Shigure was frozen by the sight of the large-caliber cannons pointed in their direction, her eyes wide open like saucers and looking much like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, before her mind kicked into high gear as she shouted to the destroyers while diving to the ocean surface.
"GET DOWN!"
And the world erupted into a chorus of deafening explosions that shook the atmosphere in a powerful shock-wave, reverberating throughout Shigure's small body as she hit the shuddering ocean.
A few large-sized projectiles flew over Shigure, the destroyer feeling the shock-wave of the shells cutting through the air and the resulting vacuum that was produced that the sizable shells left in their wake, feeling the wind blow her drenched hair about and caused her lightning rod to shudder atop her backpack, not unlike a tuning fork due to the sheer speed of the life-sized cannon shell narrowly missing her.
The sharp and loud whistle of the shells flying over her head temporarily deafened her as she desperately prayed that none of them would hit her, having found friends and teammates to fight for, and a goal to work towards.
She may have felt a little suicidal prior to joining the 1st Fleet, but right now, deep down in her heart, she wanted to live and had too much to lose if she sank.
A few large splashes were heard off in the distance, Shigure finally feeling the rain hit her again as she spat out the salty seawater that got into her mouth, shaking her hair in a vain attempt to shake the water out of her hair as she frantically looked around to try and locate her teammates in the chaos.
She spotted Kasumi, curled up in a fetal position in an attempt to reduce her size in order to minimize the chances of getting hit, Shigure almost missing the slight tremor that was in her body as the cannon fire died down.
Umikaze seemed to be injured by a cannon shell to the right knee, Shigure hearing Umikaze's muffled scream of pain as she clutched at the bleeding stump, Shigure resisting the urge to vomit at the sight of blood and fuel leaking from her sister's bleeding thigh, even seeing a little piece of steel bone jutting out from the center and being stained by the shower of blood as Shigure swallowed an uncomfortable lump in her throat.
The Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer noted that the cannon shells did a lot of damage, Shigure trying to piece everything together and trying to understand how despite the fact that her sister didn't seem to get hit by the devastating 35.6 cm Single Cannon Shells that would have likely sheared off her entire lower half, Umikaze was instead hit by a 14 cm cannon shell that somehow blew off her entire right leg.
But she was left speechless upon looking around the surrounding ocean and spotting her last teammate Wakaba.
Or to be specific, what was left of her.
Shigure's breath stopped as she laid her eyes on what remained of Wakaba, the Hatsuharu-Class destroyer not reacting fast enough to dodge in time and was caught in the line of fire as the cannons unleashed their wrath in the form of a devastating cannon barrage.
Wakaba no longer possessed an upper torso, head or arms, and Shigure could only identify her via her black skirt and thigh highs, as well as her HUD displaying her name before the system failed to identify her vitals due to half of her body being blown away.
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
HATSUHARU-CLASS DESTROYER 077
"WAKABA"
STATUS: DECEASED'
Her upper chest was likely where the shell had hit her and had cleanly sheared off her entire torso and head, leaving only the body beneath her diaphragm intact as a fountain of blood and fuel gushed from the affected area like some sort of twisted and powerful fountain of ungodly proportions.
She could feel Kasumi and Umikaze's shocked gaze falling upon the grisly scene of the dead destroyer that was feebly trying its best to hold itself up.
And Shigure, to her horror, could still see Wakaba's legs twitching about, desperately trying its best to hold up whatever was left of its body before crumpling onto the ocean floor and allowing the weakening fountain of blood spill out onto the ocean surface, Shigure morbidly observing Wakaba's organs splattering out onto the ocean, out of the snug confines of her steel body.
She could identify a bloody liver flopping out, and probably a stomach that came next as the unmistakable intestines could be seen within the body, since Shigure unfortunately had the perfect angle to look within the small waterfall that was the bloody mixture of fuel and blood, seeing some of the intestines get stuck as they tried to escape the body at the same time, causing a jam due to the length of the intestine blocking itself.
The organs and the ship girl corpse were made of steel, and after a moment of floating on the ocean surface as the waves and the rain beat down on the prone corpse, it slowly and eventually sank as the ocean claimed what was left of Wakaba, the destroyer trio too shocked and frightened to do anything to stop the process.
Or rather, they didn't know what they could do to save someone who was missing her most vital organ, the brain.
Even if the destroyers brought back Wakaba's lower half, which was missing vital memory banks and processing cores, she didn't know if even the Fairies could bring her back to her original condition.
They were powerful engineers, but even they weren't almighty.
As she kept her wide eyes trained on the corpse of the sinking Wakaba, her HUD changed its notification to update the frozen Shigure about the condition of the destroyer.
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL SIGNAL LOST
HATSUHARU-CLASS DESTROYER 077
"WAKABA"
STATUS: SUNK'
And this finally allowed Shigure the chance to finally empty her stomach as she fell to her knees and vomited into the ocean, seeing the gruesome sight of the Hatsuharu-Class destroyer who had her torso, arms and head blown clean off her body in an instant, Wakaba's legs experiencing its death throes before giving out and her guts finally spewing everywhere on the ocean, along with buckets of blood and fuel being spilled everywhere.
It was too much for her to handle, despite her mature outlook on life.
She was prepared for the eventuality of death, but that...
That was just a gory and pointless death that she was not yet trained to face.
Shigure felt the sting in her throat and the bile that refused to leave it as she dry-heaved, noting some small shreds of undigested unagi meat and corn kernels floating in the ocean amidst the bile, before sinking slowly into the ocean like Wakaba did.
She tried her best not to ingest her vomit, trying to control her cough so as to clear her throat while keeping her shaking hand that held up her shivering body steady on the ocean surface.
But her superhuman hearing picked up the distinct cocking of machine guns as Abyssal activity on the superstructure of the Flying Dutchman increased, Shigure now feeling two trembling palms placed over her shoulders and roughly pulling her back, almost to the point of manhandling her as Kasumi shrieked into her ear,
"Come on!
We're gonna get fucking killed out here, being so close to whatever the fuck that is!"
