An empty, rain-soaked Abyss before her.
That was what Shigure was looking at as she pushed her boat slippers to their limit to try and reach the two capital ships that were stuck in the heat of battle.
As to their identities…
The poor destroyer's mind was in a whirl as she tried not to let her morbid flashbacks to Surigao Strait try and confuse her.
However, she couldn't help but see eerie similarities in her fear and paranoia-driven mind as she tried to shield her face from the heavy rain and the cannon shells that flew past her at terrifying and outright lethal speeds.
The Flying Dutchman had crossed their 'T' and was firing all thirteen large-caliber cannons at them in an attempt to wipe them all out, and that wasn't even counting the missiles it had launched to devastate the cruisers of the Combined Fleet.
Two of her battleship teammates that were Hiei and Haruna, albeit one being from another naval base, had been pinned down by enemy fire as they took it upon themselves to protect the fleeing Combined Fleet.
And what did she do in the meantime?
Run like the coward that she was before she stopped herself and ran back into the fray, driven more by her resolve to make it up to her fallen fleet mates that haunted her past than actually trying to accomplish anything.
Because if she knew anything, it was that there was nothing she could do to turn the tide of the battle, lucky ship or not.
But that wouldn't stop her from trying.
Oh no.
The Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer could now see two distinct silhouettes off in the distance, periodically illuminated by the incessant flaring of the Dutchman's 35.6 Cm cannons off in the distance as well as the harsh glow of the spotlights that were pointed at the duo, forcing Shigure to cover her eyes to even attempt to look in their direction.
Shigure had concluded that the searchlights from before hadn't exactly went out; Rather, when the ship girls had started running away from the battlefield while Hiei and Haruna stayed behind to cover their esacpe, the Abyssals had temporarily followed the bulk of escaping ship girls before changing their minds and instead trained their spotlights on the two Kongou-Class battleships before them.
Namely, Hiei and Haruna.
Shigure could see the flash of one of the Abyssal cannons going off, and the instant she registered the brilliant flash from its muzzle, she dived towards the ocean surface just as the 35.6 Cm large-caliber shell hit one of Haruna's cannon mounts and caused it to burst into a blinding fireball beside Haruna's left elbow, Shigure barely hearing Haruna's horrified scream as she shook the seawater out of her ears.
She felt the shell pass by her harmlessly as it created a deafening shock wave upon flying past her head, Shigure getting a little more used to these life-threatening experiences as she spat out the salty seawater in her mouth, pushing off of her feet to run towards the two battleships.
Hiei was the first one to notice her, partly because Hiei and Haruna were the only two ship girls who remained behind to distract the Flying Dutchman due to their status as battleships and were the only ones whose armor stood a chance against the Dutchman's cannons.
The second was that Haruna was trying her best to snuff out the flames that erupted from her defunct cannon mount, the blaze threatening to engulf her bare skin as the raging flames licked her wet skin and tried to set her uniform on fire.
Hiei turned behind to attempt to look at Shigure, key word being attempted, as Hiei's eyes and apertures were damaged after being forced to stare at the blinding spotlights despite having used her hands to try and shield her eyes, and also had to directly face the barrage of cannon fire as she shouted in Shigure's general direction.
"Shigure!
What the hell are you doing, get out of here!"
Shigure shook her head, almost possessed by her drive to protect her teammates as she shouted back,
"No!
I have to save you, Fuso…"
Shigure caught herself in time, hoping that Hiei didn't pick up on her slip of the tongue as she corrected herself immediately.
"I have to save you, Hiei!
I won't let you sink!"
Hiei shook her head, slowly sailing towards her as she tried to rub her eyes with the back of her hands as though she could bring back her eyesight by rubbing her eyes hard enough, trying to persuade Shigure as she positioned herself between the barrage of cannon fire and Shigure to protect the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
"You're going to get blown to bits if you stand out here, you need to retreat!"
"Not without you two!"
Another shot rang out, Hiei and Shigure both flinching and ducking as another shell hit a little too close to their position, about twenty centimeters left of Hiei's position and threw up buckets of cold seawater that soaked the both of them as they brought up their arms to protect themselves as best they could.
Shigure held up her hand in an attempt to shield her eyes from the Abyssal spotlights, trying her best not to look directly at the source of the light for a chance to shoot out the spotlights when her internal programs had already estimated the positions of the spotlights on the deck of the Flying Dutchman due to the orientation of the beams of light hitting them, having caught a glimpse the Dutchman's hull and putting two and two together.
She held up a 12 cm Single Gun Cannon in an admittedly pathetic attempt fire back at the Flying Dutchman as she heard a fuming Hiei trying to make herself heard over the roar of the Dutchman's cannons, the Kongou-Class battleship leaning in to both shout at and shield Shigure.
"You can't do anything here!
The 3rd Fleet is already here to help us out, and no matter how hard you've trained, as you are now, you can't go up against an unknown enemy when you aren't even remodeled!"
Shigure wanted to argue with her, but a reverberating roar, sounding like a mix between a sharp, mechanical cry of a great leviathan and a loud ship horn drowned out the world with its intense volume as the world was once again shrouded in darkness, the Abyssals turning off the spotlights yet again to confuse them as the ocean around the Flying Dutchman started to shift menacingly.
Shigure fared little better than Hiei as her eyes adjusted to help her see in the darkness, Hiei hardly reacting to being plunged into darkness as she had been overwhelmed by the sheer brilliance of the dreaded searchlights and was now pretty much blinded by them, only shifting her head a fraction as she prepared herself for the enemy's next move.
Although Shigure's eyes were now used to shifting between the eerie and rainy darkness and the incandescent glow of the searchlights that threatened to blind her, it was still extremely disorientating to try and get used to one extreme end of the spectrum amidst a heated battle, and be temporarily thrown off-kilter as her world was plunged into the other extreme in an instant.
Still hearing the slight echo of the Dutchman's monstrous roar, Shigure could see the oceanic behemoth throwing up massive waves and displacing the water beneath it as it attempted to submerge, the entire process being quite slow due to the sheer size of the aviation battleship.
Shigure could feel the already rough waves get agitated by the sudden intrusion of the aviation battleship, the waves now reaching almost 1.5 meters in height and were a bit more forceful as Shigure tried her best not to get flung onto the ocean floor as the Flying Dutchman submerged and retracted its cannons.
But Shigure and Hiei detected the unexpected presence of enemy signatures in the area as Shigure and Hiei blanched, Hiei sailing back towards the smoking Haruna and attempting to warn her.
Shigure noted that Haruna was burnt by the now-extinguished cannon on her rigging, the few Fairies that had worn life vests and jumped off her rigging to escape the flames were quickly scooped up by the compassionate battleship as the other Fairies wore fire-retardant suits and were equipped with fire extinguishers and fire hoses to put out the remaining flames that plagued the rigging.
