After cutting their hair to prevent it from touching their collars, they were all ordered to change into their military uniforms, eat their lunch, fall in at a sheltered hall and be seated before 1.30 p.m. on the 3rd of May, Shigure feeling the tingly itch of hair strands getting stuck on her skin and in her military uniform, and she could empathize with everyone who fondled their newly cut hair, clearly unused to the sensation of the air running through their considerably shortened hair as the strands tickled the nape of their necks, and the hall was easily filled by the ship girls mostly hailing from Yokosuka, along with several coming from Chigasaki.
Unfortunately, the Demon Instructor Jintsuu, as Shigure would realize in the later half of the day that the nickname was well-earned, skipped the pleasantries as she gathered everyone in a hall with seats positioned much like an amphitheatre for the speaker, in this case Jintsuu Senior, to be heard.
"Welcome to Camp Itazuma, girls.
My real name is Jintsuu, but I've been going by my alias Jacqueline or 'Jackie' for 16 years, and that isn't going to change anytime soon.
My rank is Major, but you can call me 'Ma'am Jackie' or 'Ma'am' during the period of our training."
Standing up straight in order to stand at her full height, 'Jackie' looked down at her seated audience, emitting an aura which belied not only her unshakable confidence in her own abilities, but conveyed her absolute authority over everyone that was under her command like the drill sergeant she was.
"I've been notified of the situation and kept up to date on its recent developments, and I understand that you require someone with my particular set of skills to teach you all there is to know about land combat.
Just some history so you don't have to ask too many questions, I was created during what you call the First Decade and was drafted into the army to be an undercover super soldier amongst many other ship girls who are no doubt training up your comrades around the world as we speak.
I've been deployed mostly in the Middle East, especially in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, the last of which I had a 'memorable' extended stay in the years following 9/11."
Hmm, interesting.
So she participated in the 2003 Iraq War?
She certainly had to have seen her fair share of bloodshed in her lifetime, and matched Akashi in terms of age and ruggedness, judging by the sight of her ageless beauty which was marred by stress lines and a darkness which was forever seared into her expressions and mannerisms after having been through what Shigure could only imagine were Herculean trials, physical, emotional and psychological in nature.
Jackie continued,
"I haven't touched the sea in a long while, but if there's one thing I know how to do best, it's knowing how to kill pretty much anything which walks on land, and by the end of this training period, you all will share that same skill as well.
I'm opening the floor to questions, who wants to inquire about their new career specialization?"
Shigure raised her hand, asking about how tough they could expect land combat to be.
"How tough is land combat compared to naval combat?
And are guerilla tactics the only things we can hope to resort to in our situation?"
Jackie looked in her direction and nodded, respecting an intelligent question when she heard one.
"A good question.
From what I can remember, naval combat is about dealing with threats from above, around and beneath you in the form of planes, ships and submarines respectively.
Land combat heavily focuses on the first two factors, and unlike the ocean, where it is a flat terrain which can be crossed with boat slippers with minimal effort, land combat is time-consuming and exhaustive process as it consists of actual walking from point A to B, especially if you don't have vehicles to speed up the process.
Although all of you are super soldiers, moving troops from one place to another still takes time, and any one of you can and will suffer from exhaustion and fatigue eventually without food and water, as well as inadequate rest and training.
The terrain is also a factor, and locations like forests, cities and mountains can become mazes, death traps and eventually meat grinders if not tackled properly.
I expect that collapsing buildings are going to be the norm in cities and towns due to heavy cruisers and battleships breaking support pillars left and right, and if this is done right, it can be utilized to our advantage in order to slow Abyssal tanks and supply lines down.
But, taking into account the disparity in both manpower and firepower, that's a definite yes to the second question."
Shigure nodded as she understood the reason behind these seemingly mundane locations being so disadvantageous to unprepared armies, and it really bogged down Shigure's spirit as she predicted and imagined them being sortied into forests and even jungles, where rain could turn dirt into mud and pits into miniature ponds.
