Shiranui was sitting with Shigure in the canteen after another grueling training session, and since the ship girls of both fleets knew that Shiranui and Shigure had found a friend in each other, they allowed the duo some space to themselves as they ate their dinner on the 6th of May after holding out against six rounds of Abyssal bots, albeit with several casualties.
Shiranui had made a mistake by getting her rigging nicked by a large-caliber shell, causing it to deform spectacularly as her HUD announced that her rigging was no longer functional after doing some calculations in its training module and simulating real-life damage.
Of course, being a training shell, she was thankfully not set aflame since it hadn't punctured her rigging like an enemy shell would, and she was simply brought out of the battle by Tone, sulking about having been taken out so easily.
Shigure had also taken some damage, a medium-caliber shell hitting her in the gut as it sent her flying back half a meter while the wind was knocked out of her early in the third round.
She had to spend the rest of the third round coughing and wheezing while solely performing evasive maneuvers to try and recover enough stamina to continue on to the fourth round, where Tone pulled her out of the training session when it was clear that Shigure had suffered some internal damage.
The Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer was hit in the solar plexus, causing her to curl up on the ocean surface as she coughed uselessly while shells whizzed past her and torpedoes narrowly missed her, and Shiranui's trembling fists and dark expression was an indicator of her genuine concern for her newfound friend as Kagerou was forced to haul her around in order to protect Shigure from enemy fire.
They were now at Mamiya's Canteen, eating their servings of steamed dumplings with a bowl of refillable mushroom soup, and Shiranui finished everything on her tray as she talked to Shigure about what they were going to do next, giving everyone an aside glance beforehand to make sure that no one would overhear their treasonous talk.
"We should listen in on the Admiral's briefing on the 8th in order to ensure that we're kept up to date on the naval base's most recent events."
Shigure nodded, Shiranui noting how the destroyer was trying to rein in a cough even after she had docked in order to repair whatever damage she had sustained, swallowing uncomfortably as she nodded and took a sip from her mushroom soup, tearing up at the corners of her eyes as she tried to put up a strong front.
Admirable, yet foolish.
"Yes…
So…how are we to do that?
I believe the briefing room is devoid of any electronics which can be hacked in order to listen in on the briefing.
The vents around the base seem too small for anyone, even a destroyer, to squeeze into in order to prevent anyone from crawling around inside them."
Shiranui nodded, understanding that the briefing room was swept for bugs before every meeting, and while it was a little paranoid of them to assume that the Abyssals were capable of listening in on their meetings, it was common for these top-secret briefings to be conducted via pen-and-paper, before the relevant information was transferred onto their encrypted servers.
But the briefing room was where the Admiral held her meetings with her closest ship girls, only allowing the essentials to be written down by the Coordinators as whatever was discussed in there was top-secret and would only leave the room in the forms of a written note or a memory.
"There won't be any electronics in the briefing room to be hacked, and neither one of us is in the inner circle of Admiral Mako's confidantes and thus won't be invited to the meeting.
But I have one way to listen in on them."
Shigure's eyes widened, and she leaned in as she munched on a dumpling, her eyes twinkling with interest at what Shiranui was about to propose.
And by the looks of her expression, she wasn't disappointed as Shiranui explained.
"We need to bug the one person which they wouldn't suspect would have a listening device on them, and respect too much to bother searching.
Admiral Mako herself."
Shigure's eyes widened, but she kept her breathing steady in order not to disturb her breathing, or God forbid, cough out loud, which would draw the attention of the other ship girls at the table and interrupt their conversation, and while Shiranui disapproved of her overbearing curiosity, she did appreciate her attempts to be useful or avoid hindering her in any way.
Shiranui continued, seeing that Shigure understood how matters of espionage were her specialty and allowed her to take the stage, something else which Shiranui learnt to appreciate in others after working with various other ship girls.
"We will need to avoid ship girls and sailors who are on the night watch at the Staff Building in order to plant the listening devices tomorrow night, and we need to retrieve the devices after the meeting before any ship girls who are part of the laundry duty find it."
Shigure nodded grimly, understanding the difficulty of the task at hand and how they were to go about it, but Shiranui sought to correct something, lest Shigure get the wrong idea.
"Of course, when I say 'We', I mean me.
I'll be infiltrating Admiral Mako's quarters alone."
And there it was.
Shigure's expression dropped any of the enthusiasm it previously contained as she looked absolutely dumbfounded while she wondered what Shiranui was talking about.
She clarified, explaining how they were given a day off tomorrow in order to prevent the two fleets from overworking themselves, and Shiranui wanted Shigure to use this time to rest up.
"Tomorrow is a day off, and I need you to use every moment to rest and regain your stamina if you're not training to improve yourself.
You will do this while I infiltrate the Admiral's room tomorrow night in order to bug each and every one of her blazers,
Laundry day will be near the date of our sortie.
I'll enter the laundry room in order to retrieve the listening devices, since Kagerou's part of the laundry detail and I can make up an excuse to get in, but there's no getting around the fact that Admiral Mako's blazers are safely in her closet, and I'll have to enter her room in order to bug them."
Shigure's eyes lowered, Shiranui understanding that Shigure was trying to set her priorities straight, since she wasn't very experienced compared to everyone else and had to use each and every available moment to improve herself, while Shiranui would do the heavy lifting for now.
She explained this as she looked to the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer,
"Right now, I'm the one who has enough experience to carry this out by myself, and it's best that I work alone when it comes to espionage missions.
Later down the road, when you become stronger, I can allow you to do the heavy lifting while I work in the shadows, as I always have.
But you need to become stronger in order to make this a reality.
I will do this alone, and you need to rest up in order to attend the next training session."
She could see that Shigure wanted to protest, but knew better than to talk back to a ship girl who knew what she was doing, and Shiranui continued in order to reassure Shigure that she would be alright, since she was part of the Infiltration Fleet.
"Don't you worry.
I, Shiranui, will not make a mistake while on an infiltration mission.
I'm a stealth expert, and no one would expect a ship girl to spy on her own Admiral.
No one would be taking their security patrols that seriously since it's Admiral Mako which we're talking about, and they'd certainly wouldn't expect a ship girl to be sneaking into her own Admiral's bedroom for nefarious purposes.
Not if they didn't do anything to deserve it."
Shiranui's expression darkened upon uttering that last line morbidly, and she could see Shigure gulp nervously at the insinuation that there were Admirals in the past whose personalities and tactics were less-than-savory, and their ship girls had a bone or two to pick with them as a result.
But Admiral Mako was respected and loved, so in everyone's mind, no ship girl would dare to slip into her room for anything other than to sleep with her (and not always in a romantic sense, especially for destroyers), right?
Shigure looked away, Shiranui surmising that she was trying come to terms with her lack of skill which sidelined her for now, and how she had to take the time to rest up and train in order to be of use down the road, when she attained her Kai Ni.
She was like Kagerou in that sense, Shiranui thought.
'Always wanting to help others and pushing herself even further in order to do so.
I suppose headstrong, overly compassionate ship girls who care more about others than themselves will always exist in almost every ship class.'
But the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer turned to look back at Shiranui, looking as if she understood what needed to be done since she was mature enough to know that Shiranui would do what Shigure couldn't do, and Shigure will eventually do things Shiranui couldn't hope to do, and they should develop their own skill sets at their own pace, remarking.
"Fine.
Do what you have to do, and don't get caught."
Shiranui nodded grimly, thinking about how ship girls like Kongou and Inazuma were let into the Admiral's bedroom after a cursory body search to sleep with the Admiral, the former because Kongou was Admiral Mako's girlfriend and the latter because Inazuma often slept easier while in the presence of the Admiral.
