhou-Chan as she began stomping on the Ri-Class's face, shouting.
"Meteor Shower!"
The Ri-Class's face was assaulted with a dizzying barrage of foot stomps that, alone, didn't do much damage, but when one was as fast as Shimakaze with her shapely legs that thrust the sharp underside of her boat slippers into the face of an Abyssal, it took a toll on the Abyssal as the Ri-Class stumbled back, trying to lift her left arm cannon to shoot Shimakaze.
But the Shimakaze-Class destroyer was too fast for that, her right foot stepping on the Ri-Class's left forearm as she performed a pirouette mid-air to spin out of the way before the injured Ri-Class could fire off a round, hitting the ocean with all four limbs slapping on the ocean surface before she pushed herself off.
She boosted backwards and away as the Ri-Class aimed her cannon at the retreating destroyer, only to have an explosion consume her back as an airborne torpedo hit her from behind, Sendai already moving on to the next target as the opponents kept on coming.
But Shigure could see that although the 2nd Fleet was in deep trouble, they always seemed to have the whole situation under control save for the initial shock of the two Abyssal fleets appearing before them, Hatsushimo and Yuudachi ganging up on another Ri-Class as they kept their distance and evaded the torpedoes launched by the Abyssal.
A few bombers had been shot out of the sky by the Abyssals, but Shigure knew that the pilots wouldn't be harmed as the Anti-Air barrage lacked the lethality that it normally possessed as the Fairies had ejection seats that they could use to escape what she assumed was a warning that simulated a truly damaged bomber plane, as underwater bots would retrieve and repair the 'damaged but not totaled' equipment to be used again since the training area was within the safe confines of the base.
The flagship of one of the fleet was a Ta-Class battleship, lurking behind her teammates and taking pot shots at the ship girls whenever they stopped to catch their breath or when their boost gauges ran out, small moments of weakness in battle that could be fatal.
The Ta-Class battleship was the only battleship that was amongst the Abyssal lineup, being a fast battleship instead of the Ru-Class which Shigure heard was a slow battleship.
She had a decent-sized, black-colored left shoulder guard that held up a white cape that hung from her left side and covered most of her upper torso, and she was wearing a cut-off sailor uniform top that had a black sailor collar and white shirt that failed to cover her lean abdomen.
She was wearing skimpy underwear that was quite utilitarian in nature, only serving to cover the bare minimum as she also wore some sort of black steel thigh-highs on both knees.
The cannons that were sticking out of her cape and pointed forward were dark and covered in jet black metal, and her rigging had several large feral jaws that were glowing a neon green from within its throat, the rigging on her right being smaller and having one Twin Cannon and jaw while her left side possessed the bulk of the cannons and having three Twin Cannons that were positioned under her arm facing forward.
Her hair was snow-white like her pale skin, her eyes were emerald green and also had a neon green flaming effect as she skulked around firing her cannons sparingly.
Shigure could see that the Abyssals were losing, and that Tone's expression was an interesting mix of consternation upon fighting a losing battle against the 2nd Fleet as she sweated from the mental exertion, and pride upon seeing the 2nd Fleet in action and performing so well.
And as the 2nd Fleet started to whittle down their numbers and surrounded the flagship of the Abyssal Fleet, the Ta-Class was now lashing out in a barrage of cannon fire, spraying her cannon rounds to catch at least one of them in the process as the ship girls boosted away, ducking and throwing themselves onto the surface of the ocean.
Shigure gulped as saw that the large-caliber cannon shell of the Ta-Class impacted Hatsushimo square in the right shoulder, sending her catapulting back in a spectacular back flip as she hit the ocean like a rag doll.
The practice shells weren't created to kill, and this was one of the moments that really showed as the shell impacted Hatsushimo's shoulder, Hatsushimo taken out of the action even though her shoulder was still attached to her main body, the Hatsuharu-Class destroyer trying not to cry as she feebly clutched at her useless shoulder, the blood staining her dark uniform and muddied the seawater.
But the 2nd Fleet simply gave her a simple glance before looking back at their remaining enemies while looking all the more ready to destroy the Abyssals, the Ta-Class fast battleship surrounded by an I-Class destroyer, a Ri-Class heavy cruiser and two Ho Class light cruisers.
Ho-Class Abyssals were made up of a black column of cannons mounted on its top and sides, guarded by two steel pieces of armour on its sides, with a deformed mouth hanging open, the jutting and larger lower jaw attached to the column with large teeth protruding menacingly.
And the upper jaw, shaped like a dark helmet, was the substitute of a head for whatever passed for a body sticking out of its throat, two arms maintaining the main 'body', if it could even be called that.
Shigure could see that the 2nd Fleet was down to essentially five ship girls as the Abyssal bots that were controlled by Tone didn't target the immobile Hatsushimo, but Furutaka was still in the action somewhat considering that she was limping about, but was still combat-ready.
The two sides fired their torpedoes in a concentrated salvo, intending to take out the opponents as all combatants performed evasive maneuvers so as not to get hit by the torpedoes that were moving in the water.