In the forest, they had to contend with the untamed wildlife which could potentially cause more casualties despite their armor and heightened stats making them more endurable than humans could ever be, and the sweltering heat was also capable of wearing them down on cloudless summer days, and although she wasn't sure if their armor would ever hold up against a collapsing building, she never wanted to find out.
Guerilla warfare was ugly, but effective in deterring invaders through the use of hit-and-run tactics, subterfuge and sabotage, and in a war as one-sided as theirs, they had to use every single trick in the book to even hope to stand a fighting chance.
Inazuma asked, being one of the several dozen ship girls who didn't require a haircut due to her naturally short hair and was seasoned enough to ask a smart question regarding their odds of being healed whenever they were brought out of combat.
"How often are we expected to dock?
I mean, we won't have docks when we're fighting so far inland, so is there a way to make them portable?"
Jackie snapped her fingers and pointed at Inazuma, her expression brightening somewhat upon seeing them ask the right questions, stating how land combat would vastly differ from naval combat.
"Excellent question.
To my knowledge, you ship girls use docks to heal up after a taxing battle and if you've sustained casualties, right?"
Several nods were seen all around, prompting Major Jackie to continue.
"Well, we'll definitely have to secure large bodies of water like ponds or reservoirs to draw water from them in order to fill these inflatable tubs, in which the repairing nanites and dissolved resources will be poured into the tub in order to create a portable dock.
I also have information that we'll be mass-producing nanites which, when injected, will be able to help your bodies regenerate from bullet wounds, and why this wasn't used in naval combat was because even the smallest of shell calibers are capable of eclipsing the size of the largest firearm bullets, and these nanites can only help you to recover from the latter, not the former.
Your bodies will be remodeled to be able to produce these nanites, which will actively work to heal these injuries with three resources.
Consumed fuel and-or steel, or sheer willpower alone."
Confused murmurs sounded all around, but Jackie pacified them all by holding up her hands and elaborating more on how these nanites worked with information given to her prior to this briefing.
"Calm down.
According to information provided, a ship girl is made up of the body, mind and soul.
Willpower channels more spiritual power from your soul, whatever that means, and these nanites are capable of utilizing this intangible power source to heal your injuries through higher-level engineering.
I won't pretend to understand what just came out of my mouth, but know that you really need to focus in dire situations when you've expanded all your consumed resources in order to recover from ballistic wounds, and is very much a last resort.
You also need the docks in order to properly heal your sustained injuries, because you may suffer from injuries that are beyond the regenerative capabilities of the nano-machines, so anything like lost limbs, broken bones or injuries caused by weapons like high-powered rifles or rocket launchers instantly mandates a trip to the docks.
Also, regeneration is different from healing in that the former is capable of draining you since it instantly pushes out the bullets out of your body and patches you up at the cost of stamina and resources in battle, but healing is permanently healing you up and revitalizing your body in order to make it as good as new."
Yahagi asked a question, the light cruiser looking radically different without her signature ponytail as did everyone else who previously had unique hairstyles to distinguish themselves from the crowd, and almost all the ship girls now sported the nicknamed 'Hiei' or 'Hamakaze' short hair, whichever one was more convenient for the hired barbers to cut.
"And how are we going to go up against the Abyssals, what with our inferior numbers?
Even with the sheer number of ship girls like us being trained in order to become elites at this moment, is there really any way for us to win this war?"
Jackie looked up as she was engrossed in her thoughts, finally coming up with a suitable yet somewhat controversial comparison to an enemy who managed to hold their ground against foreign invaders on their own soil.
"Well, you all heard of the Viet Cong?
They fought the Americans in the Vietnam War, and they brilliantly utilized the treacherous terrain and guerilla tactics in order to drag out the Vietnam War to the point where the war-weary Americans were forced to withdraw.