Any ship girl who wasn't radioed through by the front door security was arrested and detained until they were acquitted several days later, and they'd receive a week of extra duty.
But she had no choice but to sneak in undetected with several listening devices on her in order to plant them in Admiral Mako's blazers, since she would be searched if she was to approach her Admiral's room in any other way and certainly arrested for attempting to bug the Admiral, facing life in military prison before God-knows-what.
Shiranui thought.
'I'm not that bad of a stealth specialist myself.
But that simply won't cut it anymore.
To be a ghost is not enough, since being caught on the fringe of rewound surveillance footage and obscure photos is disgraceful by my standards.
I will become something more, by allowing others to see less of me.
I swear it on the honor of the Kagerou-Class.'
Shiranui was sitting at her bed, enshrouded in darkness as she strapped her black beanie over her pink hair, this being one of her most conspicuous features which would make her stick out amidst the darkness like a sore thumb.
She was wearing dark clothes which matched her 'edgy' and 'brooding' personality as described by Kagerou, something which Shiranui disagreed with but never really tried to disprove.
And right now, she needed dark clothes in lieu of her usual uniform, which consisted of white cloth which might reflect any light which was shone her way and attract unwanted attention to herself.
Running through her plan one last time, she was to sneak past the everyone who was on guard duty tonight while keeping her ship girl mode deactivated in order to avoid being detected, sneak into the Staff Building (which was close to the Administration Building), enter Admiral Mako's room and plant listening devices into her clothes in order to listen in on her next meeting.
She would sneak into the laundry room at a later date in order to retrieve the listening devices, and the fact that Kagerou was part of the laundry detail made things easier for her.
No one would be the wiser if she succeeded.
If.
She found out that tonight's security detail in the Staff Building would be Akatsuki, Kitakami, Nagatsuki, Yura and Shouhou, and it was entirely possible that she would meet other ship girls who were patrolling throughout Yokosuka.
But she knew what she was doing, and she knew she could pull this off.
Slipping off of her bed, she could feel her silent sneakers hit the floor as she walked over to Kagerou's bed with nary a peep, watching her sister's peaceful sleeping face as she leaned down to kiss her beloved sister on the forehead, whispering tenderly.
"Sleep well, Kagerou."
Before leaving the room, making sure that none of her sisters were woken up by her on the off chance that they felt her moving by their beds.
Closing the door quietly, she looked towards the nearest window as the corridor she was standing in was dimly lit to provide some illumination without disturbing everyone's' sleep.
Checking to make sure that no ship girls or sailors were nearby, she hopped out of the dormitory as she made her way over to the Staff Building, located right beside the Administration Building so that people like the Admiral could stay at the former while working at the latter.
The Staff Building was where officers and guests stayed if they were sent here for whatever reason, and since they were visitors and needed lodging but still had to work, they could opt to work at the office cubicles within the very same building where they stayed while being a stone's throw away from the Administration Building.
Shiranui kept a low profile and avoided the main roads as they were illuminated by lampposts, watching out for human sailors who were patrolling the base on their security-modded golf carts and hid in nearby bushes whenever she heard one approach her.
Despite it being nighttime, the naval base was far from silent as crickets chirped, trees rustled, lampposts hummed while insects buzzed around them incessantly, and Shiranui was familiar with all these sights and sounds as she made her way to the Staff Building where Admiral Mako lived in.
She knew of a pipe which she had found around the back of the Staff Building and could easily climb despite being slightly heavier than an adult human, and for once, she was glad to be a destroyer instead of a heavy cruiser or a battleship, whose weight and armor would make this feat impossible.
Squatting behind another bush as the night blanketed her and kept her concealed against the pitch-black darkness, she noted that Kinu and Hibiki were patrolling the outside perimeter of the Staff Building.
While she was capable of incapacitating larger ship girls, she certainly didn't want to knock anyone out because of how difficult it was to knock someone out without either killing them or causing a commotion, and also because if she were to activate her ship girl mode in order to give her an edge, she would be identified as someone who wasn't on the patrol roster, and the everyone would be on her in an instant.
She waited for them to pass before crossing the road, knowing the location of the surveillance cameras around the base since she, while suffering from bouts of mind-numbing boredom in her past, fantasized about sneaking through the naval base like a spy and uncovered the location of every surveillance camera in the base as a way to pass the time as well as for future reference.
How it helped her now, to know that the main door and every window on the first floor was closely monitored, and the fire exit which she previously considered was also monitored by security cameras.
Coming up behind a dumpster which hid her from a security camera which overlooked the rear exit, she climbed upon its tough cover in order to reach the ledge which she was to get up on in order to reach the steel pipe, after which she could climb up to the second floor and enter via a window.
She had to be careful, though.
The hallway where the window was located was watched by a surveillance camera which swiveled in a 90-degree angle in order to survey two hallways.
Timing was important, and another patrol group which consisted of Mutsuki and Asashio which patrolled the two buildings was bound to approach her in about 13 seconds, and she needed to get to the window before they spotted her.
Heaving as she climbed on the metal pipe, she was glad that she wasn't going to fall to the ground anytime soon as the metal which made up the long pipe creaked in protest upon supportting her weight, but there was no sound of popping nuts and bolts as she made her way up to indicate that it would let her down, in this case, literally onto the concrete below as she reached the second story window.
She slightly opened the window as she brought out her own identity card, wiggling and eventually slitting it in between the button sensor and the window in order to prevent the button sensor from detecting that the window was opened in the first place.
Despite their attitudes being a little lax regarding security, patrol rounds were almost clockwork in both their timing and routine, and an opened window without a patrolling ship girl being nearby would send the entire building into high alert.
Shiranui observed the distant surveillance camera, and after waiting for another three seconds while making sure that no ship girls were approaching her, the surveillance camera spun around to observe the other hallway as the motor beneath it whirred, allowing her to slip in unnoticed as she closed the window behind her and deftly pulled her card out whilst simultaneously shutting the window, being meticulous in covering her tracks.
Sneaking underneath the camera in order to slink out of its field of vision, she remained on the move since she knew that patrolling ship girls were likely on their way, and she would rather not risk anyone seeing her in the first place.
The building was still populated by patrolling ship girls and sailors even in the dead of night, and she climbed the stairs in order to reach the third floor while completely ignoring the elevator, since the ding of the elevator would draw people's attention to it…
Wait a minute.
Shiranui stopped in her tracks, before backtracking and looking at the imposing steel doors of the elevator, considering the change to her plans and how it might be worth it to draw their attention to an arriving empty elevator in order to allow her an easy route to the Admiral's room.
But she eventually shook her head, understanding that even though it would allow her an easy route into the Admiral's room, the ship girls might be alerted to the possibility of an intruder's presence, and it would be harder for her to get out of the building.
Shit, she could hear faint footsteps coming her way.
Gotta keep moving.
While crouching, she sneaked up the stairs to the third floor as she was glad that their radar didn't work as well indoors, and while they had night vision, they didn't possess electromagnetic or thermal vision.
And while she wanted to activate her ship girl mode in order to use her night-vision, she, like the other ship girls in this building, kept it deactivated, but for entirely different reasons.
For the patrolling ship girls, they didn't want to unnecessarily waste fuel for an entire night, and for her, she didn't want her ship girl signature to be picked up by everyone.
Hearing the barely-audible shuffle of another ship girl, she kept moving down the silent hallway as it was flanked by imposing lockers which lined the hallway and silently watched over her progress like monoliths passing judgement over her actions while a window in the distance provided some light.
And as she looked around the corner, she pulled back her head as she saw that Kitakami was standing further down the corridor, and was looking towards her.