And Shigure then realized that was a good deal of trembling was from herself, being partly in shock and somewhat dazed as she shakily nodded, trying to blink away the tears that threatened to escape her tear ducts and desperately trying to convince herself that it was the rain hitting her face as she ran towards Umikaze, another threatening flash of lightning flaring up overhead and the booming roar of thunder pushing her on.
And upon running towards her sister ship, she kept an eye on her sonar as the underwater waves bounced off of some sort of swarm that spawned from the hull of the Flying Dutchman, small unknown Abyssal signatures that swam around and numbered in the millions as they formed a defensive underwater perimeter around the Dutchman beneath the ocean.
These details almost escaped Shigure's notice as she was only half paying attention, since she was mainly focused on escaping the point-blank range of the Flying Dutchman with her comrades, trying not to remember the gruesome sight of Wakaba's death.
She failed spectacularly at this as Kasumi had to roughly shove her forward every time she remembered either the gory fate of the late Wakaba, or small flashbacks to Surigao Strait and the familiar feeling of hopeless despair she felt both then and now.
She tried to keep her wits about her, making sure to regulate her breathing and not succumb to hyperventilation at such a critical moment.
Her legs were soft due to fright, and she stumbled a few times as she ran on the rough and shifting ocean surface, but eventually reached her crying sister Umikaze, who was feebly clutching at her bleeding thigh as though simply holding onto it would miraculously bring back her missing leg.
The bleeding was now somewhat stabilized due to the miniature valves in her ship girl vessels attempting to keep the damage and fluid loss to a minimum as the bleeding was now a relatively small, steady stream of blood instead of the previously uncontrollable stream of blood and fuel.
Umikaze's face was considerably paler now, starting to match her hair as she had broken out into a cold sweat due to the cold ambient temperature, harsh rainfall and the significant blood loss.
The surrounding ocean had already been dyed red due to Umikaze's blood being emptied into the ocean, and Shigure had to fight to keep herself under control instead of retching into the ocean again and wasting precious time trying to recover.
Kasumi shouted into Shigure's ear in an attempt to make herself heard over the loud rain and fast winds, Shigure paying attention to every strained word coming out of her mouth
"She's your sister, you've got better luck, and I've got Kai armor!
You'll carry her back to the Combined Fleet battleships, while - "
Kasumi didn't get a chance to finish as the world exploded into a flash of bluish-white light that engulfed them, Shigure's heart stopping as she wondered if this was where she was going to meet her maker.
But surprisingly, no supersonic cannon shells came to end their lives as Shigure, Kasumi and Umikaze shielded their eyes from the harsh, alien glow of five spotlights on the deck of the Flying Dutchman, three of which were trained on the trio as Shigure gulped, frozen in place as the enemies had located their position amidst the darkness while the two other spotlights searched around, likely looking for the sunk Wakaba, not knowing that she had already perished.
Kasumi, with squinted eyes, already had her face contorted with a mixed expression of anger, panic and mostly fear as she faced the Abyssal aviation battleship.
She held up her arms that had a 12.7 Cm Twin Gun Cannon in one hand, and a 61 Cm Quad Torpedo Mount on another as she shouted to Shigure.
"FUCKING GO!
I GOT YOUR BACK!"
Shigure snapped to attention, and bent down to cradle her injured sister in a bridal carry that would elevate the bleeding stump and further slow down any bleeding, heaving as she lifted her sister.
And that was when the machine gun fire started.
A symphony of deafening machine gun fire from the deck of the Dutchman resounded throughout the rain-soaked battlefield, and Umikaze shrieked as she buried her head into Shigure's shoulder as Shigure, carrying her sister, had no choice but to listen to the never-ending bark of the machine guns off in the distance, running as best she could while carrying her injured sister ship.
Kasumi screamed at the Abyssals as she retaliated in kind by firing her cannons and torpedoes that sailed towards the battleship, enraged and desperate.
"COME ON, BITCHES!
THAT ALL YOU GOT?!"
And that was when the 14 Cm Gun Cannons decided to take pot shots at them as the spotlight was trained on them, Shigure not wanting to look back for fear of what she would see.
Several times, she could feel the machine gun rounds painfully bounce off of her armored skin, causing her to wince in pain due to the caliber of the machine gun rounds being fired from such powerful guns.
They were saved in large part due to their ship girl bodies, the bullets losing some of their stopping power due to the increasing distance between them and Kasumi helping her tank most of the bullets, Shigure unable to imagine what it was like for Kasumi who had to bear the brunt of the gunfire barrage.
Kasumi shouted out to Shigure behind her while sailing in reverse, her tone pissed off and fearful at what this new technological weapon was.
"FUCK!
Shigure, the boat's summoning large swarms of small Abyssal thingies to detonate my torpedoes before they can get anywhere near its fucking hull!"
Shigure nodded, shaking the water out of her hair as she thought about how the Abyssals had developed new technology without their knowledge.
If they developed some sort of underwater swarm that could make torpedoes detonate prematurely, it would serve as a nigh-impenetrable defense against their torpedoes.
A worried voice popped up in her head, Hiei asking Shigure and company about their situation ever since the unidentified Abyssal popped up and disrupted the communication between the left flank and the rest of the Combined Fleet.
"Shigure, what's going on over there?!
We lost you for a second there due to enemy interference, and there were large caliber cannons being fired from your location, is everyone alright?"
Kasumi took the words out of Shigure's mouth as she shouted after spitting out some blood, hoarsely screaming,
"EVERYTHING'S NOT FUCKING ALRIGHT!
We're under fire from numerous Abyssals with machine guns, what do you think?!"
Shigure shouted into the wireless radio, trying to make herself heard over the never-ending whistle of the machine gun rounds as she pleaded.
"Please fire at the Abyssal aviation battleship!
The Flying Dutchman's going to fire her cannons again anytime soon!"
Hiei's voice was now confused as she tried to ask Shigure to clarify herself, only to be interrupted by another barrage of cannon fire.
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?