Alternatively, you can see us as the Koreans led by Yi Sun-sin in Battle of Myeongnyang that are going up against the numerically superior Japanese fleet, or perhaps the Spartans fighting the Persians at Thermopylae, whichever one is easier for you to stomach.
We could do without the 'everyone dies' ending in the case of the last example, though."
Everyone nodded, the fear and uncertainty being reflected in everyone's eyes upon hearing such a comparison being made, and the fact that Jackie essentially confirmed this with her next words didn't help matters any.
"In a straight-up battle, we'd lose, there's no doubt about that.
In situations like this, where the enemy vastly outnumbers us, the best choice is to hole up in places which we know best, and that would be the cities, towns and countrysides which our own soldiers hail from, allowing us to ambush the enemy where they least expect it.
We need to be a highly-mobile strike force which can attack where the enemy is weak and relocate ourselves before the bulk of the Abyssal forces come down on us.
Make full use of landmines, the weather as well as the navy and air force in order to stop them in their tracks and make advancing costly for the enemy, not just in terms of resources and manpower which they have in abundance, but also time and available land which they have less of when invading foreign lands."
Jackie's expression turned solemn as she dropped the hard truth on them,
"Look, I won't sugarcoat this.
You may not be the first, but I daresay that you all will no doubt become the strongest line of defense against the Abyssal horde second to the ship girl infantry and navy, the former of which consist of less experienced ship girls who make up for it with their sheer numbers, and the latter has experience along with tried-and-true tactics and far more seasoned vets on hand to train the rookies.
You'll all be worked to the bone by me in order to perform better than any other company, and will no doubt be pushed further than the rest of them, but know this.
This is not an unwinnable battle."
Jintsuu's eyes hardened, the battle-hardened weariness being reflected in her eyes, as time, war and tragedy testing her spirit and beating the 'nice girl Jintsuu' out of her a long time ago, but never truly managing to break her as a full-fledged soldier in her own right despite having fought on a different battlefield her entire life.
"The Abyssals have a bottomless well of resources, but they still need to transport them across vast swaths of land the further they push inland, giving us more than enough opportunities to attack them where they are weak.
They are fighting on our land, and we need to play to our strengths while negating theirs in order to stand a fighting chance, tiring them out and halting the momentum of their invasion before pushing them back, no matter what we have to resort to.
And to that end, you have me, arguably the best soldier this side of the Pacific teaching you all how to kill everything under the sun.
Right now, Admiral Mako has temporarily passed over executive command to me, which means I'm your acting Admiral as of now and can give you any order I desire.
Now then…"
Her gaze iced over, everyone feeling the air around her drop considerably in temperature as Jackie resumed her 'Demon Instructor' persona which was a far cry from the Jintsuu whom everyone was familiar with, speaking with an authoritative voice which knew it was in charge and silenced possible dissenters or naysayers with her tone.
"Shall we begin?"
The entire afternoon was crammed with physical conditioning exercises, and Shigure now knew that Jintsuu - sorry, Ma'am Jackie, wasn't joking when she said that her training was going to be Hell on Earth, the incoming Abyssal invasion notwithstanding.
Every muscle in her body was strained by the strenuous and relentless physical training regimen that they were subjected to, and several destroyers, light cruisers and even a heavy cruiser had filed out of the formation after breaking down either physically or emotionally in the face of Jackie screaming at them and ordering them to do everything from Buddha claps to push-ups, sit-ups, pull ups, crunches and jumping jacks, and Jackie had led them on a 50 kilometer run as she bounded on like a spirited gazelle which had energy reserves to spare, while almost everyone else ended being completely spent by this point in time.
The battleships naturally fared the best amongst the company, although they were also rather weary after the entire ordeal.
Jackie stood before them, also sweating but looking much more reinvigorated as she remarked about how this was to be a recurring thing, to everyone's horror.
"Well done, everyone!
That wasn't so hard, right?
I did go easy on you the first day, after all."