The only reason why she wasn't spotted was because the Kuma-Class torpedo cruiser wasn't using her night-vision, and Shiranui was experienced enough to know to only peek beyond the corner with one eye and not her entire head, which might have been picked up by her senior.
But another ship girl was approaching her and cornering her, and the fact that the line-up of lockers were the only things preventing her from being seen..
And while the length of the hallway fully enveloped her in darkness with only a window casting a light at the end of the 'tunnel', she didn't want to risk being spotted by the approaching ship girl as she slipped into a locker, partially because she didn't know the combination to every locker, and also because the window would illuminate her silhouette and allow her to be seen as she attempted to pick the lock which belonged to a nearby locker.
Swiveling around to look at the rubbish bin standing conspicuously behind her, Shiranui exhaled exasperatedly as she lifted the cover of the bin, tiptoeing as she placed herself inside the bin which was thankfully cleared by the cleaners before their shifts ended, but still possessed the slight stench of festering leftovers, insects which were sent into a flurry of movement by her actions, an evaporating puddle of unknown liquids which seeped out of discarded drink cartons and cans, replacing the cover after squeezing into it with relative ease.
Shiranui centered herself mentally and tried to blend into her surroundings, grinding her teeth as she thought about how she was taking one for the team by hiding in a rubbish bin of all places, and how she expected Shigure to repay this favor in kind later down the road.
'To hide in a rubbish bin, of all places…
Someone owes me, big time.'
But she noted that a destroyer, judging by the volume and rhythm of her footsteps, passed by her as Shiranui held her breath, and she identified Nagatsuki greeting Kitakami upon finishing her patrol.
"Yo, Kitakami-sempai.
I'm back, so you wanna go on your rounds?"
Kitakami, known for being rather cool and aloof towards destroyers, replied lackadaisically as Shiranui heard another set of footsteps move away from her position.
"Ahh, ahh, whatever.
Hold this spot while I make my rounds, and wait for Shouhou to take over your spot."
And Shiranui considered the situation as she sat in the rubbish bin, tuning everything out as she reconsidered her plans to get inside Admiral Mako's room.
The vents around the base were created to be smaller than a destroyer and were filled with fans and filters in order to prevent ship girls like her from entering them, and even if she was to enter one, the grates at the end of the vents needed time to open, time she might not have.
The Admiral's bedroom had no windows and was located at the center of the building in order to protect the Admiral from outside attacks in case of an Abyssal assault, so while she would eventually find several points of entry, she had to find and time them appropriately.
She decided to bide her time, reviewing her memories of the Staff building and possible entry points, including the door to Admiral Mako's room.
Hey, sometimes the easiest way in was the one which no one expected others to use, and while it was difficult for her to enter through the front door, it wasn't impossible.
Ship girls were still human, and someone either had to get a drink or go to the toilet, and while they would get someone else to cover them, it still allowed a small window of opportunity for her to take advantage of.
Light fixtures were either set to low illumination or turned off, so while she had to contend with the possibility of being seen, she wasn't exactly worried about other ship girls spotting her, and as she made sure that no one else was approaching her location, she slipped out of the rubbish bin and placed the cover back on in order not to arouse suspicion.
She made her way down the corridor, feeling rather confident that no one would see her as she detoured around corridors which she knew were observed by cameras and avoided ship girls as though they had the Bubonic plague, now entirely focused on finding more about the happenings in this base by listening in on her Admiral's meeting.
It was immoral and unprecedented, but Shiranui didn't care much for such things.
Sure, she loved her Admiral, and even though she understood that it was wrong, she wasn't going to use this information for nefarious purposes, so it wasn't entirely wrong.
And even though she was going to exploit the fact that Admiral Mako trusted her ship girls to the point where she didn't keep an extensive security detail to protect her at night, she still appreciated Admiral Mako caring for them all, regardless of class.
Her love and respect for Admiral Mako meant that she wasn't going to betray her or do anything of the sort, and in her eyes, that meant that what she was doing wasn't wrong, simply because she wasn't intending to do anything bad with the obtained information.
Not the best way to justify her actions, but whatever.
She rounded another corner when she remembered that closer into the Staff Building, infrared cameras would be used to tighten security, and a few lights would be kept entirely lit at certain hallway junctions in order to deter people like her.
Shit.
She didn't possess any sort of jammer to jam them and allow her to sneak past unnoticed, and she was going to have to find a way around them.
But there was a silver lining in that some rooms weren't locked since locking and unlocking every door in Yokosuka was a chore if it had to be done everyday, and she had some leeway in that she could find a room to sneak into in order to wait for a ship girl to pass by her.
Shiranui peeked around another corner, and her memory served her well as she saw that this lit corridor had an infrared camera watching over it, and Shiranui considered a way to either get through or around this.
To allow herself some time to think, she entered a nearby room labelled 'STOREROOM' which was a large closet where paint, cleaning chemicals, unused furniture and the like were thrown and sorted out before being taken out whenever they were needed.
She remembered that climbing out of a nearby window on this floor would allow her to enter a office window on the fourth floor, where she heard several people stroll around up there.
Likely human sailors on guard duty.
From there, she would breeze across the fourth floor in order to climb back into the third floor, where she would then be on the other end of this hallway, bypassing the blasted camera.
Shiranui figured she would find another way around this hallway and the camera, opening the door and mentally thanking the maintenance staff for oiling the doors regularly and preventing any complications from foiling her plans.
Briskly creeping over to the window while crouching, she looked out the window in order to check for patrolling ship girls and humans, and she opened and shut the glass window after replicating her card trick on the button sensor, standing on the small ledge while hugging the outside of the Staff Building behind her.
A breeze tickled strands of her hair as she exposed herself to the elements, and she inhaled the cool night air as she started shimmying on the precarious ledge, somewhat worried that either someone would spot her and raise the alarm or she would slip on something, fall to her death and be resurrected in handcuffs.
There was a built-in crevice above her, and she slowed her breathing as she decided to go for it and spun around on the ledge, slapping her gloved hands on the crevice as she started to sweat, shimmying along the building as she found the window which she remembered leading into an office which belonged to a logistics officer.
The windows on this floor weren't monitored by sensors, because who in their right mind would climb up and into a building through the fourth floor?
She was glad to be rid of the minor vertigo which she felt when on the outside of the building, entering a small office which consisted of a office desk and chair, files which lined the shelves and said desk, and a few framed photos of a well-shaven military man with his family of four, a wife with two daughters.
She approached the office door as she brought out a hairpin which was reconfigured into a pick as well as a small, flat piece of steel which would act as a torsion wrench, and after half a minute of messing with the lock, she unlocked it with relative ease as she dared to slide the handle of the door down without much fuss.
Checking her surroundings, she didn't have time to lock the door behind her from the outside as she heard the faint yet familiar footsteps of military boots hitting the marble floor.
Time to get going.
If the third floor was where the Admiral and other officers stayed, the fourth floor was where some of their offices were located.
A swiveling security camera watched over the window which she wanted to enter on the third floor, and she had a small window of opportunity to climb out from the fourth floor, drop down to the third floor without dying, replicate her card trick on said window and get in before anyone saw her.
No pressure.
It wasn't too hard to traverse the fourth floor since there were only three patrolling sailors here, and she was coming up on an office space with various 'L-shaped' cubicles, providing more cover than the hallway on the third floor, weaving in and out of them as she spotted the three guards for tonight.
All of them were tanned, wore navy uniforms and were armed with a flashlight and combat baton, and while one of them was strangely wearing shades while indoors at night, another was fanning himself with a cap which he took off and the last was a discount Hiroyuki Sanada, the three of them sitting at a T-junction near the windows.