Shigure took a slight step back to observe the two Kongou Sisters, and found that they looked absolutely miserable.
Taking into account the fact that they had to contend with staring into the beams of several searchlights that eventually blinded them, they also had to withstand the impact of incoming cannon shells lest they hit their retreating teammates that were behind them.
They had to fire at an enemy that they could hardly see, and had to look right into the series of bright explosions that were caused by several large-caliber cannons going off sequentially to ensure a constant rate of fire.
Their uniform was in tatters and was pretty much unrecognizable due to the rain and blood ruining its appearance, and the battleships themselves were bruised in several places where their normally-flawless skin was marred by the blue-black bruises where the 35.6 Cm cannon rounds had hit them hard, some of the wounds having broken through their skin and caused them to bleed on their uniforms.
Haruna's left arm was charred, having suffered first to second-degree burns before her Fairies successfully put out the flames. Her hair was smoking as wisps of her long, cascading hair must've caught on fire, likely relying on the environmental downpour to put it out.
Both of them were exhausted, in pain, and looked pretty much defeated at this point in time, the only thing driving them on was the hope that their teammates could escape the battlefield safely as they both moved rather sluggishly despite their status as relatively nimble and fast battleships, their movements betraying the amount of damage they sustained as they struggled to talk to each other.
She could see the 3rd Fleet approach them on the radar, and Hiei looked in their general direction as she mustered whatever was left of her strength to command the 3rd Fleet and give her orders.
"The Flying Dutchman seems to be retreating via submerging, but there are now Abyssals in the water!
Be careful, and be thorough when you try to take out as many of them as you can to ensure the safe escape of the Combined Fleet!"
Hiei exhaled sharply after that, her eyes dulled as she felt the physical strain of having to attract enemy cannon fire, especially when they were using life-sized large-caliber cannons.
Shigure estimated that the significantly larger shells would contain more kinetic energy, because even though it would be harder for them to get the shell to fire at the same velocity that the ship girl and Abyssal cannons could due to the drastic difference in size, when the life-sized shells traveled fast enough, they hit hard.
Their cannons and ammunition had been downsized to allow them to be carried by ship girls of different classes, but no matter how hard they tried, the Fairies simply couldn't replicate the destructive power that the life-sized cannons possessed despite increasing their muzzle velocity due to the reduced size of the cannon shells.
But this was neither here nor there, as Shigure saw Hiei and Haruna tense up from the number of Abyssals that lurked underwater, Shigure mimicking their reaction of shock and genuine, unadulterated fear as Shigure identified no more than eight battleships, roughly fourteen light cruisers and heavy cruisers each and about a dozen destroyers surfacing.
They were all right underneath Hiei and Haruna.
And they were surfacing.
Hiei turned towards Shigure, screaming,
"RUN!"
Before a hand attached to a mechanical cannon shot out from the depths, an Abyssal Ri-Class heavy cruiser popping up from the ocean with a sick-looking cannon on her left arm to shoot Hiei.
Shigure didn't even think twice about launching her torpedoes, having done so reflexively out of a desperate desire to protect her teammate, Hiei understanding her move as she bent down to throw a punch at the Ri-Class's cannon, completely crushing the snout of the beast-shaped cannon and compromising the cannon's ability to fire.
This caused her to reconsider her situation as she was stuck within arm's reach of the fast battleship, while Shigure's torpedoes were streaking towards her as she attempted to dive back down into the safety of the abyss.
Hiei was a split second late as she tried to catch the retreating Ri-Class, her tired fingers barely scraping the smooth surface of the Abyssal skin before the Abyssal slipped from her grasp.
She tsked under her breath and stumbled away from Shigure's incoming torpedoes to avoid succumbing to friendly fire while regrouping with her sister, using her status as flagship to order Shigure.
"Go!
Get out of here!
That's an order as your flagship!"
And that was when the world went to hell.
The Abyssals that were hiding underwater all surfaced at the same time, their cannons pointed at Hiei and Haruna as Shigure was forced to watch from the sidelines, frozen with shock at the very real possibility of losing her two battleship friends via Abyssal firing squad while she watched helplessly.
But the whistle of an incoming shell was barely enough warning for the Abyssals, a Ri-Class heavy cruiser instantly blown to smithereens as two large-caliber shells ripped into her body and cannons, punching through the Ri-Class with ease.
One of the shells, upon messily exiting her shoulder whilst carving a hole of gory destruction through the Ri-Class's upper torso and heart, likely caused the explosion that put down the Ri-Class for good as she sank in a flaming heap, the Abyssal failing to respond to such a quick execution by a powerful cannon.
The battlefield's attention was instantly drawn towards a figure standing in the distance, a towering ship girl that had two antennas sticking out of her headgear.
She was standing to the side of the Abyssals' formation such that while Hiei and Haruna were in front of them and Shigure was somewhere to their rear, this mystery battleship was standing to their left.
Her head was angled a little lower so that she could glower at them, her calm and cheery attitude washed away by the rain and leaving only bitter, smoldering resentment that was punctuated by her unnatural lack of words and a surfacing passion for combat that was usually well hidden as her clenched, white-gloved fists cracked menacingly.
Her cannons were all pointed at the Abyssals, and one of them had two smoking barrels that indicated its recent use in putting down the Abyssal heavy cruiser.
A flash of lightning lit her tall shadowy figure and headgear amidst the darkness and almost made her seem as if she were the devil, what with her imposing height, horned headgear and lean physique showing off her coiled muscles and legendary cannons.
And she wasn't alone.
Shigure could feel a chill down her spine, and almost swore that she was breaking out in a cold sweat as she saw Mutsu lead her fleet right into the Abyssals, who, for the most part, were also temporarily startled by the intimidating physique and unnaturally cold attitude of the Nagato-Class battleship before they attempted to point their cannons at her.
The members of the 3rd Fleet took advantage of this moment of hesitation to jump out of Mutsu's shadow and charge towards the Abyssals, attempting to take advantage of the assumption that the Abyssals wouldn't dare use their cannons and torpedoes in close range combat.
Shigure started to shout for the 3rd Fleet to watch out upon seeing some of the light cruisers and destroyers orientating their weapons in time to point them at the incoming 3rd Fleet, but she saw that Yukikaze, Ashigara and Haguro had stealthily launched their torpedoes beforehand and were merely trailing behind them, trying to draw attention away from them such that when the Abyssals actually noticed them, they'd hesitate out of indecision.
True enough, the Abyssals seemed to have noticed the incoming salvo of torpedoes, and unlike Shigure's which was aimed at only one Abyssal and could be dodged easily, this time, they were stuck in between the torpedo salvo and a silently furious Mutsu providing shelling support, two injured Kongou-Class fast battleships to one side and a lone destroyer to the other.
They could try to fire their cannons at whomever presented itself as the easiest target, but they'd then risk getting hit by the incoming torpedoes, or they could dodge the entire salvo of torpedoes if they chose to react immediately.