The Flying Dutch…"
Another salvo of 35.6 Cm and 14 Cm cannons made themselves heard throughout the battlefield again, Shigure feeling that the distance between them and the Flying Dutchman helped them out a little as the large-caliber shells didn't hit any of them, but the 14 Cm Cannons were a little more accurate in that regard as the Abyssal aviation battleship had more of them on the side of the aviation battleship's hull and thus had a higher chance of hitting something due to the amount of shells that they unloaded on their port side.
And hit something they did.
Shigure's spirit sank even further as she heard Kasumi scream upon an explosion ringing out behind her, something causing Shigure to fall forward and drop Umikaze as Kasumi fell on her back, knocking them all down.
Shigure struggled to get out of the human entanglement of limbs as she gently pushed Kasumi off of her and got Umikaze out of the mess, hearing Umikaze and Kasumi both whining in pain as she freed herself and assessed Kasumi's damage.
And what she saw horrified her.
Kasumi's uniform was now in tatters, having been shredded into oblivion by the barrage of machine gun fire from the Abyssals as there were a few splotches of blood and areas of broken skin where the concentrated machine gun fire pierced her measly destroyer armor and had drawn blood as the spotlights had highlighted their position to all the Abyssals on deck.
Nowhere was this more evident than on Kasumi's chest.
Or again, to be specific, her lack of one.
Kasumi's breastplate had been torn open by the life-sized shell hitting her in the center of her chest, rupturing the blood vessels and major fuel tanks located around that area.
There was a pool of blood and fuel in the crater located in her chest, and there were signs of disturbance due to Shigure's gentle push spilling its contents onto the sides of her shredded uniform, and Kasumi had a few fractured ribs showing if Shigure looked close enough.
And three guesses as to how Shigure had discovered Kasumi's exposed rib-cage.
Good God, she could almost see Kasumi's heaving organs beneath the steel cage.
Kasumi was coughing up blood, which messily dribbled down her mouth and throat as she looked at her with bloodshot eyes and tried to get Shigure's attention.
Shigure blinked, trembling while positioning herself such that she would be shielding Kasumi from the machine gun barrage with her back and battle backpack as she heard the battleship Hiei talk into her head to ask for a sit-rep.
"Girls!
What the hell is going on over there?!"
Kasumi looked to Umikaze, who was holding up one hand to shield her eyes from the harsh glow of the spotlights behind Shigure and the hail of machine gun fire that never seemed to end, Kasumi hoarsely calling out to her.
"Umikaze…
Give Hiei the sit-rep, and tell her to put one in these bitches before they off us…"
Umikaze nodded, barely holding herself together against an unknown and devastating enemy that they had never expected to face.
Kasumi looked to Shigure as Umikaze narrated the dire situation to the battleships and light carriers,
"Wakaba has been sunk by the Abyssal battleship.
We have two injured ship girls, one sustaining medium damage and the other critically injured…
Yes, Kasumi is critically injured, and I, Umikaze, have suffered medium damage…"
Kasumi looked to Shigure, and Shigure, upon kneeling down, could see the light leaving the Asashio-Class destroyer's eyes, but Kasumi was desperately fighting to keep herself awake as she narrated to Shigure.
"Shigure…
You have to tell the others…
What the battleship is using, are life-sized ammunition rounds…"
Shigure blinked, trying to make sense of Kasumi's words, but Kasumi waved a trembling hand as she elaborated as best she could with a large, blood-filled crater in her chest.
"Our ammo is all downsized when we're created as ship girls and Abyssals.
What that battleship is using are life-sized rounds, so their 14 Cm rounds…"
Gesturing down to her wound as tried to rein in her cough of death, Shigure had to force herself to stare right into her exposed, bloody chest that was missing her humanoid flesh, as what replaced it was a pool of blood and fuel that mixed together to form a disgusting brownish-red mixture with her broken steel bones protruding like the head of the Loch Ness Monster out of the infernal cauldron of blood, fuel and rainwater.
"... are actually 14 centimeters in diameter, compared to our 14 Cm cannon rounds that are shrunk down to the human equivalent of small to medium-caliber bullets.
And whatever's in the water, it's moving about in a massive swarm to intercept and destroy our torpedoes before they even get close to the target.
Go, and tell them…"
Shigure shook her head frantically, exclaiming.
"No…
Nononono…
I'm not leaving you here for the Abyssals to capture or sink!"
Kasumi shook her head despondently, the duo hearing Umikaze trying to clarify the situation over the radio.
"Yes, it's an aviation battleship…
No, it's an actual battleship, as in, hundreds of meters long, and it has cannons on its port side…
No, it hasn't done anything other than shoot at us, and it currently shows no signs of giving chase…
Yes, it's firing machine gun rounds at us, that's the background noise you hear right now…"
Indeed, the whistling of the machine gun bullets flying past them was still going on en masse, although most of it had died down as Shigure suspected that they were cooling down their machine guns or were reloading, and would soon resume their rain of terror soon enough.
Even the spotlights had been turned off to engulf the behemoth in darkness due to the storm and lack of ambient lighting, although its silhouette was still plainly visible in the distance as the rain blurred the sight of the battleship itself.
Kasumi's right hand shot out to grab Shigure by the collar, screaming into her face as her eyes were now furious at Shigure's defiance.
"You don't get it, do you?!
You have the best chance of survival!
And if you don't live to tell everyone about this one-of-a-kind threat, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE HERE!"
"I'M NOT GOING TO LIVE ON WHILE ANYONE ELSE DIES!
I'M NOT ABANDONING YOU!"
Kasumi looked as though she wanted to shout at Shigure some more, but their shouting match was interrupted as Kasumi violently coughed up blood, mumbling in a seething manner,
"Idiots…
…Fucking surrounded by idiots…"
Kasumi gasped, causing the chest crater to shudder violently as raindrops added to the volume of fluid that occupied it, Kasumi relenting so as not to waste any more time.
"Whatever…
Cable…
Reach underneath me and pull out the cable…"
Shigure flinched a little, before trying to lift Kasumi's body and trying her best not to disturb the wound as she looked underneath Kasumi's back and tried to look for the cable.
A Fairy that was wearing scuba diving gear and was swimming on the surface of the ocean beneath Kasumi's back emerged to hold up the cable, leading from a hole underneath Kasumi's battle backpack.