And as they split up without a word after having done this for several rounds, Shiranui hid beneath a desk as Shades moved past her desk while the light beam which emanated from his flashlight danced across the floor, slipping out behind him and making sure that Hat Man wasn't going to turn back and spot her as she approached the T-junction where the sailor trio split up.
Following discount Hiroyuki Sanada at a reasonable distance while keeping track of Hat Man and Shades, she slowly slid open the window behind him while making sure that it didn't make any noise and alert anyone.
And she was out.
Closing the window behind her, she spotted another patrolling golf cart which was approaching her location in about ten seconds, the moonlight was illuminating her figure and made detection easier for them.
Gotta keep moving.
She puckered up her mouth and inhaled in order to prepare herself for the drop, and she let go in order to catch the previous crevice which led around the sides of the building near the third floor, and she barely caught it with her gloved fingers, feeling the sharp ache shoot up her fingers and hands as they supported her entire weight.
Gotta keep moving.
She dropped down onto the same ledge beneath her and shimmied over to the window at the edge of the building, spotting Shouhou's dark hair and ahoge moving away from her as she peeked inside the third-floor window, fumbling to get it open with her card before she got caught as she attempted to get some life back in her trembling fingers in order to pull her into the building.
Three…
Two…
Slipping in with no time to spare, Shiranui hurriedly closed the window behind her and hid beneath a swiveling security camera as a shiver ran down her spine, sweat coating her skin as she brought her breathing under control and waited for the other foot to drop.
Because if a sailor had happened to look up and had spotted her climbing in, she expected either,
A) The alarm to sound,
B) A flashlight beam to dance across the window which she climbed in from, or,
C) Shouhou moving back towards her as she was notified of a possible intruder where Shiranui reentered the building over the security earpiece.
Any combination of the above was entirely possible.
But the end never came, and Shiranui, despite maintaining her stoic demeanor, wiped the sweat from her face as she saw that Shouhou rounded another corner and disappeared, and she saw that the security camera was pointed somewhere else, so she made her way around the third floor of the Staff Building.
Passing by the lit corridor and the unmoving camera which watched over it, she bypassed the obstacle as she braved another lit corridor while she watched out for any patrolling ship girls in case she had to duck for cover before they realized she was there.
The corridor leading to Admiral Mako's room was, as Shiranui remembered, monitored by an infrared camera and was guarded by Yura as she stood underneath a lit door.
Shiranui could flip the light switch and attempt to sneak past Yura, but the camera was the main problem here since she didn't have a jamming weapon on hand, and its infrared capabilities meant that it could see her even in absolute darkness.
Shit.
She wasn't sure what to do, but Shiranui brainstormed for a while as she tapped into her prior knowledge of the building and considered possible entry points, eventually remembering something as she sneaked over to two elevated small windows which led into Admiral Mako's toilet.
And this time, she was given a small, but existent window of opportunity to infiltrate her Admiral's room while another swiveling infrared camera looked away briefly.
She tested the window as the camera looked away, but was greeted by the tired creak of the metal joints as they moved again after years of inactivity.
And even if it was a minor squeak, it sounded as if it were the goddamned Krakatoa eruption amidst the relative silence of the Staff Building, and Shiranui fully expected someone to hear her actions as she breathed in through clenched teeth and hit the floor with nary a squeak from her sneakers, hiding behind a corner while waiting for the worst.
But after ten seconds of inactivity with a lack of alarms going off or footsteps increasing in volume as ship girls and sailors alike approached her location in order to investigate, she waited for the camera to look away again as she leapt up to the window and tried again, taking the time to ease the window open without making too much noise.
And right as she felt like letting go and waiting for the surveillance camera to turn away again before climbing in, she heard Yura approach her location (again, judging by where the sound came from and by the volume and rhythm of the steps), sounding as if she was checking a minor disturbance and not exactly rushing to find an intruder.
But if Shiranui was to let go now and attempt to wait at the corridor, she likely would be noticed by the Nagara-Class light cruiser.
Oh, joy.
Shiranui heaved as she used all her arm muscles in order to pull herself in, her arms burning due to the exertions of strength as she breathed in heavily, a layer of sweat permeating her skin and face as she controlled her breathing upon tumbling into Admiral Mako's bathroom, lest she wake her Admiral up as they were now in adjacent rooms.
Looking around her and spotting the usual toilet paraphernalia which the Admiral used, Shiranui braced herself as she silently opened the door and laid eyes upon Admiral Mako's room.
She inhaled sharply upon seeing posters of ship girls being plastered on every wall, spotting everyone from Yamato, Nagato and Ashigara to Kai Ni Shigure and Yuudachi, Kaga, Shimakaze, Kongou, Atago and Takao, amongst others, all posing luridly and wearing titillating outfits and bikinis while taking up almost every square inch of wall and ceiling in the room.
Figurines of a large number of ship girls and other 'Ecchi' anime and manga lined the various shelves and were housed within glass boxes, Shiranui being able to identify a few characters like Mai Shiranui from King of Fighters, Hestia from DanMachi, Rias and Akeno from High School DxD, various girls from Queen's Blade, One Piece, Rosario Vampire, Monster Musume, Freezing, Dead or Alive, amongst others, all placed on them.
Admiral Mako specifically wanted figurines of females who possessed fully-developed bodies, and a lot of the figurines featured women with clothing damage or were in various stages of undress.
All of them had large breasts and were posed to emphasize and draw attention to them or their butt, legs or their sinfully curvaceous figures, and whatever scraps of fabric which covered their skin was enough to be considered merely indecent at the very, very best.
Shiranui's cheeks colored, and she looked away as she felt slightly ashamed to be in here, and averted her eyes from the pantheon of figurines as though it were almost sinful to even peek at them, watching Admiral Mako's bed be populated by plush toys, cushions, bolsters and three dakimakuras of Nagato, Mark II Iowa, and Musashi, all posed suggestively and were in various states of undress on the pillow covers as they surrounded a sleeping Admiral Mako, her commander sleep-talking delightedly in her sleep with a stoned smile on her face,
"Ehehe…
Boobies…"
While she hugged her body pillows and pressed them against her face.
Shiranui blushed even harder upon hearing Admiral Mako express her transparent love for the large, jiggly parts of the female anatomy even in her sleep, which was why she had a lot of heavy cruisers, carriers and battleships as her lovers instead of destroyers and light cruisers.
But she also understood that this was partially because Admiral Mako saw a fair majority of the light cruisers and all of the destroyers as her children.
And even if she could see the former and the Kai Ni forms of the latter as possible romance partners, she often kept it as a parent-child dynamic unless the ship girls in question explicitly asked Admiral Mako to take their relationship to the next level of their own volition.
She looked over at ohfuckme.
Shiranui closed her eyes and quietly exhaled for an entire second, cursing mentally upon spotting something which she thought she had left well alone in a dark, untouched corner of her mind, as did everyone when they first entered this room and laid eyes upon the six-leveled shelf filled with several hundred doujinshis.
Four-fifths of which, were about them.
Every ship girl of every. Single. Nationality, but the IJN in particular.
To think that there were some of them about her…
Shiranui shuddered, and pried her eyes away from the shelf as her blush peaked at a crimson red while she wiped the embarrassed sweat from her face, remembering too late the one rule when visiting Admiral Mako's room, that much like the sun, you couldn't look at any one particular thing for too long, lest you slide down the slippery slope into perversion and indecency.
She quietly slid open the closet door, sitting herself down in the cramped space as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a zip-lock bag, inside which were her listening devices which she had bought in the past as part of her 'spy craze', before the days of the Infiltration Fleet when she was interested in being a spy and wanted to sneak past patrols and surveillance cameras in order to carry out her duty.