The faster Abyssals attempted a crash dive in order to evade the torpedoes, the cruisers strafing towards her while the battleships lumbered towards Hiei and Haruna in an attempt to finish the job.
Shigure was frozen in place by the sheer number of Abyssals swarming her, before her survival instincts kicked into overdrive and she dived and swerved in an attempt to try and evade the cruisers that were zerg-rushing her.
She was too busy dodging the Ri and Ne-Class Abyssals' en masse charge to notice a few columns of water erupting from where the Abyssals were located previously, the crash-diving Abyssals having chosen wrongly and paid the price in blood.
As she thought back about her training, for a rookie, she considered herself pretty well-trained.
But there were two things training didn't prepare you for.
They didn't prepare her for a Lone-Ranger-esque stand-off against superior opponents and numbers, having mostly focused on team cooperation.
They also didn't prepare her for the overwhelming fear that overtook Shigure upon recounting her unpleasant memories of her previous life, and how it caused her to be on extreme ends of a spectrum.
From being frozen in place by either her flashbacks or her fear of loss and death, to simply reacting to everything without thinking, fueled entirely by her fear of getting killed and her mind being sent into overdrive thanks to the adrenaline coursing through her body.
Right now, it was the latter as she ducked underneath the barrels of the cannons that were swung at her head and strafed away from the Abyssals that tried to get a lock on her, her training sessions paying off as she wasn't completely worn out from having to constantly run all over the battlefield during a torrential downpour.
But reality finally kicked in as the twin-tail of one of the Ne-Class hit her abdomen in a tail swipe and knocked the wind out of her, Shigure failing to dodge in time because,
One, she was still a default ship girl and didn't have the option to boost-dodge, which if she had, might have given her an edge in this situation.
Two, the Ne-Class hid behind her teammates in order to launch a successful sneak attack on the mentally frayed destroyer, who was mindlessly evading and was entirely susceptible to unexpected attacks.
Shigure hit the ocean floor hard, feeling the all-too-familiar taste of seawater being mixed with the taste of rainwater in her mouth as she gasped, attempting to take in a gulp of air as she felt a throbbing pain in her stomach.
Her HUD indicated that she had sustained quite the contusion wound due to the Ne-Class slamming its twin-tail into Shigure, and the fact that Shigure had thoughtlessly charged into it.
Internal injuries weren't extensive, but there was a bit of internal bleeding that could be patched up by her body in due time.
The same couldn't be said for a cannon shell to the head.
Shigure realized that as a Ri-Class joined the Ne-Class who had attacked her, Shigure barely noting through her peripheral vision that some of the heavy cruisers had made their way towards Hiei and Haruna after the 3rd Fleet's torpedoes had passed by them in order to join the battleships in taking down the Kongou Sisters.
Shigure tried to get up and stop them, but only succeeding in rolling over on the ocean surface and coughing feebly and incessantly in an attempt to clear her throat and lungs, the stronger Ne-Class's tail slam having done more damage to her than she thought as the two heavy cruisers sailed right up to her.
They had their cannons armed and ready to execute her, their wispy eyes looking down at her and boring into her soul as she feebly brought her arm up in a pathetic attempt to defend herself from the inevitable salvo of cannon fire that would end her life.
She looked up at her executioners, at certain death that was what the cannon barrels promised her, and at the dark and gloomy rain clouds that blanketed the sky and caused the heavy ran as she reflected on her short life.
'Ah,' Shigure thought.
'How silly of me, and how arrogant of me to think that my presence would change things for the better, when I'm not even remodeled.
I suppose Hiei was right; my presence here changed absolutely nothing.
But I tried my best to make up for my sin of living and running, by fighting to the death for my teammates.
Now that I think about it…
It's only natural that the world would punish me for thinking that I could rise above my own nature as a lucky coward.
It's what I deserve, right?
Right?
But Shigure didn't get to see the life-ending flash of the cannons muzzles, because the three of them were all distracted by a primal roar that promised nothing but pain before the quick deliverance of death to all enemies who were unfortunate enough to hear it.
The battle cry came from behind the Ne-Class, and whatever it was had the Ri and Ne-Class spooked enough that they brought their cannons up to point at the incoming threat, judging from the aggressive steps on the ocean that indicated intense running.
A loud burst of water being displaced was the trigger for the Ne and Ri-Class to start firing at the unknown threat that was currently out of Shigure's sight.
Ashigara came into view by drop-kicking the Ne-Class Abyssal, causing the Abyssal to fly back and slam into the Ri-Class as Shigure saw the airborne silhouette of Ashigara displace the two cruisers.
Shigure felt the Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser land next to her after shifting her body in mid-air so hat she wouldn't land on the fallen destroyer, while Shigure noted a barrage of cover fire from another ship girl to cover the both of them.
Ashigara rolled over to cover Shigure with her body just as Haguro came into view, the incoming heavy cruiser choosing to manually wield two of her four 20.3 cm (No. 2) Twin Gun Cannons as she cycled between the four barrels of her handheld cannons, while the cannons that remained on her rigging provided additional cover fire.
The Ri and Ne-Class heavy cruisers got off of each other while doing their best to shrug off the cannon shells fired from Haguro's cannons, and the twin tails of the Ne-Class writhed around to try and provide cover fire as Ashigara manhandled Shigure back up to her feet whilst shouting into her ear, her expression furious and trying to be patient with the dazed destroyer that should have been anywhere but here.
"What are you doing here!
You should have retreated from the battlefield!
You're out of your depth here!"
But Shigure tried to shake her head to refute the point as she mumbled,
"No…
Have to save…
Can't abandon them…"
Ashigara looked back at the incoming horde of cruisers, forming a formidable fleet as they all sailed towards the ship girls and readied their cannons for the inevitable firefight.
She roughly shoved Shigure in Haguro's direction as she fearlessly charged into the fray, her eyes narrowing into predatory silts as her lithe body and coiled muscles propelled her forward along with her powerful boost-run, Haguro catching the listless Shigure before she fell and swallowed another mouthful of seawater yet again.
Shigure was pretty much exhausted by this point, thinking about all that had transpired and changed this inter-base operation into a massacre.
The never ending downpour that constantly rained down on them, soaking their clothes and made their lives miserable.
The Flying Dutchman's appearance, and how its weapons had mowed down Shigure's teammates so effortlessly while they had almost no idea of how to go up against it, much less think of defeating it.
The devastating barrage of missiles that, up until now, Shigure wasn't sure if such an advanced technology had been been used by the Abyssals, unless she missed out on a vital detail in her studies.
The arrival of Abyssal reinforcements, which Shigure theorized that the Dutchman had some sort of technology that allowed the Abyssals to suit up and sortie from the Flying Dutchman itself.
Right now, she was worn out after having to deal with all these extreme situations that no training could prepare her for.