Shigure thankfully took possession of the cable that had a hook at its end, the heavy-duty towing cable often used to tow injured ship girls back to base.
She lowered Kasumi back down as she saw the Fairy retreat into the backpack, Shigure brandishing the hook for Kasumi to see as she asked Kasumi for the next step.
"Kasumi-san, what now?"
Shigure now noticed that the gunfire had completely died down, although she wasn't under any sort of illusion that the Dutchman was going to stop attacking them.
If anything, it was the calm before the storm, the actual storm that was raging around them notwithstanding.
Kasumi nodded and motioned with her trembling arms, trying not to snort in rainwater as she narrated, streaks of tears running down her cheeks as she tried to ignore the pain.
"…Alright…
Pull out as much of it as you can, wrap it around me and lead it to you.
Attach it around to wherever on you.
Quickly…
The longer we stay out here, the easier it is for us to die…
And the Flying Dutchman hasn't fired its cannons and machine guns for a while now…"
Shigure was already on it, trying not to disturb Kasumi's wound as she wrapped the cable and hook underneath the arc of Kasumi's back, Umikaze allowing herself to act as a lookout as she talked to the light carriers.
Several times, Shigure either saw or heard Kasumi wince, but she didn't hear Kasumi cry out explicitly in pain even once, Shigure respecting the caustic Asashio-Class destroyer a little more for that.
And after tightening the steel cable in a knot around Kasumi's shoulder, the cable was to be wrapped around Kasumi's armpits like the straps of a backpack as Shigure was worried that if she used the cable to crisscross over Kasumi's wound, it would serve to exacerbate the injury and risk killing Kasumi outright.
But Kasumi motioned for Shigure to come closer, and when Shigure quickly leaned in to put her right ear next to Kasumi's mouth, she could hear the rarely-shown sweetness of the bitter destroyer as she addressed her Admiral, Kasumi smirking as she asked Shigure.
"If I don't make it back alive to tell him…
Tell my teammates to tell my kuso Admiral… that if he wants to make it up to me…
When he repairs me, make sure to ask the Fairies to bump my cup size up a few letters…"
Kasumi's face hardened, and Shigure understood the wordless meaning conveyed in that look as she stood up, using the extra length of the cable and hook to wrap the cable around her waist and securing it with the steel hook.
She quickly ran back to Umikaze, looking down as she saw tears of fear streaking down Umikaze's eyes, Shigure reassuring her sister despite the odds being against them.
"It's alright, we'll make it out of this alive…"
But Umikaze wasn't convinced, shakily asking,
"What the hell is going on anymore, Shigure?"
But Shigure slowly picked her sister up, making sure not to disturb the wound that was the missing leg as she maintained her cool facade and replied.
"A new type of enemy that no one here is prepared for.
But we will make it out of here to warn everyone about this."
Umikaze, upon being hoisted up in a bridal carry in her sister's arms, stayed silent while choosing believe in her sister's words as she closed her eyes in acceptance, nodding resignedly at Shigure's reassuring words.
But Shigure heard Kasumi's deadly cough as she tried to warn them about something, Shigure making out one chilling word.
"M-M…
Missiles…"
Shigure whirled around to find small silos on the deck of the Flying Dutchman being opened at the bow, deck and stern of the ship as Abyssals cleared the deck, Shigure's heart stopping as she put two and two together and felt all hope abandon her spirit and felt pangs of despair start to gnaw at her heart.
She saw the blinding ignition of the rocket boosters lighting up the vertical missile launching silos, throwing up columns of smoke that erupted from the mouth of the silos before the missile warheads emerged, the same eruption of smoke and blinding booster illumination lighting up the rest of the silos as a dozen missiles shot up into the air sequentially.
They left billowing smoke in their wake that dissipated within seconds instead of leaving a clearly identifiable trail of smoke behind them, something that would have been solved by the technologically advanced Abyssals, the bright and active exhaust boosters looking like a cluster of fireflies reaching for the heavens as they flew above the rain clouds on the journey towards their targets.
Shigure looked to Kasumi for advice, and she heard the desperation in Kasumi's feeble voice crying out in genuine concern.
"The cruisers…
Must… warn the cruisers…"
Shigure nodded as she made her way across the ocean with Umikaze in her arms while towing Kasumi, attempting to contact everyone on the emergency frequency and desperately calling out as she sailed against the rain and wind while looking down at Umikaze, who had curled up silently and was almost unconscious from the shock and trauma of recent events, her inexperience in dealing with these events and significant blood loss taking a toll on her.
"Shigure to everyone, do you read me?!
The left flank of the formation has been decimated by a gigantic Abyssal vessel of unknown capabilities!
The Abyssal aviation battleship, named The Flying Dutchman, has fired several missiles into the sky, and are flying towards the vanguard of the formation.
All cruisers, perform evasive maneuvers!
NOW!"
Shigure could hear different voices start to talk on the radio, Shigure turning off the radio in her mind to prevent an overloading of information and questions in her mind that would only serve to distract her when she was still in point-blank range of the Flying Dutchman, the aviation battleship choosing to stay enigmatically silent instead of trying to finish the destroyers off.
Perhaps it was preparing its cannons for the firefight later instead of wasting its shells in an attempt to pick off three measly destroyers that were already on the run.
And as Shigure saw the figures of Hiei, Haruna, Junyou and Hiyou in the center of the formation, her spirits raised as she finally thought that there was finally some hope of recovering from this disaster.
And the world decided to screw her over again with several bright flashes in the distance, where she assumed the cruisers were since she could see the bright trails of the rockets re-entering the battlefield, devastating the vanguard of the formation by illuminating the distance with bright, almost blinding explosions due to the missile warheads hitting either the ocean or the ship girls.
Shigure prayed it wasn't the latter as she squinted and shielded her eyes to avoid overloading her apertures with the sudden increase in light intensity.
Haruna was running towards them as best she could while carrying her heavy rigging on her after hearing about and witnessing the injured Kasumi being dragged on the ocean surface like a rag doll, one hand raised to shield her eyes from the glare of the missile detonations.