While she wished she could use these against the enemy, she opened the bag and rolled the miniature device around in her hand and considered the recent turn of events, thinking to herself.
'I'm sorry, Admiral.'
She knew just were to plant them, namely the insides of the collar, because Shiranui was afraid that Admiral Mako might slip her hands in her blazer pockets and discover them if she planted them inside Admiral Mako's pocket.
Hardly anyone would think to search underneath their collars on the off chance that someone wished to search her Admiral.
Although if they were to use handheld metal detectors…
Shiranui shook her head, realizing that she had no time to spare as she flipped up the collar of Admiral Mako's white blazer, applying the quick-dry glue which she knew would do its job and could be washed away easily, and even if the device was found, Shiranui made sure to wear gloves and put them in a zip-lock bag in order to prevent a strand of her clothes from being entangled in the device.
But upon grabbing the relatively thick fabric which made up the blazer's sleeve, she felt something small and hard in the blazer's cuff, and Shiranui was confused as to what it was, flipping open the flap of the cuff in order to dig out whatever was inside.
In it was another listening device.
Was it the Abyssals?
Her heart froze, but she kept her shaky breathing under control as she tried to convince herself that even if the Abyssals had come on land and bypassed all their defenses, it wasn't exactly feasible for one to sneak past all the patrolling ship girls and sailors-
Which she just did.
Shiranui softly smacked herself on her forehead upon sabotaging her own attempts at reassuring herself, before focusing on the listening device itself.
She couldn't identify any distinguishable traits in its design to even start hypothesizing about who the culprit was, so Shiranui expected that any search into whoever planted this wouldn't turn up any results, and if she asked anyone to trace whoever was at the other end of the line, she would end up implicating herself.
Shiranui crushed the listening device in her hand, checking the Admiral's other three blazers for them.
Yep.
Whoever did this had the same idea as her, to bug all of Admiral Mako's blazers with listening devices in order to maximize the chances of successfully listening in on the meeting.
And Shiranui, knowing that she wasn't going to find whoever bought or created these listening devices even if she kept them, crushed all but one in between her index finger and thumb, dropping them into her pocket as she successfully bugged her Admiral's clothes.
She left one untouched as evidence to be used in a investigation in the very distant future, but more immediate concerns had her shelving this thought for now.
Whoever it was who also wanted to listen in on Admiral Mako's conversation, she put an end to it.
It was possible that whoever bugged Admiral Mako's meeting likely wanted to use it for nefarious purposes, but Shiranui knew that because she wasn't using whatever information she would learn for any shady business, she wasn't in the wrong.
Right?
"Shiranui-san?"
Shiranui shook her head as she awoke, having dozed off for several seconds after she returned too late to the barracks last night and was only able to get a couple of hours' worth of sleep before being forced to wake up in order to face the next day.
Kagerou didn't help much in that regard, her sister's vibrant smile enchanting her as she woke Shiranui up and helped dress her hair and got her breakfast.
She was now sitting with Shigure at a bench near the Administration Building, having chosen this bench partially because it was reasonably close to the meeting room, and there weren't any security cameras nearby.
Today was the 8th of May, and they were listening to this conversation before attending their next training session which was scheduled shortly after this.
The downside to staying up late in a child's body in order to conduct spy business was that fatigue and drowsiness set in quickly, and while she had Shigure wake her up when she dozed off, it was rather irritating when she saw how weak she was compared to the other ship classes.
She nodded in order to placate Shigure, and they sat together in order to listen to the Admiral's meeting which the Coordinators, several ship girls like Aoba, Kongou, Yamato and Akashi, amongst others, were going to attend.
Shiranui activated the earpiece which was connected to the listening device, and although the transmitted voices were a bit muffled due to the location of the listening device, they could identify distinguishable voices which were conversing with each other before Admiral Mako entered the room.
Silence ensued, and Shiranui assumed that Admiral was sitting down as the destroyers listened intently to the Admiral's meeting, Admiral Mako starting the briefing by explaining how they were to go about things.
"Well, everyone, welcome to the meeting.
As you're all aware, nothing we speak of should leave this room unless it's authorized by me.
We'll be talking about Project Psyche, then the land assault training session, and then the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea.
I believe you all received copies of a dossier explaining Project Psyche, so if any of you want to debate with me the morals of performing this procedure on a ship girl despite getting her consent, can it please wait until after the meeting?"
Shiranui could pick up a few sighs throughout the room, and she gave Shigure an aside glance as the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer mouthed,
"What?"
She raised a palm in order to get Shigure to be silent for a while as she heard their Admiral ask for another ship girl to take the floor.
"Aoba, if you please."
The scraping of chairs could be heard, and they heard Aoba speak out in a room full of ship girls, something which Shiranui assumed the Aoba-Class cruiser to be incapable of after returning from her treatment in the mental institute and had holed herself up in her room ever since, stunting her social skills.
A surprise, but an unexpectedly pleasant one.
"W-Well, the preparations for Project Psyche are almost done, since we've installed fail-safes on the chairs in order to make sure that they don't die-"
"And yet you estimate that Tenryuu and Tatsuta have a 30% chance of survival?
No offense, but what exactly do those fail-safes do?"
Shiranui could identify Ashigara speaking up and asking the tough questions, and the instant Shiranui heard the Tenryuu Sisters being mentioned and their chances of surviving whatever 'Project Psyche' was, she gave Shigure an aside glance.
And she saw it.
Shigure's expression shifted from inquisitive to horrified in an instant, and she was leaning forward as Shiranui could see her trying to consider what to do in order to keep her teammates alive.
Shiranui was put on the spot right then, and she made a call which she knew that upon looking back, she wouldn't be sure if it was the right thing to do, simply because her actions in these social situations were occasionally spontaneous and sent people mixed signals.
She reached out in order to grab Shigure's hand, if only to comfort her and get her back on track as quickly as possible, this being a common tactic used by Kagerou to cheer her up, and Shigure's head snapped to look up at her and Ohareyoueffingkiddingme.
Was Shigure tearing up?
Shiranui's expression expressed nothing but awkward concern and she was entirely aware of it, trying to comfort her without saying a word as she divided her attention between returning Shigure's worried look with a 'reassuring' expression by her standards, and listening to Aoba's justification.
"-and you must understand, we're dealing with technology which is far beyond our understanding.
And even though the Fairies are advanced engineers, they say that since we're messing with settings which we don't understand the functions of, 30% is already considered very generous.
We're taking a reasonable risk, and I understand your concerns.
I don't want to risk Tenryuu-san and Tatsuta-san's lives either.
But if it's not them, who else will step up to the plate as willingly as they did?"
Several exasperated sighs were heard, and Admiral Mako intervened in order to explain to everyone how this would work out for them if it were to succeed.
"Look.
The ship girl soul is a powerful energy source, and if we can tap into it and draw more energy from it, we can potentially bring about a new age of Anti-Abyssal technology since we can funnel the power from the soul into cutting-edge Anti-Abyssal weapons."
Shiranui's nose scrunched up upon hearing that, almost disbelieving of what she just heard as she considered her Admiral's words, but she heard Musashi ask a question about the procedure.
"Pardon me, but is there any chance we can allow other bases and more ship girls to take part in this procedure, should the boys in Engineering improve the odds of survival?"
But she heard Akashi speak up, being a senior in this base who was probably in on Project Psyche, since Shiranui surmised that such a dangerous Project required someone with nerves of steel, who knew what she was doing and knew how to take reasonable risks.
"Well, about that…
We can't raise it any more than 30% at the moment, so that's one broken promise on our part…"
She heard Admiral Mako hum understandingly, as though saying, 'Eh, you tried.' without saying a word.
"Besides, we have the best engineers and Fairies in this base, and we can only guarantee a 30% chance.