Shigure could see that Sendai was pulling on Furutaka's uniform to get her to move that bit faster while a torpedo was heading towards them, Shigure reciting to herself in her mind to convince herself.
'It's alright.
They can't die, they can't die...'
But Furutaka had a plan to deal with this as she lifted her right hand and pointed one of her cannons at the approaching torpedo, sniping it and shooting it out of the water as Sendai and Furutaka both cringed and tried to cover themselves as a column of water was thrown up upon the torpedo exploding prematurely.
The Ri-Class, to Shigure's surprise, jumped in front of the torpedo salvo as they were directed towards the fast battleship to sacrifice herself in order to keep the Ta-Class alive and allow her to fight on.
Ryuujou's bomber planes swooped down to take out the two Ho-Class Abyssals before flying away safely, having emptied their payload and needed to be restocked before engaging in the enemy again, which meant that Ryuujou was also pretty much done until her bomber planes could be launched again as they swooped in gently to land on Ryuujou's scroll-based flight deck.
But Shimakaze, Sendai, Furutaka and Yuudachi weren't out of this fight yet as they all fired their cannons at the remaining Abyssals, something that the Abyssals that were glad to reciprocate as they traded cannon fire.
Shigure held her breath upon seeing the remaining enemies that the 2nd Fleet had to go up against, Shimakaze shooting the I-Class in the optics to disable it long enough for her to run up to it, positioning her three Rensouhou-Chan to fire down at its cracked exoskeleton, causing Shimakaze to be splattered with the Abyssals' blood and fuel as Shimakaze ignored the dead, sinking Abyssal to move onto the next target.
The Ta-Class was triple-teamed by the three remaining ship girls before Shimakaze joined in, the ship girls' torpedo launchers trying to reload and allow the ship girls to fire another salvo at the Ta-Class, their primary tactic in taking down a superior enemy.
But the enemy wasn't going to give them the chance as the Ta-Class battleship opened fire again, causing the ship girls to be on the move and keep evading her large-caliber cannon shells, lest they get injured like Hatsushimo and be taken out of the fight.
Sendai utilized the cannons lined up on her arms to fire at the Ta-Class, causing the Ta-Class to cringe upon the Anti-Air rounds being fired at her face, the fast battleship shielding her own face to protect her eyes from sustaining damage.
This was a diversion for Yuudachi and Furutaka to fire another salvo of torpedoes at the Ta-Class, something that didn't work as the Ta-Class evaded the torpedo as its lighter body allowed it to move relatively quickly, the Ta-Class raising her leg to allow a torpedo to pass safely underneath the spot of ocean where her feet previously was.
And was a tad slower in responding to Sendai who ran in quickly after Furutaka had recovered from the shock of the injury to walk on her own as Furutaka provided cover fire to discourage the Ta-Class from firing at the approaching light cruiser.
The Ta-Class was about to get a lock on and fire at Sendai, but was distracted by Shimakaze having hurled a torpedo in her direction as though she were throwing a spear, engulfing the Ta-Class's back in a painful explosion that sadly didn't take her out for good, the few milliseconds that Shimakaze's thrown torpedo bought enough for Sendai to close the distance.
Stepping backwards wasn't going to save the Ta-Class as Sendai bounced off the ocean surface and performed a tight front flip to protect herself against the Anti-Air fire of the shocked Ta-Class as Sendai straightened herself while upside-down and right atop the Ta-Class, spinning in a ballerina-like motion.
The Sendai-Class light cruiser had taken the time to charge forward to manually hold her own torpedo launchers that she pointed down at the Ta-Class, firing them all and allowing gravity to finish the job, the upper half of the Ta-Class being obliterated despite practice torpedoes being used.
Sendai used whatever boost she had recovered whilst in mid-air to boost away upon landing, the transition between landing and boost-evasion almost non-existent as Sendai's ponytails trailed behind her.
And as the smoke cleared, the Ta-Class's upper body was shown to be destroyed as her corpse hit the ocean with a dull splash, the six ship girl combatants all breathing heavily as they watched the carnage that occurred, even if it was against Abyssal bots.
The 1st Fleet wasn't faring much better, wide-mouthed upon seeing but a glimpse of what true teamwork was, and how working together was beneficial to them all in covering each other and taking down enemies that were greater than them, seeing that the 2nd Fleet didn't possess fast battleships to match the Ta-Class bot that was summoned, yet came out victorious.
Shigure was the one who was the most awestruck, having been shown not just how the ship girls of this world could take naval warfare to the next level, but how it added so many depths to their conventional weapons that could be utilized in so many ways.
And now, the ship girl herself was just as important, if not even more so compared to the weapons she carried after witnessing Sendai's impressive boost-dodge immediately upon landing, which required quite a fair bit of training to pull off as well as the aerial maneuvers that Sendai and Shimakaze pulled off flawlessly, the agility and speed of response that they possessed almost frightening due to their potent lethality.
And watching the Abyssal corpses sinking back into the ocean was a testament to their accomplishment and potential, seeing that they weren't even Kai Ni, Shigure finally recomposing herself enough so that she could pick her jaw up from the ocean surface to take in her future goals, in which the bar had now been raised by the feats of the 2nd Fleet.