Haguro, upon catching Shigure as best she could while still holding two handheld cannons in her hands, placed one cannon back on her rigging as she lost her professional composure in order to try and talk some sense into Shigure.
"Shigure-san, please retreat!
This is a massacre, and you need to go now!"
But Shigure, still unable to shake her dreaded flashbacks to Surigao Strait, and how history was going to repeat itself here, clutched the heavy cruiser's uniform as she started crying while looking up at her senior, pleading.
"PLEASE!
DON'T LET ANYONE DIE HERE!
I WON'T ALLOW IT!"
Haguro, connecting the dots as Shigure was a particularly infamous ship after having survived many naval battles, did her best to convince Shigure of their chances of victory and how Shigure's presence could unravel everything by using her 'patient and kind senior' tone to address the crying Shigure after coupling her handheld cannons to her rigging in order to free up her hands.
"Shigure-san, the Flying Dutchman has submerged, and all we have to do now is wipe the floor with these Abyssals that it spawned before escaping.
Mutsu, Yukikaze and Amagi are taking care of the battleships that were headed for Hiei & Haruna as we speak.
Combining Mutsu's strength as one of the Big Seven and Yukikaze's high luck and strong stats, they can take them on.
But with you here, our fleet has to protect not two, but three ships all at once!
You may not be damaged in any way, but you're fatigued, you possess neither the physical strength nor firepower to change the tide of the battle, and you're an emotional wreck due to your flashbacks.
Shigure, you really need to go now!"
Shigure crumpled onto the ocean surface upon hearing Haguro's harsh reality check, and despite understanding that her senior had the best intentions in mind, she was absolutely devastated.
Shigure covered her rain and tear-soaked face with her palms as she sobbed at her uselessness in this life-threatening situation.
Was she so useless in combat, such that she was doomed to watch her own friends sink while being powerless to change anything?
Was this how things were going to turn out for her in the future?
Because if that was so, then she'd rather die trying to change something.
But what if that didn't work as well?
Then what was the point of being back in the first place?
Shigure looked up at Haguro, who still provided cover fire for Ashigara and Abukuma, the light cruiser joining the fight to even the odds in their favor.
She squinted in order to prevent the raindrops from hitting her eyes as she begged Haguro to do anything and everything to save her friends.
"Please…
Can you save my friends?"
Haguro looked down at the crying Shigure, understanding the poor destroyer's concerns as she bent down to help Shigure up, her patient tone doing wonders in trying to get Shigure back into action as a cannon on her rigging shot a Ri-Class heavy cruiser, the Abyssal's head popping like a bloody balloon as soon as the shell made contact with the Abyssal's head and put her out of action for good.
"It's alright.
There are no guarantees in life, but I can promise you one thing.
Once we're done here, we'll go and back up the rest of the 3rd Fleet and the Kongou-Class battleships.
We'll do everything in my power to ensure the best possible outcome for everyone."
And amidst her tears of despair and her fearful, trembling hands that were held by the heavy cruiser, Shigure could see that Haguro had taken on a hardened and seasoned demeanor that was borne from countless battles and sorties that had trained up her battle senses and techniques to an extent that was deserving of a Kai Ni.
Shigure could feel the air around the heavy cruiser changing as Haguro unhanded Shigure and uncoupled her cannon to dual-wield her 20.3 cm (No. 2) Cannons as she looked down at Shigure with a mature and gentle aura, not unlike a mother who was determined to protect her children no matter what as she commanded.
"Well, asking you to retreat now won't do us any good, since they may target you after you've put some distance between us.
And if that happens, everyone would be too far away to reach you in time.
Stick close to me, and don't get caught in the sights of any Abyssals, alright?"
Shigure thought about how Haguro's skills and Kai Ni status had to be earned through painstaking hard work, and how someone like her was better suited to fight these one sided battles, unlike Shigure who needed the help of her fleet to accomplish even a fraction of what she could do.
She allowed herself to believe in her senior as she quickly wiped away her tears, trying her best to make sure that her lightning rod didn't accidentally poke Haguro's eye out as she mustered up what was left of her strength to give her a firm nod.
Haguro seemed satisfied with Shigure's determination as her eyes sharpened while looking at Ashigara and Abukuma's tag-team combat.
Shigure, looking at the two members of the 3rd Fleet off in the distance, could see that even though they were clearly outnumbered, the Abyssals were clearly outmatched as Ashigara and Abukuma were tearing through any Abyssals that were unfortunate enough to be caught within melee range.
Ashigara was the more aggressive ship girl of the duo, shouting her kiai upon throwing a strike and preferring to utilize physical attacks in order to bring down the Abyssals, Shigure looking up in time to catch her forming a flat blade with her right palm and driving it with extreme force into the throat of a Ri-Class, causing the Ri-Class's trachea to be instantly crushed by the move as the Abyssal stumbled back while clutching at her throat.
The Ri-Class's face was wrought with pain as the poor Abyssal tried to heave and cough in an attempt to clear her throat as Ashigara turned away, having a cannon positioned such that she could focus on another Abyssal while her cannons finished off the injured Abyssals.
The barrel of the 20.3 Cm cannon roared and emptied a shell into the skull of the helpless Ri-Class as Ashigara had already moved onto the next Abyssal that was slowly inching away from her, fearing the Myoukou-Class's killing intent that emaciated from her pores as Ashigara's feral eyes betrayed her intent to take no prisoners.
The heavy cruiser was now fully committed to the battle, a bloodthirsty aura blanketing her and reaching out towards the Abyssal cruisers that warily kept their distance in a semi-circle formation.
As they tried to fire at the terrifying ship girl standing before them, a few of their legs suddenly blew up from an entire salvo of torpedoes being unloaded by Abukuma, the light cruiser having used the heavy cruiser's flashy and deadly fighting style to draw the attention of the Abyssals as she snuck around and unleashed a torpedo salvo.
A few Abyssals cried out at the surprise attack, but one of the Abyssal light cruisers, a Tsu-Class, was close enough to the light cruiser and tried to reach out menacingly towards her after recovering from the initial shock of the attack.
The Tsu-Class Abyssal had four mounted weapons on her enlarged arms, with two 5 Inch Twin Gun mounts on her left arm, her right arm possessing the same Twin Gun mount on her shoulder while a Triple Torpedo Mount replaced the gun mount that was supposed to be on her right forearm.
Her uniform wasn't exactly modest by any stretch, but it covered little more than the Ri-Class's uniform as it was made of a shredded black tank top and an equally black mini skirt. She had the Abyssal's signature black color on a thigh-high that was riding up her left leg, and she had some sort of dark high collar protecting her neck as it contrasted with her pale skin.
Her helmet was somewhat similar to that of the Ho-Class, covering most of the face's features and provided adequate protection to her skull. And in true Abyssal fashion, Shigure could see that the back of the Tsu-Class's helmet was connected to something on her back via a thick black cable.
But what was most intimidating about the Tsu-Class wasn't any of the listed traits.