Do you really want to see the odds other naval bases would promise if they were to try and replicate the procedure?"
The room became unnaturally silent, and even though the destroyer duo tried to listen for any sounds of life, it was clear that everyone had no counter to Akashi's grim observation, and the repair ship continued on to list the possible ramifications of letting everyone gain this power without keeping track of them all.
"Besides, what's to say that there are absolutely no side-effects at all?
To our understanding, Kyoka Suigetsu is a near-death experience where we see our souls personified in our image, and who's to say that our souls won't try to kill us or take over our personalities in order to 'help' us pass on, hmm?
If Tenryuu and Tatsuta are to lose control of their powers due to any short or long-term complications or suffer from any aftereffects, we need to keep this contained.
We'll do our best, but since we're toying with things that're almost beyond our understanding, we can't allow other naval bases to get their hands on something we don't know everything about."
Shigure gripped Shiranui's gloved hand a little tighter, and despite her best attempts to keep her expression neutral, Shiranui could see that the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer was struggling with her emotions, and Shiranui kept silent since she didn't know what to say in these situations.
She only knew to keep silent, and hope that her presence was enough to provide some comfort as she heard Akashi talk about how this procedure was akin to a secret, and how it was best kept within a small circle of confidantes.
"And if we're to allow everyone to know of this technology, what if they successfully replicate it, but fail to protect their assets and allow their modified ship girls to be sunk and captured by the Abyssals?
Each 'New Wave' ship girl we lose is one more which is Abyssalized and turned against us, so it's better that we are the ones to own any and every New Wave ship girl out there, hmm?"
Noting that 'New Wave' was likely the term which was used to describe the ship girls who survived Project Psyche, Shiranui listened on to Nagato playing Devil's Advocate, although she sounded as though she wanted to do anything but.
"Besides, if we are to consolidate our New Wave ship girls in one base, it would be easier for us to house and protect them all rather than have them scattered throughout Earth, as they may fall victim to the Abyssals' concentrated effort to take them all down should they become the hunted.
We may be able to trust the stronger bases around the world with this technology, because they have enough manpower and firepower to defend their assets.
However, Akashi is right in that it would require months, if not years to make sure that this procedure doesn't backfire and harm our ship girls in the long run."
Grunts of reluctant approval were heard throughout the room, and Aoba laid out the schedule which they were going to follow.
"We're finalizing the preparations, and we'll perform a check-up tomorrow...
Um, i-it's all non-invasive, I can assure you of that."
Aoba hastily reassured everyone in order to prevent anyone from getting the wrong idea.
"We want to make sure they are in tip-top condition before the procedure.
We'll have them perform several dives and keep them under heavy observation throughout the entirety of this month.
At the end of May, we can release them and only have them come in for occasional check-ups while observing them from afar.
We'll make sure they don't push their powers too far, because even though we don't know the possible symptoms of overexertion, for everyone's sake, we'd best keep ourselves in the dark about this, lest we violate the rights of the Tenryuu Sisters, yes?"
Murmurs of agreement were heard all around, and Shigure exhaled sharply as the women in the meeting changed the subject, Kongou speaking in an uncharacteristically serious tone about the land assault training session.
"Admiral, we have begun preparations for the land assault training session, what with the various Anti-Abyssal weapons with rubber and paintball rounds, entire buildings being vacated in order to allow ship girls to train in them, and getting soldiers from the JSDF to teach our ship girls, desu.
All of this is in preparation for Apocalypse."
Admiral Mako nodded, addressing everyone as she discussed one topic which the two destroyers were interested about.
"Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this, girls.
We have enough reason to believe that a land assault campaign, which the Abyssals dubbed Apocalypse, is imminent, and will likely be a precursor to World War 3.
And even though we have the Infiltration Fleet trying to find out what the Abyssals are up to, we need to prepare ourselves in any way we can.
Admiral Jackson is manufacturing the Anti-Abyssal firearms in America to be sent over at a later date, and we've told a handful of Japanese Naval Bases about this, so expect us to slowly ramp up the Anti-Abyssal weapon production behind the scenes for now."
"And is there a reason why we aren't telling everyone about this, desu?
I would think that if World War 3 were to break out, we need to warn everyone about this, no?"
Kongou expressed the thoughts of almost all the ship girls present, but Akashi put an end to anyone hoping to ask this question, retorting with her sharp tongue and harsh tone.
"And you think anyone wants to hear this, hmm?
We'll be laughed out of the room and labelled as attention whores if we announce this before we gather enough proof, or we could incite a national panic in which everyone rushes to buy emergency rations and medical supplies like it's Black Friday in America.
You want to see our citizens scramble and trample over each other in attempting to hoard as much resources as they can get their hands on in a life-or-death situation?
Especially when we warn everyone about the next imminent World War which comes in the form of 'Apocalypse', and not allow the government enough time to draft a response plan to combat the ensuing public chaos?
I wouldn't put it past them to panic like crazy and only look out for themselves when their lives are at stake."
Another bout of awkward silence ensued, Shiranui sweat-dropping as Kongou eventually spoke out in a barely-audible tone due to the placement of Shiranui's listening device.
"You didn't have to put it like that, desu…"
Admiral Mako coughed into her fist, and tried to get the conversation back on track as she talked about the costs of such a training session.
"Well, we've cut a reasonable check to the JSDF for them to send their best trainers.
We need ship girls to move things out of those buildings and make sure we don't get hit too hard in terms of logistics when we vacate those buildings in order to train our ship girls.
I've also cancelled some of the expeditions before this, and they'll get some time to recover before attending the training session.
I'd rather hold off on attaining resources and allow all our ship girls to attending one training session, rather than hold a second training session for the ship girls who missed the first one on the 22nd."
Sounds of agreement were heard throughout the room, and Shiranui planned out their schedule as she learnt of all these.
She would infiltrate the laundry room with Kagerou's help in order to retrieve the listening devices, and after that, she would go on the sortie with the 1st Fleet on the 14th of May, and the land assault training session on the 22nd.
After that, they would have to prepare themselves for the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea, and beyond that, they would spend every second preparing for a possible land assault and eventual World War 3.
Well, things were going to be a little more hectic from now on, that's for sure.
She gave Shigure an aside glance and saw that despite looking worried about the future, Shiranui was providing her some comfort with her stoic and unshakable demeanor which helped anchor the frightened Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's spirit despite learning that her friends had a 30% chance of survival in some obscure military project which they had volunteered for.
The fact that she was sitting a little closer to Shiranui didn't escape her notice, and they focused on the conversation at hand while the Admiral moved onto the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea, and their overarching strategy for the upcoming large-scale battle.
"Well, one thing I'd like to update everyone regarding the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea.
The Kamogawa and Isumi Naval Base just confirmed with me that they would be participating in the battle with us, along with the Kujukuri Naval Base further up North of Chiba sending two fleets to try and chip in however they can.
So that brings the number of participants in this battle up to twelve, including the JMSDF and the Abyssal armada.
Concerning our strategy…"
Rustling of papers could be heard, and Shiranui surmised that they could be maps of the Kanto region, since they would need a map to plot out their movements.
"The initial part of the battle will occur here, before the formation of naval mines.
The First Strike Group needs to engage in battle with vanguard of the Abyssal armada here, and they are predicted to suffer the highest number of casualties if things get out of hand.
We won't leave them out to dry, of course, since we'll have battleships and carriers providing mid and long-range support respectively, but they'll have to hold out until the second stage of the plan."
Admiral Mako then went into a little more detail about how even though the First Strike Group will have to risk their lives on the field, she needed it for the next stage of her plan to work.