Everyone's eyes bulged out upon hearing that, incredulous at the offhanded remark that everything they experienced thus far was on easy mode when almost a quarter of them had already collapsed from exhaustion, and the rest of them weren't faring much better.
That didn't escape Ma'am Jackie's notice, as her expression contorted into a scowl and she roared at the cowering army of ship girls before her, looking completely at ease in her part as the menacing drill sergeant.
"You want a sneak peek of what's intermediate difficulty?!
EVERYONE KNOCK IT DOWN AND GIVE ME 50!"
The tension was palpable as everyone wanted to protest, but as instructed, they had no choice but to obey as they yelled in a synchronized voice,
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Shigure felt her arm muscles burn upon touching the cement again while she got into the proper push-up position with her legs straightened and her knees weren't touching the floor, although the push ups were thankfully done in a sheltered corridor this time as everyone echoed,
"Permission to carry on, Ma'am?!"
"Granted!
One!"
"One!"
Everything within her screamed for her to stop as they counted along with each push-up, her shaking limbs and burning muscles tempting her to do so with every push up she did as beads of sweat dripped down her nose and chin, hitting the floor and de-materializing as it left its mark by moistening a small area of the cement floor, Shigure painstakingly pushing herself up and felt her stamina drain from her body with every push off the floor even before finishing the set of push-ups.
By the time they were done, and she heard someone, unidentifiable in her muddled mind which was already straining its faculties just trying to keep herself in the push-up position without collapsing, call out to ask Ma'am Jackie on whether they could get back up into a standing position.
"Permission to recover, Ma'am!"
"Granted!"
Everyone scrambled up into a standing position save for a few ship girls, Shigure daring to peek down and managed to identify them as Nagatsuki, Nagara and Zuihou, arms trembling uncontrollably and lying on the floor in a splayed 'murder victim' pose as they were worn out from Ma'am Jackie's Spartan training regimen.
Male and female medics rushed in and silently carted them off on stretchers as they, too, were worked to the bone due to the amount of ship girls who had collapsed before this as they were assigned to shadow their company after Ma'am Jackie predicted this outcome, the light cruiser looking downright apoplectic at the lack of any gratitude as she yelled.
"Oi, where's my 'thank you'?!
AMAZON COMPANY, DOWN AND GIVE ME ANOTHER 30!"
"Yes Ma'am!"
Sounding drained of any remaining spunk they had and feeling utterly exasperated by now, Shigure noted how fitting it was that they were named after the Amazons in Greek mythology as a breed of female warriors, and they had the dubious honor of being the first and hence Alpha company in all of Japan.
And like before, their request to continue their punishment was granted with a sharp and curt yes, and they acknowledged it with an exhausted but firm,
"Yes, Ma'am!"
And did as they were told, Shigure being physically pushed to her physical limits just like in the various major naval battles she had participated in.
And strangely enough, she could feel that Ma'am Jackie was deliberately pushing them to the limit, with how she had them perform physically strenuous tasks while she intently observed the flexing of their every muscle according to ship class, how her sharp eyes studied them as they were ordered to push their superhuman strength and endurance to the limit in order to accurately gauge their strength.
Shigure supposed this was a way of breaking them in as well as to see how long they would last in terms of endurance, and on land, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer knew that everything was a chore, trekking likely being the biggest one as they no longer had their boat slippers.
They were no longer ship girls, and Shigure had to remind herself that the Abyssal War had changed in its very nature, no longer requiring only ship girls to fight it.
This was about to become a full-on World War, and the bloody corpses of her sister Yuudachi and her new friend Shimakaze flashed through her mind, bringing everything back into focus as she bit down and felt the dull sensation of pain caused by the stress on her molars, feeling more driven to improve herself than ever before as a second wind overcame her body.
Something managed to thrash them and beat them black and blue with the ferocity rarely seen in this war, and it was headed their way in order to unleash that hell on the civilians of Japan.
Not if they could help it.