She looked to Shigure, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer shaking her head and stating in a demoralized manner.
"I'm sorry, Haruna-san.
Wakaba…
I…"
But Haruna patted her softly on the shoulder to reassure her just as she was about to burst into tears again, Shigure looking up to see Haruna's old and fatigued eyes reflecting her experience and wisdom, comforting Shigure.
"It's alright, Shigure.
You tried, and that's what counts, right?"
This sent a pang of guilt throughout Shigure's heart, the destroyer trying her best not to break down and start sobbing on the spot due to the sudden nature of Wakaba's death.
She knew that Haruna didn't know anything about the situation, but she couldn't help but feel bad that instead of trying to save Wakaba like Haruna thought, Shigure instead dived to the floor like a coward to avoid getting shot.
Haruna shifted her eyes over to the supine and dying Kasumi, the Asashio-Class destroyer bleeding out through her mouth in trying to get Haruna's attention.
And Haruna, despite carrying her cannons and her rigging, was somehow able to suddenly rush to her side in an instant as she leaned in to hear Kasumi's last words before she expired.
Shigure looked down at Haruna's surprised expression, the fast battleship's eyes widening upon hearing Kasumi's information before she lifted her head to look down at Kasumi.
Everyone could see the lights finally leave the Asashio-Class destroyer's dull and unfocused eyes as Haruna shook her softly as she tried to prevent Kasumi from dying, despite knowing full well that they could be revived later on.
"Kasumi?
Kasumi?!"
And Shigure had to look away and down at her unconscious sister as the depressing message popped up on her HUD.
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
ASASHIO-CLASS DESTROYER 090
"KASUMI"
STATUS: DECEASED'
Hiyou approached them, and Shigure allowed the light carrier to carry the unconscious Umikaze, gently handing her sister over to Hiyou as she saw Haruna come up beside her, also holding Kasumi in a bridal carry as she politely asked Shigure,
"Shigure-san.
The cable."
Shigure blinked before nodding in acknowledgement, making sure that Hiyou had a good hold on her sister's unconscious body as she reached down to untangle the cable and hook that was tied around her waist.
Hiyou did her best to cradle Umikaze's head to allow her to breathe as Shigure noted that Kasumi had her eyes closed, Haruna likely closing them for her to allow her to look as if she had died in peace.
They all looked towards the silent aviation battleship as the darkness and rain camouflaged it somewhat, the neon blue stripes almost failing to light it up as the monolithic superstructure in the distance failed to betray any of its mysterious intentions as the spotlights were deactivated, Shigure trying to discern any signs of activity aboard the mysterious ship.
She finally uncoupled and untangled the cables that was wound around her waist, letting go of the hook so that the Fairies manning Kasumi's battle backpack could reel the cable back in.
Hiyou turned to Shigure, gravely informing.
"We've asked what was left of the vanguard to retreat and rendezvous at the right flank, where we'll be far away from the Flying Dutchman.
We should be out of its range, or at least at a distance where its cannons can't hit us easily due to the distance we put between us.
There, we can reassess our manpower and observe the Flying Dutchman, determine our odds of winning and arrive at a consensus as to what our next move is, since not all of us are out of this fight yet."
Hiyou looked fatigued from having to deal with the weather, the Abyssals and the arrival of the Flying Dutchman, looking back at the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer as she continued.
"The Flying Dutchman doesn't seem like it's going anywhere, but we don't know whether it'll attack us later.
And if it does, we'll be ready to cut our losses and retreat if we decide that it's the wisest course of action.
But on the bright side, the 3rd Fleet of Yokosuka's about five minutes away."
Shigure, lowering her head to shield her face from the bulk of the rain, nodded as she asked Hiyou and Haruna about one thing.
"This new Abyssal vessel…
Is this situation similar to when the world was introduced to the first Abyssal Princess?"
Hiyou and Haruna both looked at each other questioningly as they revved up the engines in their boat slippers, Haruna answering.
"According to the history books, it was a mess back then too.
Confusion, panic and mass retreats to get a better grasp of the situation."
Haruna's face darkened as she pointed out one last similarity that wasn't in the history books.
"It was omitted from the history books, but one thing that we all knew in the back of our mindss was the number of ship girls that were killed in droves and sunk upon engaging the Princesses for the first time."
Shigure nodded solemnly as she remembered the sunk Wakaba, the dead Kasumi and the unknown fates of the cruisers at the vanguard, having been devastated by the missiles and were now likely retreating.
Shigure sailed towards her comrades Junyou and Hiei, bitterly thinking about what might have happened had Hiei and Haruna fired on the Flying Dutchman and saved Wakaba and Kasumi from their gruesome fates.
But she shook her head, closing her eyes to forbid herself from thinking like that, reminding herself that Hiei and Haruna were tasked with the responsibility of looking out for the entire Combined Fleet and had to provide cover fire in order to protect everyone on the battlefield.
There were only two of them, and the light carriers couldn't help out much as the stormy weather and heavy rain severely limited the range of their planes, only allowing them to scout out the enemy before they had to land their planes.
Wakaba was sunk almost immediately after the Flying Dutchman appeared, and neither her help nor the battleships' cannon fire could have prevented that since the Flying Dutchman temporarily threw off communication frequencies upon arriving.
The battleships probably wouldn't want to fire in their direction for fear of hitting them since they were so close to the Flying Dutchman, and the only option was for them to wait for the destroyers to update them on what the heck was going on and giving them accurate coordinates before they could fire at anything.
Shigure could see the cruisers approaching the destroyers of the right flank that comprised of Ayanami, Oboro, Hibiki and Isuzu.
And by their looks, they had also been in one hell of a firefight.
Hibiki's uniform was stained red by her own blood and she was panting heavily as she laid in a supine position on the ocean surface, Ayanami using strips of her shredded uniform to bandage the Akatsuki-Class destroyer's wounds.
Isuzu was standing up proudly and had her head drooped down in a brooding stance, but the wounds that riddled her bloody body was enough proof of the struggles she had to endure, although she didn't seem as if she wanted to allow herself any rest and potentially let her guard down as she provided protection and kept watch over her surroundings with her assault rifles.