It was her unnaturally gigantic, gloved hands that seemed fully capable of crushing any ship girl that was caught in her grasp, as Shigure was about to bear witness to.
Shigure, running behind Haguro while trying her best not to get shot at by any Abyssals, raised her handheld cannon to try and stave off the inevitable as Abukuma tried to boost-dodge out of the Tsu-Class's reach.
Two shots rang out from in front of Shigure, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's attention being diverted as she saw two small plumes of smoke wafting from Haguro's cannon and saw that the heavy cruiser was still running towards the duo, her cannons whirring as they moved into position to fire at the Abyssal cruiser.
The Tsu-Class was hit on her upper left turret and right collarbone, the impact of the shell causing a small explosion where her cannon was as she was forced to shield herself with her large, deformed hands while stumbling back, creating some space for Abukuma to safely boost away and granting Haguro a straight path towards the enemy.
Shigure could see the Tsu-Class already recovering from the shot, being significantly stronger than most Abyssal light cruisers as she saw the cannons on her uninjured arm point towards her, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer diving to the ocean surface in order to evade the Tsu-Class's aim.
She worried about the charging Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser that likely couldn't dodge due to the speed at which she traveled at and the fact that compared to Shigure, Haguro was pretty much within point-blank range of the Tsu-Class's cannons, making things very difficult for her indeed.
But what the heavy cruiser did next surprised her.
After spitting out the the familiar-tasting seawater from her mouth and looking up towards her senior, concerned for her safety in the face of adversity, she was instead greeted with the sight of the heavy cruiser suddenly spinning like a top to throw off the aim of the Tsu-Class while firing her own cannons.
Shigure was bewildered by the demure heavy cruiser's fighting style that worked to devastating effect as Haguro kept track of the shells fired at her, using her feet to push herself in different directions and alternate swiftly between clockwise and counterclockwise rotations as she fired her cannons and even emptied a few torpedoes at the crowd of Abyssals.
She saw that Haguro didn't even need to look at some of the enemies to hit them with her cannon, which helped her out a lot as she could blind-fire in every direction all at once, sometimes scoring critical hits and forcing the Abyssals to evade her shots and keep moving.
The Tsu-Class was quickly cut down upon three shells being emptied into her upper torso and helmet despite her best attempts to block the experienced heavy cruiser's shells, causing the Tsu-Class to crumple onto the ocean as Haguro blitzed past her as she engaged the rest of the Abyssals in close-quarters combat whilst strafing and spinning.
Shigure tried her best to push herself up and keep moving so as not to paint herself as an easy target for any Abyssals that might still be lurking within the depths, feeling the lightning rod weigh her down somewhat as she saw what the 3rd Fleet was truly capable of.
Shigure was awed by the spectacle of the three ship girls before her flawlessly cooperating with each other to take down the crowd of Abyssals that were unprepared for the sudden aggression, although to their credit, the Abyssals did try to take advantage of their superior numbers in order to overwhelm them.
Haguro continued pirouetting like a professional ballerina, occasionally lowering her height as she bent her knees to spin even faster and evade some of the shots that were aimed at her head as she continued firing everywhere, skilfully avoiding friendly fire due to her enhanced situational awareness as her teammates went to town on the heavy cruisers.
Ashigara continued shouting passionately as she charged towards the Ho-Class and Ri-Class Abyssals that opened fire on her.
The Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser, upon easily noting the trajectory of the shells after having been through so many battles, shifted her body so that she would avoid the more lethal shots as she allowed the shells to hit her and push her further into an uncontrollable rage, throwing her rain-and-blood-soaked body at the crowd of panicking Abyssals, her face contorted in an expression of unholy rage as she screamed at them.
Abukuma was doing her best to provide cover fire as she skirted around the battlefield so as not to get in the way of the more experienced Myoukou-Class warships.
She restrained herself from using torpedoes as they could accidentally hit her teammates, and Shigure noted that she often used them to isolate certain Abyssals as they were often forced to dodge the deadly little underwater projectiles.
But that didn't mean that the ship girls got off scot-free from engaging so many Abyssals at the same time.
Eventually, some of the pot shots that were fired from the cannons of the Abyssals had to hit the ship girls due to their vast numbers.
And they did.
Ashigara drew their attention with her fierce and flashy fighting style, and it was no surprise that the Abyssals focused her down as she tried her best to melee all of them to death while shooting at others with her rigging cannons.
But the sheer number of Abyssals that she attracted also worked against her as one of the Ri-Class Abyssals managed to sneak past her defense, weathering the shells fired from the cannons of Abukuma and Haguro as she wrapped her clumsy cannon arms around the right wing of Ashigara's rigging and broke it off at the joint to allow her comrades to stand a better chance against the heavy cruiser.
Ashigara was too preoccupied to respond, and upon the Ri-Class breaking off part of her rigging with a heave, she stumbled due to the force of the action pulling her back and taking her by surprise.
The Ri-Class, upon seeing an opening, immediately dropped the inactive rigging in her hands as Shigure saw the Fairies manning the turrets and the rigging abandon ship and jump into the ocean with their life vests on them, the Ri-Class having readied its cannon to fire at the Myoukou-Class's torso at point-blank range.
But as Shigure tried to intervene with some cover fire, she saw an orange blur come in quickly as Abukuma boost-charged towards the Ri-Class Abyssal's rear as she performed a lariat take-down from behind, forming a hook with her left arm and hooking it around the back of the Ri-Class's neck as she swung her legs forward to throw the Ri-Class off balance and was projected to land on her back.
The Ri-Class was too occupied with trying to take out the deadlier threat in front of her to notice the light cruiser behind her, and was thus indeed caught off-guard by Abukuma's surprise move as she fell flat on her face and her cannon shot went wide.
Ashigara looked relieved at the light cruiser's timely intervention, and as the light cruiser rolled off of the prone Abyssal, Ashigara raised her left leg to bring up the sharp underside of her boat slipper and brought it down on the back of the Ri-Class's skull with a vengeance.
This immediately killed the Ri-Class with a curb stomp, the Ri-Class's skull breaking apart like a dropped porcelain bowl from the impact and Shigure looking away in time to avoid looking at the gruesome sight of an Abyssal's brains spill out of its shattered skull and watch the fluids within it pollute the surrounding seawater as the fight continued.
Haguro was weaving in between several Abyssals, so when one of them was training their sights on her, she would spin around and take cover behind another Abyssal, using their superior numbers to her advantage as they wouldn't want to accidentally fire at each other, giving her the chance to maneuver in between them and avoided their threatening arms that reached out and attempted to grab her as she emptied her cannons and torpedoes into them at point-blank range.
And all of a sudden, Shigure could see Abukuma take note of something behind her, Haguro positioning a 20.3 cm (No. 2) cannons underneath her left armpit and pointed at Shigure as she whipped her head around to see the unhinged jaw of an Abyssal I-Class fly towards her in mid-jump.