"Look, it won't be 'Charge of the Light Brigade' kind of odds, but we need to send out the best ship girls with the best equipment in order to ensure that they possess reasonable odds of survival in order for them to live long enough to retreat and bait the Abyssals into the mines.
We will get the First Strike Group to retreat into and beyond the naval mine formation, and this is very important, because all of them need to be outside of the naval mine formation in order for this to work.
This will be part one and two, the initial battle and the retreat-slash-bait.
The smokescreen and the incomplete combustion which the retreating First Strike Group will throw up in their wake will force the Abyssals to decide if they would risk sailing above the mines and into the smokescreen, or delay their invasion as we pepper them with long-range cannon fire from the battleships, which will stand behind and provide cover fire as the First Strike Group retreats."
Admiral Mako then probably took up something, likely a marker, as something squeaked in the room while everyone kept silent, and Shiranui was now fully invested in the briefing as she listened to the Admiral's voice, the listening device thankfully positioned next to Admiral Mako's mouth to ensure that a relatively clear voice was transmitted.
"The battleships will cover their retreat, and when the Abyssals move into the smokescreen, we will strike them down with the battleships which'll stand here as well as the Second and Third Strike Group with their torpedo launchers, which will stand here and here.
Jet fighters will fly in and bombard the Abyssals from the mainland, and we'll time this to be part of a massive three-pronged attack as Shizuoka and Shimoda attacks from the West, while Kamogawa and Isumi will attack from the North East, and we'll attack them head on.
This will be part three, the bombardment phase."
Admiral Mako then lowered her voice in order to talk to the ship girls in a trusting tone, and Shiranui was interested in what else Admiral Mako had in store to add to her admittedly solid strategy, to the point where she likely kept it from even her most trusted ship girls until now.
"And…
I'd really appreciate it if you kept this next part of the plan secret, even more so than the plans to the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea."
They both heard a distant and muffled,
"Yes, Ma'am."
And Shiranui leaned in close to Shigure in order to propose a theory as to who this voice belonged to.
"It's likely Yahagi, since she writes the minutes to most of the meetings.
Whatever this next part is, Admiral Mako doesn't want it to be written down."
Shigure nodded, the both of them turning their attention back to Admiral Mako talking about how she had sent the submarines off in the middle of the night about a month or so before this.
"I sent the submarines off as I ordered them to plant the mines in the Sagami-nada Sea.
However, I did it in the middle of the night as I didn't want anyone to know that we made some modifications to the naval mines."
Shiranui scrunched up her face questioningly while assuming that everyone else in the room did the same whenever Admiral Mako did something which no one expected, and whenever she did so, it was in a way which the ship girls weren't always prepared for.
"I assume you all know that unlike the usual naval mines which are tied down to the ocean floor by steel chains and an anchor, our new naval mines, which were developed twelve years ago, are kept in place by six propellers which are stuck to its six axes around its spherical body.
It marks its true position using latitude, longitude and depth as well as relative distance to other mines in order to prevent them from drifting away due to underwater currents or animals brushing past them.
To give some context, normal mines have an anchor which the mine is attached to via a metal cable or chain, in order to cancel out the buoyancy force of the mine with the weight of the anchor."
Shiranui hummed in understanding while Shigure eagerly nodded as the two of them, being ship girls who had been through one naval war and was currently participating in another, knew how such things worked as they were often used in naval wars in order to discourage ships and submarines from travelling into certain areas.
Admiral Mako continued the small lesson on their newly developed mines, and how they were going to play an integral role in the upcoming battle, explaining.
"Well, in the newer naval mines, we integrate the 'anchor' with the mine, and if you imagine the inside of the mine as two hemispheres along with the payload, the top hemisphere is filled with air and the bottom half is affixed with weights to balance out the buoyancy force with the excess weight.
The reason why they aren't laid down everywhere on the ocean is because if they're laid down in the middle of the ocean instead of near important locations, the Abyssals can sail around them, thus defeating their purpose.
Without the restriction of the maximum length of a cable holding them back and limiting their usability, these naval mines can be placed at almost any depth en masse.
And, um, those weights that're supposed to hold them down?
I had them modified to come off at the push of a button."
Shiranui eyes widened as she connected the dots in her mind, lowering her head and rubbing her face with her gloved palm as she groaned tiredly.
"Shit…"
And after one entire second of looking down at the ground, Shigure seemed to mirror her movements as she heard the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer bemoan upon coming upon the same revelation of what Admiral Mako's plan was.
"Aw…"
Admiral Mako explained her trump card and how she was to use the underwater mines in order to destroy the Abyssals using a method which no one had thought to use on such a grand scale.
"W-Well, we are to drop these weights from the mines in order to allow them all to float up to the surface if the Abyssals are to advance and sail above them.
The Abyssals will be bombarded by the battleship shells, torpedoes, jet fighters firing their JDAMs, our Fairy planes dropping their payloads ala carpet bombing, and the rising minefield beneath their feet.
How's that sound?"
Shigure, sounding extremely worried about the detonation of so many explosives on the battlefield, turned to face her as she asked Shiranui about this.
"Shiranui-san, the power behind an explosion of that caliber…
It's enough to wipe out a significant portion of an entire armada if we play our cards right, but-"
Shiranui, her expression now a dark poker face, raised a palm in order to silence Shigure as she heard Admiral Mako talk about what came after the devastating stage three, after the Abyssals were hit from the front and the sides by the ship girls, the top by the fighter jets and bomber planes, and the bottom by the rising mines.
"After that, it's stage four, and it's basically a free-for-all where everyone just dogpiles the Abyssals and throws everything they have at them.
I don't really have much of a plan for this part of the battle, but I've been notified by the USAF in Yokota that we'll have F-22 Raptors, Mitsubishi F-2 and a C-130 Hercules backing us u-"
"Um, Admiral?"
Ooyodo cut in with a polite interruption regarding the last plane which her commander stated, seeking to correct her.
"The C-130 Hercules is a transport aircraft which is part of the 36th Airlift Squadron, which is stationed in Yokota.
The Yokota USAF was talking to us about the Lockheed AC-130U gunship, the attack variant of the C-130 Hercules which was sent to us by the United States and Lockheed Martin as a package along with other jet fighters back in 2006 to help us in the Abyssal War."
Admiral Mako could only utter an acknowledging,
"Oh."
Before she responded in classic Admiral Mako fashion by simply going.
"What she said."
Everyone exhaled loudly through their noses in slight exasperation, as did Shiranui and Shigure upon witnessing Admiral Mako's clumsy conversational skills at work.
Shiranui then heard Yamato, with her polite voice possessing a quality of soft yet powerful authority which resonated throughout the room, asked about how Japan managed to get their hands on American planes from a company whose list of clients were mostly Americans.
"Um, Admiral?
I understand that Lockheed Martin only sells their products to American clients, so how did these planes come into our possession?"
But Nagato stepped in to explain how 'alien invasion' and 'possible human extinction' meant that they had access to several American vehicles of war, although certain conditions still applied.
"With the Abyssal War threatening America and its allies around the world, namely us, I suppose the defense contractors saw this war as the exception to their rule and sold us their products, with one of the conditions being that the maintenance crew and pilots be all-American, since I suppose they only trust people vetted by them to fly their own planes.
They check them every month to make sure that every screw and nut within each and every plane is accounted for, but they do come in handy in situations like these, when you need air superiority to influence the tide of large-scale battles."
Musashi then commented offhandedly,
"Well, I suppose in spite of the strict regulations and inspections they subject their overseas units to, as though they can't trust us not to accidentally crash their planes or break off a stabilizer fin, at least they're making a genuine effort to provide support by lifting the ban on their 'American-only' weapons for us and certain countries around the world.