Oboro's rigging was smoking heavily, Shigure surmising that she had suffered an explosion or fire of sorts before her Fairies had extinguished it.
Some of her hair strands were smoldering, although it was likely to her benefit that it was raining as the fire that could have consumed her hair was instead put out by the heavy rain.
Seeing this macabre scene, Shigure wondered how lucky her fleet was to have survived their first engagement, thinking about the various factors that determined their past success and current failure.
Well, the storm would have complicated things, for one.
The storm made things difficult for them, and compromised the ability of the light carriers to summon and fly their planes, massively hindering them in battle.
Shigure's plan was another factor, and the fact that it went surprisingly well was another factor that likely contributed to their success.
Her being the flagship and getting lucky was probably one of them, but Shigure didn't like factoring luck into things, and eventually dismissed that contributing factor.
The final glaring factor was simply the intimidating and lethal presence of the Flying Dutchman, Shigure wondering about the mysterious ship's capabilities.
Port side, and likely starboard side cannons that were capable of obliterating ship girls due to their life-sized shells?
Check.
Several dozen machine guns that emptied countless rounds at them, Shigure noting that the Dutchman hadn't even used its myriad of Anti-Air Cannons yet, and how the Abyssal aviation battleship was likely capable of tearing apart swarms of fighter and bomber planes if they tried.
Check.
Some sort of newly-developed underwater Abyssal swarm with as-of-yet unknown capabilities, one of which was disrupting and prematurely detonating torpedoes before they reached anywhere close to the hull of the Dutchman?
Check.
Vertical Launching Systems installed on the entire deck of the battleship, and were capable of unleashing an entire barrage of missiles to easily hit targets that were located across the battlefield?
Check.
Being an aviation battleship, Shigure was sure that the Dutchman was capable of sending out planes of its own, and if she dared to imagine, far more planes than what any aviation battleship in the world was capable of carrying.
Shigure was afraid to think of what else the Flying Dutchman was capable of, personally wishing to simply cut their losses and retreat.
And when she raised her head to see what was left of the vanguard approach them, that notion was looking more and more appealing by the second.
Not all of the cruisers made it back.
And even those who did, didn't all come back in one piece.
Takao's entire left arm was conspicuously missing with only a bleeding stump remaining, and had second-degree burns on the left side of her face and left thigh as she limped forwards, supported by her sullen sister ship that had a smoking rigging and torn uniform.
Kitakami was crying as she carried Ooi in some sort of awkward sling by sliding her right arm underneath Ooi's left armpit, placing her right palm underneath Ooi's right armpit to support her sister ship's body and drag her along clumsily.
Shigure cringed as she saw that Ooi's back and legs were plagued with second to third degree burns, her uniform practically falling apart as the back of her uniform had been burnt off.
Her rigging had likely exploded and set her on fire, her head and arms drooping and lolling around lifelessly despite being in such close proximity to her crush.
Tenryuu was trying not to cry as she carried what was left of Tatsuta, a scorched upper half as Shigure noted that the missile must have blown her bottom half off and burnt her upper torso before the cruisers could recover her corpse.
She could tell from Tenryuu's guilty sideways glance that Tatsuta likely protected her from the worst of the explosion and succeeded, as Tenryuu didn't seem too injured save for some harsh burns.
Kinu, Naka and Tama weren't too injured, and they all had cables attached to their riggings as they pulled Suzuya, who looked as if she was sleeping while bleeding from her head and was half-submerged in the water, caught in the wake of the three light cruisers as her arms flopped around uselessly on the surface of the ocean.
None of them were talking to each other as they towed the unresponsive aviation cruiser towards the right flank, the atmosphere heavy and oppressive.
Shigure saw Kako walking towards her, and just before she saw the right fist flying towards her face, she could see the dull eyes of the heavy cruiser scream bloody murder.
She felt the fist connect with her cheek with a sharp crack, a mean right hook that knocked her back and twisted her body as she hit the ocean surface, again unwillingly swallowing seawater as the world blurred and shook from the impact.
Shigure struggled to re-orientate herself as she felt her balance shift erratically, hearing muffled screams shouting for someone to stop, a white dressed ship girl standing before her and holding a protective hand out.
And as she received the update about the status of the cruisers in the Combined Fleet that had been devastated by the cutting-edge Abyssal technology, she couldn't blame them if some of them wanted to lash out at somebody, anybody, to help direct their rage somewhere.
'UPDATING COMBINED FLEET SHIP GIRL STATUS
PLEASE WAIT…'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
TENRYUU-CLASS LIGHT CRUISER 029
"TATSUTA"
STATUS: DECEASED'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
KUMA-CLASS LIGHT CRUISER 019
"OOI"
STATUS: DECEASED'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
MOGAMI-CLASS AVIATION CRUISER 124
"SUZUYA"
STATUS: DECEASED'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL SIGNAL LOST
AOBA-CLASS HEAVY CRUISER 120
"KINUGASA"
STATUS: SUNK'
Shigure could feel the numbness and pain of the punch dissipating, replaced by the sting of the cold raindrops hitting the wound and feeling a metallic copper taste in her mouth as she spat out blood, seeing the crimson-red fluid spread out in a turbulent flow as it sank and disappeared into the ocean.
Shigure's ears were slightly ringing as the heavy cruiser had thrown a mean right hook and had momentarily disorientated her, but she could pick out snippets of several enraged, confused and pained voices all trying to make themselves heard amidst the pandemonium that ensued.
" … All your fault! Your formation…"
"Hey!
Don't push the blame…"
" … Guys, we need to retreat from whatever the fuck…"
" … gonna get slaughtered out here…"
"I'm bleeding here…"
"We have to hold the line…"
" … the fuck's our backup!"
" … didn't have to punch her!
She tried her best…"
Shigure was slowly being overwhelmed by the voices that filled her shaken mind and ringing ears, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer futilely trying to shake her head to dispel the effect of the raised voices.