Shigure's eyes widened, frozen in place by the surprise attack that came from her blind spot while she was too tired and too engrossed in watching the 3rd Fleet's fight to pay attention to her surroundings, taken completely off-guard.
She was still running on adrenaline, and was thus able to take in the details of the I-Class and see that Yukikaze's torpedoes had utterly destroyed the armor that previously shielded its right flank, allowing Shigure the chance to see some of its innards, a few stray wires jutting out of its flank, spider-web cracks plaguing the entire shell as the I-Class Abyssal looked barely functional, and yet looked ever so determined to drag one ship girl down with it into the afterlife.
It had already bled out a little while sneaking around to get the jump on Shigure, and one of its ghostly green eyes were inactive, likely because the vital cables that previously led to the I-Class's left optics were now destroyed and rendered it unable to see out of one eye.
Shigure was a second late to react as she tried to strafe and dodge the I-Class, which had misjudged its jumping arc due to its lack of binocular vision and was a little too low in its projected trajectory, but even Shigure could tell that the I-Class was going to shoot its cannon shell into Shigure's upper torso after angling itself correctly as it flew towards her, before ramming itself into Shigure's abdomen and detonating whatever torpedoes it had left to sink Shigure.
But it was not meant to be as another shell rang out from behind Shigure and destroyed the I-Class, Shigure getting a front row seat to watch the I-Class get killed, noting that the 20.3 cm shell crushed the I-Class's shell as it impacted the destroyer's snout and annihilated whatever was inside.
Shigure could see some electronics parts flying apart, tainted by the blood that flowed within the Abyssal's body as Shigure saw the mushy insides of the I-Class destroyer get crushed by the high velocity shell impacting it as it made its way down the I-Class's tubular body.
The I-Class's guts were simply eviscerated as the shell punched through the poor Abyssal, the I-Class's intestines messily blown out by the bloody shell as a small explosion was caused by the shell hitting the propulsion system that was located at the rear of the Abyssal's body.
This caused Shigure to shield her eyes from the point-blank explosion as she felt the Abyssal's guts, blood and fuel get spilled on her as Shigure fell back, the explosion knocking her back a little as felt some steel shrapnel superficially pierce the skin of her palms and forearms as she hit the ocean.
Shigure could feel some of the residual heat warm up her skin as she felt the lightning rod and her backpack submerging yet again, thankful that these riggings were water-proofed to some extent and silently apologized to the Fairies that were manning her backpack as she tried to recover quickly by pushing herself up.
Again.
She wiped the mess of fluids off of her face as she felt the oily feel of fuel and the slippery texture of blood on her skin, looking at the Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser that had saved her life with a blind-fired shell, something that she surmised was an ability of hers due to her heightened situational awareness.
Abukuma had her cannon raised, but she hadn't fired as the barrel of her 14 Cm Single Gun Cannon wasn't smoking, and she was looking back at the fighting Haguro incredulously as she tried to close the distance between herself and the bloody destroyer whilst speaking up in her trademark high-pitched voice, now tense with concern as she tried to cover Shigure and the Myoukou-Class heavy cruisers as she got closer to her.
"Shigure-chan!
Are you alright?!"
Shigure shouted out in a sort of voice that didn't resemble any particular word, but still conveyed the basic concept of agreement as she met up with Abukuma halfway, seeing that the light cruiser had sustained a bit of damage after participating in such a fierce close-quarters firefight despite her Kai remodel.
Abukuma looked back at Shigure as she panted, her hair drenched and parts of her uniform either shredded or stained with blood, most of it the Abyssals', shifting around in her sailor uniform as she raised her voice in a way that made herself heard over the cannon fire.
"What were you thinking, coming back here?!
You're exhausted, and we can't guarantee your survival out here!"
Shigure shook her head frantically as she tried her best to convey her intentions in coming back as she shivered from the cold, the rain and the numerous dunks into the water finally getting to her as she failed to stop the trembling.
"I want to save Hiei and Haruna!
I won't leave them behind while I run from the battle!
I can still fight!"
But Abukuma bent down, her coiled muscles still ready to react to any enemy interference as she tried to talk to Shigure in a patient tone, understanding that the destroyer was haunted by her past, and wanted to help everyone even if she had to risk her own life due to her deep-seated survivor's guilt.
"Shigure, you've done well.
You survived the Dutchman's cannon fire at point-blank range, and did your best to save two of your teammates.
But right now, you're out of your depth, and you need to rely on us to fight the battles that you can't win.
Can you do that?
Can you believe in us, Shigure?"
Shigure wanted to retort, but she looked at the determined light cruiser's eyes that begged her to believe in them, her eyes being those of someone who understood since she was one of the warships that had fought with her, had sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and knew all too well of her traumatizing losses.
And this somewhat personal connection to her past was what finally convinced her to try and let her teammates take over the battle instead of running around like a headless chicken, shooting Abyssals with her pathetic cannons, being too mentally fatigued to make a difference and basically being a burden to everyone the longer she stayed on the battlefield.
Shigure's shoulders slumped as her spirit exited her body through her exhaled breath, finally allowing the mental fatigue to set in as she felt the weight of the unexpectedly bloody battle soak in, morbidly remembering the ship girls that had fallen today.
Wakaba, with her upper torso and head sheared clean off by the live-sized 35.6 Cm cannon shell that was fired at point-blank range.
Kasumi, who had died trying to protect Shigure and her sister Umikaze from the machine gun barrage.
Umikaze, who had lost a leg in the firefight and had probably passed out from exsanguination due to her missing leg, courtesy of the Flying Dutchman.
Kinugasa, who had likely protected her sister ship from a descending missile meant for Kako, was killed on the spot and sunk.
Junyou, Tatsuta and Ooi, who had been either disabled or killed by the Abyssal vessel's equipment.
And although Shigure knew that they would be revived or healed over time, that didn't make her feel any better due to the fact that most of them were still dead.
And Hiei…
Abukuma looked towards where Hiei was, the rain letting up a little and allowing Shigure to see the few ship girls engaged in battle off in the distance, spotting the colossal Mutsu using hand-to-hand combat techniques and her cannons at close range to finish off any battleships, Yukikaze firing her torpedoes while keeping her distance from the stronger Abyssals.
Shigure's spirit was raised as she saw Hiei fight on with a vigor that she hadn't seen before in the Kongou-Class battleship, the closest being their first sortie where she was pissed off because Junyou was seriously injured as a result of the Abyssal battleships firing at her.
But seeing the carrier of the 3rd Fleet carry the final ship girl in her hands was what connected the dots in Shigure's mind, her spirit dropping again upon seeing the limp body of Haruna being cared for by the Unryu-Class carrier as she remained behind the iron wall that was Mutsu.