The 1st Fleet was now sitting back in the same seat of the Shinsengumi establishment, and the 1st Fleet was now relaxing as the 2nd Fleet had to soak in the bathwater of the docks to recover completely by tomorrow, Tone having demonstrated to Shigure and company how the ship girls of today fought their battles to hold the line against the Abyssals.
Shigure was talking to Ayanami about the 2nd Fleet, asking a senior about how hard they had to train in order to achieve such skills to defend themselves in battle, Ayanami answering calmly.
"Well, attending training sessions is one thing, and seeing that ship girls like Sendai and Shimakaze take part in lessons outside of sorties to improve their agility, a vital factor in our performance seeing that we're the fastest ship girls in the fleet."
Shigure lifted her eyebrows at that, Ayanami taking a sip from her ramune bottle before answering and elaborating on the fighting styles of the ship girls.
"Destroyers like us are fragile, but are the fastest in terms of speed and have great numbers.
And with great speed means greatly improved evasion abilities along with high luck, you and I, and we perform extremely well in night battles."
Shigure's eyebrow creased at that, but Ayanami didn't seem to notice, or decided to exercise tact by not drawing attention to it as she continued.
"The weaker destroyers often go on expeditions to resupply our base, since we can't survive off of the resource donation of various companies forever."
Shigure lifted an eyebrow at that to accept Ayanami's point, the name ship of the Ayanami-Class looking forward as she explained the light cruisers.
"Light cruisers are more powerful than us destroyers, and it's reflected in their stats and their teenage bodies that are more developed in terms of their physique and the skills available to them."
"And let me guess, heavy cruisers are more powerful than that, which is reflected in their 'young adult' looks, while carriers and battleships are created as full-fledged adults to reflect being the epitome of physical strength?"
Ayanami nodded as they both looked at the bickering Hiei and Junyou, the fast battleship holding the wine bottle away from the light carrier while Junyou desperately lunged and stretched her hands out to try and grasp the wine bottle while leaning on the fast battleship, the entire comedic routine involving a lot of physical contact and hair-pulling.
Shigure sweat-dropped as she commented on the sight before her, asking her silent comrade.
"I believe that maturity doesn't always extend to their behavior, right?"
Ayanami could only chuckle at the sight of the last two members of the 1st Fleet 'getting along so well', commenting.
"Well, of course not, for things wouldn't be as interesting now, would it?"
Shigure lifted her eyebrow in acceptance, noting,
"So, each ship class has a unique specialization, us being raw speed and light cruisers being agility.
I'm making an educated guess that heavy cruisers are well-rounded, carriers having powerful situational awareness and enhanced sight, seeing how Ryuujou was able to coordinate all her bombers so well across the entire battlefield.
And battleships obviously are the strongest in terms of physical strength and firepower amongst all ship classes."
Ayanami nodded serenely, commending.
"You seem to be rather perceptive, as that point about the carriers having powerful sight can pass by those who didn't know of it before."
Shigure shrugged, remembering her time with the light carrier on their fleet.
"Well, I remember Junyou often commenting offhandedly about a few things that required me to get closer to see what she had seen, which led me to come to that conclusion, it being a skill naturally required to complement their powerful radar and to visually keep track of the planes in the sky."
Ayanami nodded, looking back at the sight of the two squabbling ship girls, before gentle hands reached out and relinquished the wine bottle from Hiei's grip, Houshou standing next to their table as she asked, being the unofficial mother figure to everyone as she stood before them all.
"Well, by the sound of things, I believe you've seen the 2nd Fleet in action against Abyssal bots on the training grounds, am I right?"
Tenryuu's face lit up like a Christmas tree upon hearing that, speaking animatedly about the feats that the 2nd Fleet pulled off while using her fingers and hands to mimic the motions like an overexcited child, Tatsuta smiling at her sister ship's enthusiasm.
"Oh yeah!
Sendai was like, flipping over the Ta-Class, and Shimakaze was like, tstshtshtsh while stomping on a Ri-Class's face..."
Houshou giggled as she held the wine bottle beside her, Hiei and Junyou already patting themselves down as they tried to make themselves look presentable in front of the mother-ship as Houshou asked.
"Well, I believe that it's a simple matter for you to achieve that level of skill in due time."
"Really?!"
Shigure was rather surprised at the possibility of someone currently as weak as her could become that strong, although now that she thought about it, she had a Kai Ni remodel like quite a few ship girls in her fleet.
This would mean that they, like the 2nd Fleet, possessed quite a fair bit of untapped potential when one looked at the fleet composition, Houshou answering her question as she gave Shigure a warm smile.
"Oh, of course.
Even after all of you achieve your final forms, it's not what you can achieve alone, but instead as a fleet to cover each other and take down opponents tougher than you.
You all now play a part in ensuring each other's survival, and I do believe that you'll do everything in your power to ensure that you all come home alive."
The 1st Fleet nodded at that, wondering about what new aims they were going to have to set for themselves upon seeing what they could achieve to be at the level that the 2nd Fleet was currently at, not just to attain victory for the sake of the Yokosuka Naval Base, but also to protect their comrades in battle.