She liked to think of herself as a calm and analytical ship girl, but she was slowly losing her patience as the voices only seemed to increase in volume and echo in her mind as someone helped her up, Shigure finally resorting to giving everyone the harshest glare she could muster due to the fear of dying, the trauma of loss and pain, and the pressure of the losing battle getting to her as she shouted in an authoritative tone.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
The Combined Fleet was silenced by the little destroyer's unnaturally harsh words as Shigure started pointing out the obvious to everyone while using her index finger to point at the most obvious threat that could end them all in an instant if it so desired.
"The enemy is positioned barely a hundred meters from us, readying its cannons to shoot at us and engage us in battle, and what you girls are doing here is playing the blame game?!
Sure, the formation sucked against the Flying Dutchman, but no one even knew of the Abyssal aviation battleship's existence before this!
The Dutchman's life-size shells hit harder than any one of our cannons, as Kasumi had almost been killed by a life-sized 14 cm shell blowing out her chest!
We don't even know what the aviation battleship is fully capable of, having disabled, killed and even sunk some of us!
Some of us here are bleeding out, and some of us are immobilized by our injuries!
So instead of trying to blame others for the lack of precognitive abilities to anticipate the appearance of an Abyssal warship, of all things, can we focus on making up our fucking minds as to what we're going to do next?!"
Shigure was panting after that mini-rant, although she didn't feel bad about shouting at them.
She didn't like allowing her temper to flare up and have to resort to shouting in a conversation, but there was a time for peaceful talks, and a time where you simply had to be the most forceful ship girl in the discussion to get your point across.
Having a loud voice to out-shout everyone helped too.
Shigure's fists were trembling as she felt her knuckles and fingers go a little numb from the clenching and the frigid temperature, her heart a whirlpool of panicked emotions, not just from the very real threat of her teammates sinking, but from how the Combined Fleet was starting to fall apart due to internal conflict.
And if anyone sank because her teammates argued with each other, she didn't know how she was going to live it down if she didn't do her best to stop these arguments, lest they get out of hand and disrupt their teamwork when it really mattered.
It was tough enough, feeling animosity towards the Abyssals.
She couldn't imagine living while hating her fellow ship girls for committing fatal mistakes that they could have easily avoided.
Shigure felt that her face was now morphed into a scowl not unlike that of the late Kasumi, and was about to look away to try and relax her facial features, but Tama was the first one to speak up as she spoke to Kako in a caring and parental tone, pushing the heavy cruiser as she spoke.
"Kako-san!
Please apologize to Shigure-san, nya!
Without her warning, a lot more of us would've either been killed or sunk, nya!"
Kako, Shigure noted, now looked more exhausted than anything else, Shigure understanding that she lost her sister to the explosion of the missiles that likely hit the Aoba-Class heavy cruiser directly on the head if it did indeed sink her.
The grief and pain of the sudden loss would have pushed her temporarily over the edge and drove her to lash out at the first person she could blame for the loss of Kinugasa.
And she probably couldn't punch the Abyssals, who had either retreated or was sunk during the previous engagement.
Shigure could see the desolation in her eyes and almost felt the gaping hole in Kako's heart where her sister used to be, a result of her sister ship being taken from her so suddenly and leaving nothing but a vacuum of pain, anger and grief.
Her expression barely hid the pain and tears that she tried not to reveal to everyone, and had deflated upon accepting the cruel truth that she had just lost Kinugasa for good, as well as the shell-shock of being at the receiving end of a new and devastating Abyssal weapon.
Shigure heard Kako's genuine apology,
"I'm sorry for hitting you."
As well as a heartfelt and slow bow from the heavy cruiser, lowering her head to mask her tears that were clearly falling from the sides of her eyes, although it was well hidden by the rain that was still pouring down on them.
Shigure couldn't blame the heavy cruiser for what she did.
After losing her sister ship so suddenly in such a manner that was almost instantaneous, it must've been jarring to her.
And although Shigure felt the physical sting of the punch on her cheek slowly fading away, she knew that it was nothing compared to the pain felt within Kako's heart that would likely last an eternity.
The armor of the skin did nothing to shield the ship girl's heart from the fallout of such a heavy loss.
She relaxed her stance as Kako stood back up, hanging her head as her long hair hid her tears, silently walking away from everyone while covering her face with her palms and wanting to be alone more than anything else.
She heard Junyou's panicked and uncomfortable voice asking out in a confused voice.
"Um, guys?
The 3rd Fleet is here, and it wants to know what to shoot at.
And if my bionic eyes aren't deceiving me, I think the gigantic pods on the deck of the battleship are moving."
Hiei, wearing a similar pained and tired scowl on her face, looked in the direction of the incoming 3rd Fleet as she directed, still being in charge of the Mikura Jima Island Defense Operation.
"Ship girls of the 3rd Fleet, there is an unknown Abyssal vessel named The Flying Dutchman located to our extreme left.
It should be a giant red blip on your radar.
We're holding our position for now to assess the situation and consider the feasibility of continuing this operation, and we need you to cover us by firing at the Flying Dutchman when it is within firing range.
Do not, I repeat, do not engage the Abyssal vessel in a close-quarters firefight, since we have no idea what it's capable of."
Shigure could hear the cannons of the Nagato-Class battleship Mutsu roaring in the distance, possessing the furthest range due to her large-caliber cannons as the shells hit the ocean around the Flying Dutchman, her aim understandably thrown off due to the rough waves and heavy rain as only one of the shells hit the Dutchman's hull.
Junyou continued her observation while shielding her eyes with her hands, looking towards the Flying Dutchman and noting.
"Got my night vision on since it's almost impossible to see a damn thing at this distance, even with my carrier-exclusive ultra-zoom function.
Thing's got two giant Abyssal mouths on the hull at its stern with large-ass teeth, I guess that's where the planes come from.
The height of the superstructure's pretty decent-sized, probably about 30 meters tall.
Can't tell in this damn rain, though…"
Shigure joined Junyou as they both looked at the shadowy ship in the distance, trying to determine its design by noting several distinguishing features about it and trying to detect a design flaw in the process.
Shigure's eyes weren't as powerful as Junyou's, and she had to resort to squinting in order to try and enhance the view of the Abyssal battleship while Junyou's specialized light carrier eyes could easily spot things from afar, continuing as Hiei came up behind her.