Another ship girl dropped out as Tama failed to deliver on the physical aspect of Ma'am Jackie's hellish training regimen, her sprawled body being lifted onto a stretcher and promptly carted away by the medics of Itazuma Camp while everyone else maintained their push-up positions and stared down at the ground while Ma'am Jackie spoke to them.
"Look, I don't give a damn about whether you lot despise me or whatever by the end of this training period.
A lot of you lasted a lot longer than I expected, but you all just don't seem to understand that all of you aren't ship girls anymore!
Recover!"
"Yes Ma'am!
Thank you, Ma'am!"
Everyone hurried onto their feet and dusted themselves down, standing at attention as Jackie stared them down, waiting until they were done before she continued addressing Amazon company.
"They're taking the fight to us, and we need you to wake up to the fact that this is no longer just a naval war!
If you're not prepared to open your mind to alternatives, to give your all and expand every ounce of effort within you in order to win, then we've already lost!
If you think I'm going to go easy on you just because you're a child or destroyer, think again!"
Shigure was thankful for the training sessions and sorties paying off in keeping her in shape to be able to spare some brainpower in order to process Ma'am Jackie's words, unlike others who were either catching their breath or looked as if they were going to keel over anytime soon, but everyone listened to her with rapt attention because, damn it, she commanded it.
"Just because you're a child doesn't mean things are easier; in fact, I'd say it's the exact opposite on land.
You all will no longer have your little boat slippers to ferry you from point A to point B without effort, and because of that, you all need to improve your stamina in order to keep up with the older ship girls!
I don't care if you still think of yourselves as ship girls right now, I'll pound it intoyour thick skulls that as of today, you are no longer just ship girls; this world and the seven billion people whom we're all protecting need all of you to become something more.
Is that clear?!"
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"Amazon company, I said, is. That. CLEAR?!"
"YES MA'AM!"
Forget everyone else; even Shigure felt like she was on her last legs by this point in time, feeling the sticky sweat drench her entire uniform as her demure chest heaved after attempting to take several deep breaths, and Ma'am Jackie's wordless answer to their hearty answer was to relax her demeanor and give a serene smile.
And that was what chilled everyone to their core, because to see the Sendai-Class light cruiser make such an out-of-character expression in a time like this was analogous to being in the eye of the storm, everyone mentally bracing themselves for what was to come.
With all the patience and generosity she could muster, Ma'am Jackie sincerely congratulated.
"I'm heartened to see that you all possess so much vigor even after one set.
When you all leave this camp, I expect every single one of you to be able to accomplish eight to ten sets.
Now then, let's complete one more set before the end of today, starting with another 50 km run, alright?"
Everyone simply uttered out a disbelieving,
"Ehh?!"
As Jintsuu started to move off without them, jogging backwards and facing them as she gestured with her two hands, her demeanor hardening again as she ordered.
"Come on, rows of two!
By tonight, you all will find out that your bunk bed and pillows will be your new best friends, and you'll all be sleeping like logs tonight!"
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"As you're all well aware, sleep is a privilege on the battlefield; I can run you all into the ground by training you all throughout the day and night!
Today's your first day in this camp and living this kind of life, I'm already wasting time by going easy on you all and allowing you to sleep when an invasion is well on its way.
You hear me?!"
Everyone visibly flinched at how the Demon Instructor was already 'going easy' on them and was going to ramp up the difficulty in the days to come, but they had no choice but to echo back in a collective wheezing voice,
"Yes Ma'am!"
"OI, AMAZON COMPANY, WHERE'S MY GRATITUDE?!
I CAN AND WILL SCREW YOU LOT OVER THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT IF I HAVE TO!
YOU WANT THAT?!"
"NO MA'AM!
THANK YOU, MA'AM!"
"Good!"