I don't mind all the fuss over who owns the planes, so long as whoever flies them helps us win."
Akashi continued the conversation in order to get it back on track, as she explained how the American fighter jets might have to be called in to back them up in case one particular adversary showed up.
"Well, we'll be warming up their engines in order to prepare for the arrival of the Flying Dutchman, which is a very potent adversary which we need to watch out for.
The likelihood of the Abyssal aviation battleship appearing in this battle is pretty high, partially because we're one of the naval bases which is on the Abyssals' shit list, and Yuubari will certainly want to watch over her armada and aid in their invasion.
She will likely be on the Abyssal battleship and spectate the battle from afar as the commander-in-chief, while the Dutchman fires at everyone."
Shiranui noted the repair ship's subtle shift in tone, and this was not lost on everyone in the room as Ooyodo calmly asked.
"Akashi, are you alright with confronting Yuubari and taking her down, despite your past relationship with her?"
Shiranui was somewhat surprised at the insinuation that Akashi was in a relationship with Yuubari before she sank, and might have to face off against her on the battlefield.
She sank less than a decade ago, and the same Abyssalized Yuubari was now spearheading the invasion of the Abyssals against mankind?
Who the hell appoints an Abyssalized light cruiser to the position of Abyssal high command this easily?
But those questions would be left unanswered for now as Akashi answered without a shadow of a doubt, as though she had considered the possibility and had come to terms with what she had to do.
"Yeah, no doubt about it.
I'll lop her head off and keep it with me, so that the Abyssals never recover it and make her work against us."
A third bout of intense silence was dropped upon everyone by the Akashi-Class repair ship, and Shiranui wasn't exactly sure what to make of a ship girl being so casual with killing her former lover and keeping her decapitated head around without breaking a sweat over the moral quandaries regarding such a course of action.
Shigure also looked rather surprised, and even a little horrified upon hearing the repair ship say this so casually, and she could hear Admiral Mako sharing the urgent need to move onto another topic along with everyone who was present in order to avoid dealing with the sheer awkwardness that was forced upon them by Akashi.
"W-Well, I suppose that concludes a majority of the topics which are to be covered in this meeting.
So, to summarize, Tenryuu and Tatsuta are to be brought in for the rest of May, and we'll give them checkups before and after the dives in order to make sure that Project Psyche doesn't cause any side effects, either immediate or delayed.
For the land assault training session, we'll hold it on the 22nd of May, and the goal is to help ship girls prepare for Apocalypse, and eventually World War 3 by manufacturing more Anti-Abyssal weapons and gaining the cooperation of all the other countries if we can find enough evidence to convince them without a shred of a doubt that Apocalypse is real.
For the Battle of Sagami-nada Sea, we're to have four stages of battle, where the first is to clash, the second is to retreat and bait.
The third is to devastate them with attacks from all directions, including the bottom via the rising mines, and the fourth stage is a free-for-all fuckfest where we take out everyone who's left with help from the entirety of the JSDF.
Any questions?"
Shiranui supposed Ashigara was the one who raised her hand, because her Admiral then asked of the Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser,
"Yeah, Ashigara?
What's your question?"
Ashigara asked unabashedly about something which was somewhat related to the final topic, but wasn't about the battle itself.
"Can we choose to call the upcoming large-scale battle 'Battle of Twelve Navies'?
I mean, it's three syllables shorter, and it's an easier way to call the clusterfuck that is going to be ten naval bases and the JMSDF dogpiling the Abyssal armada, so why not?"
Nagato deadpanned, sounding incredulous at how the heavy cruiser felt the need to even ask this question, asking flatly.
"Seriously?
Did you literally ask a question about what we're supposed to call the battle, of all the things we should focus our attention on?"
"Yes, I literally did.
Literally."
Ashigara responded dryly, and Shiranui could hear Akashi complaining about how everyone in the room was absolutely insufferable.
"Fucking hell.
Everyone in here's so fucking cancerous, blatantly misusing 'literally'-"
Shiranui turned off her earpiece by that point in time, and gave Shigure a look in order to get her to do the same, talking to her about what they were to do, or more accurately, not do for now in light of recent developments.
"Look, Shigure.
I need to be honest with you.
Regarding Project Psyche, I don't think we can stop Tenryuu or Tatsuta from participating in it, because if we're to do so, Admiral Mako will know that the reason why we would know about Project Psyche in order to stop the Tenryuu Sisters in the first place is if we somehow learnt about it through underhanded and certainly illegal means."
Shiranui's eyes narrowed as she leaned in to address a worried Shigure who looked down at the ground, clearly contemplating the thought of rushing into the Admiral's office and demanding that she spare her teammates' lives, or something along those lines.
"Shigure.
I infiltrated the Admiral's room in order to plant those listening devices.
If you are considering barging into the Admiral's room in order to ask her to stop Project Psyche, I urge you to reconsider, lest we both be thrown into military prison and be punished for our infractions."
Shigure looked away in shame, and Shiranui knew that she hit the nail on the head regarding Shigure's thoughts, but she also understood the need for Shigure to contact and talk to her teammates without accidentally spilling the beans, and she relented as she gripped the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's hand a little tighter, attempting to relax her expression in order to flash Shigure a small, reassuring smile before continuing.
"But…
I understand if you wish to talk to them before they go for the procedure.
And I will allow it if you talk to them without making them suspect that we know what they know."
Shigure's near-crying expression morphed into a somewhat surprised one as she met Shiranui's gaze, and the Kagerou-Class destroyer quickly dropped her smile, now being the one to look away as she looked away and felt slightly abashed as she had a slight heart to heart with Shigure.
"Look, I'm not entirely heartless.
They're your teammates.
And while I stress the importance of not being a complete idiot by shouting from the rooftops about how Project Psyche is bad for your teammates and getting us both arrested, I won't stop you from talking to them before the worst happens."
She could see the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer wrestle with her emotions in trying to come to terms with Shiranui's reasonable requests and compromise, still looking extremely reluctant as she acquiesced and agreed with Shiranui.
"I… I suppose I have to, don't I?
You've taken one for the team, and I need to do the same."
Shiranui nodded as she closed her eyes, and Shigure broke out into a small, sad smile as she looked to the Kagerou-Class destroyer and pointed out.
"You know, Shiranui-san.
You often look so stoic and unflinching, when you smile, it really has the effect of looking surreal as it is a rare and wonderful phenomenon, and looks as if it takes a Herculean effort on your part."
Shiranui's eyebrows creased, and she lifted her gloved right hand in order to pinch Shigure on the nose as a minor punishment as she remarked dryly.
"Naive, and cheeky.
Annoying, too."
And Shigure's voice became a little more high-pitched as she gesticulated wildly with her hands, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she squealed.
"Ah, waah, Shiwanui-shan!"
While Shiranui thought about the name-ship of the Kagerou-Class, and how in some sense, these two ship girls shared some passing resemblances.
'Kagerou gets on my nerves with her boundless enthusiasm, and Shigure does the same with her uncontrollable sense of curiosity, and they both possess the cheek to shoot back at me.
Must my life be plagued with ship girls who worm their way past my stoic demeanor so easily with their quirks?'
She sighed, but didn't exactly mind their company as she knew that she secretly found those traits and habits endearing if they learnt to moderate and control them instead of the other way around, as Shigure demonstrated in the training session a few days ago by allowing her thoughts and curiosity to occupy her attention in mid-battle.
And Shiranui, upon considering the series of upcoming battles and events which were going to shake their world, found herself feeling that a second wind lifted her spirit as she wished to do better despite her limits holding her back.
All for the sake of protecting her sisters and friends and preserving the illusion of peace, if but for a little while longer before all Hell broke loose on Earth.