"Got some big-ass spotlights on the deck, and the huge-as-fuck pods finished moving around.
They've got two barrels sticking out of each of them, there's two pods on the deck of the bow and another two on the stern and ohfuckme-"
The world exploded into another dazzling flash of white, Shigure hearing shrieks of surprise and one of actual pain, Shigure instinctively shielding her eyes as she saw Junyou fall to the ocean while clutching at her eyes with her mouth open and mouthing a horrific scream that went unheard amidst the deafening cannon fire.
Shigure mentally recounted the five port side 35.6 cm Single Cannons sticking out of its hull that were ready to fire, as well as what she assumed was four 35.6 cm Twin Cannons Mounts on the deck of the Flying Dutchman aimed at them, not including the 14 cm Cannons on its port side.
That meant that there were eight large-caliber cannons on deck along with the five large-caliber cannons on its port side hull, ready to annihilate them all.
Oh fuck.
Hiei threw herself in front of everyone, spread arms ready to defend everyone to the death as she screamed,
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!"
Haruna also used herself as a shield for her own teammates and pushed Kako away from the flood of light, the two Kongou-Class battleships firing back at the Flying Dutchman with their large-caliber cannons without being able to actually locate the target as the spotlights were aimed at them.
Shigure, amidst the pouring rain and whistling of flying cannons shells, could see Junyou lying in a supine position on the ocean surface, totally exposed as she clutched feebly at her damaged eyes, tears streaking down her cheeks as her expression was seething from the pain of having five extremely bright spotlights being shone into her photosensitive night-vision enhanced eyes, the light carrier completely immobilized by the pain of the spotlights stunning her.
Having previously experienced the blinding effects of the attention-focusing spotlights, Shigure looked away from the intense flood of light that threatened to destroy her eyesight like it did for Junyou and shouted hurriedly to the few ship girls who were frozen on the spot by the spotlights and the sudden barrage of devastating cannon fire that held a new level of lethality.
"RUN!
DON'T GET HIT BY THE CANNON SHELLS AND RETREAT!"
This was the needed push that snapped some of the shell-shocked cruisers and destroyers into motion, causing a bit of a stampede as the twenty-eight ship girls started retreating en masse from the Flying Dutchman as the aviation battleship continuously fired in a constant barrage.
The Abyssal shells hit a little too close to their position as they retreated, causing towering columns of water to be thrown up and soaking them all as the massive shells impacted the rough waves.
Shigure slid on the ocean floor and was right beside Junyou in an instant, trying her best to help her teammate up as she saw the retreating Hiyou glance back at her sister ship, the light carrier making sure to squint her eyes so as not to damage her eyes as she held Umikaze close to her body, clearly intent on protecting the destroyer to the end.
Shigure shouted to Hiyou as she slung a panicking Junyou over her left shoulder, desperately ordering for the name ship of the Hiyou-Class light carrier to call for backup.
"Call for backup!
Order to them to unload everything they have at the source of the spotlight, no matter where they are!"
Hiyou nodded, looking ahead as she screamed into the radio.
"Backup Fleet, we're taking heavy fire from the enemy vessel!
I don't care if you're still out of range, fire ALL your cannons at the source of the light right NOW!"
Shigure, trying to put Junyou's weight on her back while trying her best not to expose her to the cannon shells headed towards them, heard the chorus of the 3rd Fleet's cannons going off in the distance before the Flying Dutchman's larger cannons sounded out again, almost forming a chain of continuous fire due to the sheer number of cannons that the Flying Dutchman possessed.
Shigure actually felt the breeze of a 35.6 cm cannon shell flying past her head and not even twenty centimeters from her face, and she could imagine the immense heat radiating off the surface of the shell and evaporating some of the tears and raindrops on her face as she jerked her head sideways to the left reflexively.
She barely heard Junyou's scream in her left ear as she felt her ears ring from the sonic boom, feeling thankful for the advanced noise-muffling technology installed in her ship girl ears, without which she'd be deaf by now.
She saw a wall of seawater being thrown up before her as the Abyssal shell hit the ocean at an unimaginable velocity, drenching the both of them as they sailed away from the Flying Dutchman's firing range while doing her best to ignore the depressing notifications that popped up on her HUD.
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
KUMA-CLASS LIGHT CRUISER 040
"TAMA"
STATUS: DECEASED'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
TAKAO-CLASS HEAVY CRUISER 059
"TAKAO"
STATUS: DECEASED'
Shigure prayed that their corpses were towed or carried away by someone, as she didn't want to leave behind anyone in this mess…
Wait.
Where were Hiei and Haruna?
Shigure looked behind her just as the spotlights on the deck of the Flying Dutchman went out again, plunging the entire world into pitch-black darkness as Shigure's eyes, having adapted to the intense light behind her, was now looking into a rainy abyss that her eyes hadn't adjusted to, and instead perceived it as an almost impenetrable darkness behind her.
Her heart stopped and she blanched as she remembered the two fast battleships that stayed behind to draw the fire and attention of the Flying Dutchman, not unlike two aviation battleships that had sunk in a certain strait of Philippines while she had turned tail and ran like the coward that she thought herself to be and had regretted for the rest of her miserable life.
Shigure passed a trembling and sobbing Junyou, who was still clutching at her tear-streaked eyes and sobbing like a pained child would to a retreating Ayanami as Shigure turned back and charged into the fray without a second thought, ignoring Ayanami's screaming pleas as she started to think back on the massacre at Surigao Strait.
She didn't feel the shower of raindrops that hit her thoroughly soaked and bloodied uniform.
She didn't register the fear of instantaneous death awaiting her should she choose to re-engage in the doomed firefight.
She didn't hear the the whizzing of the various cannon shells that flew over her head and threatened to one-shot her.
She was observing epileptic flashes of light that erupted from the barrels of various battleships in the distance, all while mindlessly repeating a long-forgotten chant in her head as she blindly ran back into the firefight that was occurring in the abyss before her.
'Not again…
Never again…
Never again…
Never again…
Never again… "