The entire Amazon company was sitting in the canteen in the very late evening after the sun had set, the cooks having anticipated their condition and prepared their meals such that they need only drink out of straws to eat their dinner (their arms were trembling like early sufferers of Parkinson's Disease, and they'd make a horrible mess of themselves and the canteen if they used utensils), and since Ma'am Jackie had worked them late into the night, the canteen wasn't populated with too many JGSDF soldiers who stayed behind to observe the newcomers.
Everyone looked and felt miserable, several destroyers crying and whining about wanting to go home while others just quietly wallowed in their newfound misery in the hell that was Camp Itazuma, silence reigning supreme amongst those who hadn't been broken yet and didn't even bother wasting their breath complaining.
Shigure was sitting down with the 1st Fleet on her left and Shiranui on her right, and she was enjoying the taste of spliced meat, soup, sliced up hard-boiled eggs and mashed rice along with fuel and shaved steel, all thrown into a cup that was larger than a Big Gulp cup with a similarly large straw as the cooks served them their indented portions (battleships got larger servings while light cruisers and destroyers got smaller, but still sizable portions).
And while in any other scenario the ship girls would have had to be ordered by a superior to down this piping hot cauldron of sludge which was the furthest thing from what any sane person could consider food, after such a physically taxing first day, the ship girls were greedily sucking up their serving as any food could be considered a five-star delicacy at this point in time.
She spoke to Shiranui, who also survived today's training regimen, her soured expression forming a perpetual scowl as she listened to Shigure.
"Was that the Demon Instructor Jintsuu that everyone's terrified to learn from?
I can see why now."
Shiranui gave a simple hum in response as she downed her own serving through the straw, hungrily swallowing the vile mixture before responding wearily, also fatigued from today's activities.
"Yes.
I can see it in her eyes, though.
She's a landlubber inside and out, and if we were to throw her in the ocean, she'd be just as confused as we are right now on how to fight a naval battle.
Although with more than a decade of fighting on the battlefield, I suspect she'll get used to it soon enough, and everything will come back to her eventually."
This claim was sound in Shigure's mind, since Jintsuu seemed unmatched after more than a decade of fighting on land, likely at the expense of never learning how to fight on the ocean like ship girls did, but some part of her that was still a warship would never forget how the ocean felt like.
Shigure seemed quite interested in the points their light cruiser instructor made, asking Shiranui about how true it was that physical conditioning was to be an integral part of their new daily lives.
"By the way, I do believe that what Ma'am Jackie said was true, that we destroyers and perhaps even light cruisers will be pushed harder than the rest of the ship classes, and that'll be useful in battle, right?
I understand her logic that we'll eventually have to leg it across vast stretches of land where vehicles cannot pass, and unlike the ocean, the land is anything but flat and will lengthen the distance traveled from A to B.
Destroyers have smaller physiques and less stamina than the other ship classes, so I suppose we'll be pushed to the limit more often than everyone else even when out of combat."
Shiranui added her two cents,
"That's not all.
Considering our baggage and weapons being hauled around by us as well as supply shortages, possible lack of sleep and rest along with ever-changing orders coming from above to reroute to point C, might demand of us to perform better even when we're reaching the breaking point.
And that in that scenario, we haven't even met the Abyssals yet, which will wear everyone down even more due to fatigue and injuries as well as possible lack of sleep, and you start to see that this training program, no matter how rigorous it might be, is actually a good way to break in and train everyone who wasn't already used to this."
"Hm, and we still haven't gotten our hands on firearms yet…"
"Well…"
Shiranui noted how they were good enough shots on the battlefield due to their previous profession honing that skill, and how firepower wasn't the immediate problem here.
"Aside from being androids with superhuman aim, we've gotten ample chances to practice handling firearms while under fire in battle, so getting us to adapt to human firearms isn't the issue here.
The problem is the playing field itself, and if we're too winded to move anywhere, forget tactics and firearms, we'd be sitting ducks because we couldn't get used to how this new battlefield worked.
Physical training is the way to go in order to train up our stamina, and as you can see, many ship girls here are bench-warmers who are used to short bursts of very intense physical activity in the form of sorties, not half a day of constantly intense physical activity, and certainly not to such an extreme like Ma'am Jackie's training.