Amagi kept watch as she dragged the fast battleship around while Haruna, much like Suzuya, was partially submerged underwater as Amagi had a thick cable leading from Haruna's rigging and was tied around Amagi's waist to prevent her from potentially sinking.
Shigure saw Hiei fight on with an unbridled fury, ignoring her own injuries and fatigue as she punched out a Ta-Class battleship, the Abyssal's skull being displaced by Hiei's clenched fist as the fast battleship was being driven more by her incensed passion than her objective.
Shigure was already running towards her in order to help her out, already defying Abukuma's order to retreat and instead was jumping from the fire into the inferno by running towards the stronger Abyssals, completely oblivious to her surroundings due to her fear of being unable to help her teammate when she needed it and Hiei paying the price with her life.
She could see that the Kongou-Class battleship was already pretty much defeated and exhausted, but allowing herself to succumb to her injuries and fatigue was tantamount to giving in to despair as Shigure could see her teammate's expression carrying the burden of being responsible for the deaths and sinking of her fellow ship girls, having failed her own team as a flagship and letting her sister down by allowing her to get knocked out by the Abyssals.
And the fact that the Abyssals were taking advantage of her blindness and ganging up on her was something that hurt her deeply.
No, Shigure thought.
She had to prevent history from repeating itself by helping out the battleship that was her friend, lest she fall in battle while Shigure stood by and watched.
Her life wasn't even that important to her at this point, tuning out the battle that was being fought, the stormy weather and thunderous lightning that flashed overhead and brought forth the rain in an attempt to dampen her spirits, and the rough waves that tried to resist her progress as she blindly ran towards her teammate.
Shigure wanted to help her out and remind her that not all was lost, ignoring the predatory looks that the Abyssals all gave her as they saw her as the chink in the ship girl's defensive formation, the destroyer too blinded by her own personal trauma and was too mentally fatigued to pay attention to her surroundings as some of the battleships turned to swarm her.
Everyone blanched as Shigure froze up from the Abyssals trying to beat her to death, knowing that she was no threat and would instead serve to unravel the 3rd Fleet's defense as they shot at Abukuma, forcing the light cruiser to keep her distance as the Ta and Ru-Class battleships surrounded her.
Shigure could see that some of the Ru-Class battleships had lost their cannon columns and were bleeding from wounds inflicted by Mutsu, while most of the Ta-Class battleships were unscathed save for a few bruises, being fast and were thus able to dodge the slower Mutsu's strikes and only having to contend with Hiei and Yukikaze for the most part.
Shigure saw that her situation went from bad to worse, but the sight of the Abyssals leaving Hiei was enough to convince her that this was instead a blessing in disguise as she backed up a little to draw them away from everyone.
One of the Ta-Class battleships lunged out and grabbed her by the left forearm as she tried to frantically twist her arm out of the stronger Abyssal's grip, feeling whatever warmth that was left in her body get snuffed out as she felt the icy fingers of the Ta-Class wrap around her wrist and firmly held her in place.
The Ru-Class's incoming right hook hurt more than Shigure thought it would, and that was after she felt Kako's hard fist hitting her, a battleship's strength being on another level as she felt her neck creak ominously from her head snapping to the right so suddenly, the cold sting of the blow hitting her like a rough wave a split second after the initial impact.
The Ta-Class that had her hand on Shigure's wrist then followed up with a fast swing to Shigure's gut and knocked the wind out of her lungs, the destroyer doubling over and feeling someone's knee hit her in the sides as she fell onto the ocean, feeling her lightning rod slap the surface of the ocean for the umpteenth time.
Shigure was reeling from the Ta-Class's gut punch as she clutched at her stomach and heaved in an attempt to try and breathe in a lungful of air.
She then felt one of the Abyssals pull her hand away and exposed her body to a Ru-Class who straddled her while sitting on her diaphragm and started pounding on her face, Shigure feeling her nose break from the Ru-Class's swings and tasted a bit of her own blood that was flowing from her nose.
Now that the Ru-Class was so close to her, she could see that the Ru-Class had been shot at about half a dozen times and was significantly weakened due to the previous battle with the 3rd Fleet, Shigure hoping that if she was to sink, she didn't have to die an even slower death than what she was currently subjected to if the Ru-Class couldn't hit with all her might due to her injuries.
She saw the Ru-Class alternate between both arms as she pulled back her left fist this time and feeling her ribs creak ominously as a result of the Ru-Class sitting on her.
Shigure could see the ship girls on her radar desperately try to break through the barrier that had been formed by some of the battleships around Shigure, afraid to shoot into the crowd in case the Abyssals were twisted enough to use Shigure's body as a human shield to block the incoming shots.
She couldn't breathe in from her nose anymore, and tried to gulp in some air from her mouth as she tasted the rainwater on her bloody tongue, noting that a second Ta-Class was lifting up her foot to bring down on Shigure's stomach as her face was thrown to the right by the Ru-Class's right hook.
Shigure felt the stone-cold steel edge of the Ta-Class's shoe impact her on her stomach, causing her to cough up blood due to the strength of the Ta-Class's downward stomp on her bruised abdomen despite being a fair bit weaker than the Ru-Class, Shigure getting a notification that she was dangerously close to sustaining fatal damage and it was possible that she could die soon.
Although seeing the unnatural yet passionate viciousness of the Ru-Class's punches and Ta-Class's kicks, she was sure that 'soon' was actually going to come a lot sooner than what the CPU in her mind had predicted.
She was somewhat blinded by the Dutchman's searchlights prior to this, had previously sustained a bit of damage due to running into the Ne-Class's twin-tailed slam and was now being slowly killed by the Abyssals via a relentless beat-down.
But compared to all the ship girls that had suffered, died and sunk around her while she came out relatively unscathed, this was justified penance, right?
She thought about the Combined Fleet that had safely escaped, slowly losing the feeling in her face as her body started to shut down from the Abyssals' beatings.
She had done her best to try and help everyone out, and despite her current self being absolutely useless in a battle that was this intense and prolonged, she did try her best to prevent others from sinking as she attracted the aggression of the stronger Abyssals and took some of the heat off of Hiei.
'Well, I did my best.
I'm going to sink anyway, but after seeing Hiei get less hurt as the Abyssals came after me, I'm happy that she probably isn't going to die now.'
At least, she thought, as happy as she could be with an Abyssal Ru-Class doing her best to make her face cave in and splatter her brains all over the ocean.
'I can't face Akashi-san after this, since I essentially used myself as bait to distract the Abyssals, and she'd be beyond pissed because I risked myself so needlessly.
And I wanted everyone to take the chance to abandon me and flee the battlefield; It'd almost be poetic if that happens.'
Shigure thought about the Nishimura Fleet and the Fast Response Fleet as she felt her palm get crushed by the heel of another Ru-Class, who brought down her heel and drove it in between the bones between her middle and ring finger as blood gushed out of the wound, the aggressive Ru-Class grinding her heel into the wound and sending up sharp jolts of pain that now barely registered in her lucid mind.