Physical training also helps us to handle the recoil of handheld weapons during extended firefights, especially so for firearms which are meant to be dual-wielded since we would be less used to handling that sort of recoil without proper physical conditioning of our upper bodies."
Shigure nodded as she thought about how almost all of their small and medium-caliber cannons were wielded with one hand, and a dual-wielded firearm would certainly need some getting used to.
She then looked around to see less than half the original Amazon company present in which most of them were previously on the active fleet roster while the others were in the med bay, now wondering if simply living for so long would radically change everyone's personality, knowing the current Jintsuu to be far nicer than 'Jacqueline' Jintsuu, essentially her future self.
"Can living for so long change a ship girl so radically?
I mean, the Jintsuu we know is nice even though she has her Demon Instructor persona, but…"
Shiranui nodded, looking around shiftily before asking her next question, morbidly interested in how time and loss could wear away at one's personality in order to change them to such an extent.
"It is interesting to wonder just what she must've been through in order to change her like this, and it's entirely possible that everything about her warship past has been pushed to the fringe of her memory banks.
How bad must it have been, though, to be forced by circumstances to abandon all traces of your old life and fight a war which sucks the joy and life out of you, to the point where you become such a radically different person from who you once were?"
Shiranui looked down in thought, explaining the situation in military camps all across Japan and the world.
"Well, know that out there in Japan, it's very likely that an older doppelganger of you exists and is giving another company of ship girls hell as well.
They definitely sent a lot of ship girl units into war zones in order to invade and stabilize regions like the Middle East and the more… unstable parts of the world, amongst many others under false identities in the past, when our existence was still a secret.
The government recalled them now in order to impart their skills to us after they've been working in arguably worse conditions then us due to their inability to truly die under most circumstances, as well as the possibility of rape if captured…"
Shigure scrunched up her face upon hearing that possibility, but she remained tactfully silent and listened on to Shiranui giving her explanation.
"It's ugly, but even if we get shot at and killed or even sunk on the battlefield, at least there isn't the threat of being raped by Abyssals since they're all female - "
"Wait.
Aren't some sea creatures hermaphrodites?
So drawing inspiration from them in terms of design, can't the Abyssals grow that out and… you know…"
Shigure's face turned as pink as Shiranui's hair upon allowing that stray thought to run wild in her mind, and the Kagerou-Class destroyer closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows as she pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger before exhaling in exasperation, speaking up in an unnaturally soft voice.
"Thank you for sticking that image in my head, Shigure."
Shigure was socially well-adjusted enough to understand sarcasm when she heard it, allowing the silence to diffuse the heightened tension between them as they slurped up their meals through their straws, Shigure's mind hard at work in finding something else to talk about despite being so fatigued, finally thinking about why the humans and Fairies didn't just their own specialized humanoid combat units to be able to fight on land.
"You know, I was wondering…"
"Oh boy, this is going to be good."
The Kagerou-Class destroyer's voice was so thickly layered in sarcasm that Shigure paused for a while to make sure Shiranui wasn't about to object to her speaking up before continuing, genuinely curious about this next topic.
"Why don't the Fairies and humans work on building tank girls to fight the Abyssal War on land, if they're such good engineers?"
Shiranui lifted an eyebrow to consider the question alongside Shigure as the both of them consumed their meals through straws, and Shiranui's answer was to ask Shigure another question.
"What happens when you get a shipwright to build a tank or a plane?
It's not ideal, and since the disparity in technological prowess is far too great, the humans can't help out in the production process in order to produce full-fledged land combat units like tank girls.
The Abyssals have likely been on the case for a while before producing land combat units and Beasts, and we don't have the time or resources like they do when we're constantly on the defensive."
Shigure's sense of wonder was reined in by the realist that was Shiranui as she uttered despondently, after her imagination hit a brick wall that was reality and sharing one last stray thought with her pink-haired friend who took another sip of her meal.