'I'm sorry for throwing my life away like this, everyone.
But I felt so bad, abandoning everyone yet again as they died behind me.
I thought that all it took was some time with my newfound friends to put the past behind me, but it seems that I needed more time to heal...
All it took was a sortie to go wrong, a few teammates to get in trouble as I ran away, and everything comes flooding back into my mind as though I were remembering a nightmare, and I almost drive myself insane trying to defend everyone.
I just wanted to make it up to everyone that died and sank because of this worthless little destroyer's cowardice, and do my part in protecting my current teammates, even if it costs me my life.
I deserve all this pain…
Looks like this is it for me…
Admiral, everyone…
Goodbye…"
But Shigure could now hear the infernal roar of someone's voice, the Abyssals' attention now focused on the incoming threat as they immediately let go of Shigure and tried to stop the juggernaut that was the fast battleship Hiei carving a path through the Abyssal battleships, who were no slouches themselves as they tried to halt her assault.
Shigure, feeling that her neck was pretty much non-functional, pretty much ignored the HUD's warning of her body sustaining major damage as she used what was left of her peripheral vision to try and see what the commotion was about.
She could see the golden gleam on the head of the Kongou-Class battleship as a peal of thunder passed overhead, illuminating Hiei's bloody headdress as she blindly punched, kicked and shoved her way towards Shigure, Mutsu's towering figure right behind her with her cannons blazing to force the Abyssals to get out of the way, or else.
Ashigara, Haguro and Abukuma came in from another front to back up the battleships, likely having wiped out the light and heavy cruisers with their impressive slew of abilities and techniques.
Shigure's bloodshot eyes widened, and although she could feel a splitting headache coming on as a result of her cracked skull, she tried to crane her neck as best she could to watch her teammates tear through the crowd with the intent of saving her.
Shigure was justifiably confused about this, her mind starting to blur as she felt water start to leak into her body, held back by the ever so hardworking Fairies that tried to repair her body as she felt the water line rising millimeter by millimeter.
She thought to herself,
'No…
Why are you all coming back for me?
You all should have run while I distracted them…"
Hiei shoved the Ru-Class off of Shigure's chest and furiously emptied her cannon shells into the torso of the Ru-Class battleship, her eyes seething with nothing but hatred and malice for the Abyssal that had nearly killed her teammate, saving the last cannon shell for a point-blank shot to the Ru-Class's skull as she stood above the fallen Abyssal, Shigure looking at Hiei's unflinching back as the fateful 35.6 Cm cannon on the Kongou-Class's rigging rang out across the battlefield.
The Ta-Class didn't fare any better in her attempt to put some distance between herself and the painfully close Nagato-Class battleship as Shigure had yet another front row seat to watch Mutsu unceremoniously punch the Ta-Class in the face with a simple yet powerful punch that could only be achieved by only the strongest of battleships.
Mutsu's right fist punched through the Ta-Class's skull, instantly popping it like a bloody balloon that contained blood, cerebrospinal fluid and brains as Shigure watched the Ta-Class's steel skull fail to withstand the force behind Mutsu's punch.
Skull fragments flew out from behind the Ta-Class's skull as Mutsu caused the face of the Abyssal to cave in, and Shigure could see some bits of brain and a lot of fluids be thrown back as the Ta-Class's head was displaced by Mutsu's forearm, a fountain of blood erupting from the dead Ta-Class's neck like a broken fire hydrant and soaking Mutsu in the Abyssal's blood as it crumpled to the floor faster than a puppet that had its strings cut and eventually sank.
Mutsu, for the most part, had looked nothing short of determined to see the Abyssal die, and her stone-cold demeanor that had replaced her usual cheery attitude only served to drive the point home that she was one of the Big Seven and was not to be messed with, looking more as if she was drenched in blood than in rain as she lowered her blood-soaked gloves and relaxed her emerald green eyes to look at Shigure, her kind, green pupils contrasting with her bloody right arm, torso, face and even hair.
The fact that she naturally had an intimidating height and that her headgear was shaped like two steel horns didn't help either.
A weak and bloody Hiei finally appeared within her sight as she felt the fast battleship support her by shifting a hand underneath her backpack to prevent her from sinking further into the ocean, Shigure looking into Hiei's tired blinded eyes that couldn't focus on her and seeming as if she had been through hell and back, Shigure barely hearing the cannon fire that was dying down on Ashigara's front as she tried to listen to her teammate's next words.
Hiei's voice was hoarse, likely because she had been shouting for so long and the battle having taken so much out of her as she asked Shigure in a voice that was wrought with concern and pain, tearing up as she did so.
"Why, Shigure?
Why did you come back for us? "
Shigure almost couldn't respond due to her bashed-in face, but her tongue was still somewhat intact and she hadn't lost too much teeth as the Ru-Class's punches were weakened by the battle, and despite feeling the metallic taste of blood polluting her mouth and filling her taste buds, she tried to cough out some of the blood to free up her mouth as she gurgled.
"I… couldn't…
Had to save…
...couldn't leave you behind…"
Hiei's tears were now flowing as she tried to bring up Shigure's limp body as her eyebrows creased, ready to break down after hearing Shigure's confession as she now held Shigure in her arms, the rain drenching her hair and blood caking her ruined clothes as she replied.
"But you…
Coming back only served to heavily injure you!
How am I going to live with myself if you sank because of us?"
The 'because of me' part was implied, but Shigure shrugged tiredly and tried not to black out as she looked into her senior's crying eyes and pointed out.
"It doesn't matter…
I wanted you all to run away… while I distracted them…
...wouldn't have minded…
If you all abandoned me…"
Hiei's face contorted with disgust as she pointed out, trying not to aggravate Shigure's wounds as she tried to keep a straight face.
"'Abandoned'?
How dare you suggest that?
I asked you all to leave us behind because we knew that the 3rd Fleet would eventually arrive to back us up!
But to abandon you here to sink?!
Did you think we were capable of doing that?"
Mutsu knelt down to address Shigure, her voice patient but sharp as she pointed out a flaw in Shigure's outlook on life, still not smiling as she tried to ignore the blood that covered her from head to toe.
"Shigure-chan.
If you want us to abandon you to keep ourselves safe, but find the thought of leaving us behind repulsive, and instead actively seek to do the opposite and disobey orders to rejoin the battle, that sounds rather hypocritical, don't you think?"
Shigure thought about it, and considered the fact that she wanted them to do something that she secretly despised doing and actively tried to do the opposite, raised an eyebrow in agreement as she conceded the point before feeling the entire world around her collapse in a nauseating whirlpool as she felt another coughing fit hit her again.
The last thing she felt was the dribble of blood flowing down her chin and throat, Hiei softly shaking her to keep her awake as she cried out Shigure's name.
Mutsu was looking down at her concernedly and she heard Amagi call for a mass retreat before the world faded to black.