"Oh, right.
Although now that I think about it, wouldn't it be more appropriate to have the tanks be reincarnated as boys or guys, because their cannon barrels would be best represented by a male's, you know…"
Shiranui's expression soured in slight disgust as she struggled to finish slurping her meal through her straw, and Shigure realized that it might not be best to talk about reproductive organs when her friend was sucking on a straw which doubled as a quasi-phallic object, and Shiranui echoed this sentiment as she retorted.
"I swear, the next time you have another one of these thoughts, I really need to find a bag to put over my head and tighten around my neck until I see the face of God.
Perhaps a vision of my deceased commander Miyasaka Yoshito would do, you never know with near-death experiences."
Shigure inhaled sharply as she turned to look at her friend, observing her friend's deadpan delivery of that line and allowing the awkward silence to linger between them for a good while to ascertain if she was kidding, and Shiranui had an excellent poker face even now as she cleaned herself up.
The Kagerou-Class destroyer leaning in close to whisper to her ear was something novel, though, and Shigure's curiosity was piqued by her curiosity in what Shiranui wanted to tell her.
"I need to do some digging around tonight.
I'll be dropping by your bunk tomorrow night in order to rendezvous and speak with you."
Shigure gave Shiranui a small nod in earnest, giving her an aside glance as she teased offhandedly.
"So it's a date, then."
Shiranui pulled back to give Shigure a weird look, prompting Shigure to rack her brains in order to find anything else to say,
"A tryst?"
Shiranui narrowed her eyes while pulling away from Shigure such that she was watching her out of the corner of her eye, coldly commenting.
"Don't you do this to me, Shigure.
I had one hell of a time quashing those rumors, and I don't need you to rekindle those rumors again with that kind of talk.
I have enough headaches as it is, so please, don't."
"Hmm."
Shigure reacted rather indifferently to that while feeling somewhat bemused upon seeing the stoic destroyer display an irked and even flustered look, but a part of her felt something upon seeing Shiranui react so adversely to the insinuation that they were indeed getting together.
It was a dash of sadness and a touch of…
Disappointment.
Shigure looked up as Shiranui got up from the canteen bench in order to dump the cup and straw in their respective bins, leaning in as she curtly whispered.
"Tomorrow night, 12 o'clock.
Your bedroom."
And she started to turn away before stopping in her tracks and comprehending the various ways one could interpret those words, leaning in close to give Shigure a hard stare, the 'We-both-know-I-didn't-mean-it-that-way-but-you-better-not-take-it-out-of-context-or-else" glare before silently storming away.
Shigure could only exhale sharply through her nose in amusement at Shiranui's plight while she heard Ma'am Jackie speak up over some sort of loudhailer,
"All ship girls of Amazon company are to wash up and be in their bunks by 10; lights out is at 11.
No need to respond, just eat up."
Everyone gave the faintest of nods as the next few hours went by in a blur, everyone shuffling in line to return the cups and discard the straws, wash up and go to sleep, and since it was easier in terms of logistics to keep them together, Shigure was assigned the same bunk as her 1st Fleet, something which no one complained about since they were now living and sleeping with familiar faces.
She heard everyone in her bunk remain dead silent as they changed into the military shorts and T-shirts which were provided by the army to be worn outside of duty hours, quietly hitting the bed and drifting off to sleep in a wink as Shigure did the same, her aching body finally able to cool down and relax as the soreness in her muscles faded away along with her consciousness -
PHEEETTT!
A shrill noise cut through the morning air and jerked Shigure out from her wonderful dream in which she was back in Yokosuka, and she was eating a wonderful parfait with everyone else in Mamiya's canteen.
It was such a delicious -
PHEEEEETTT!
This time, the whistle was blown close enough to her face for her to hear the plastic ball jingling about inside the whistle chamber, her eyes flying open to the sight of a furious Ma'am Jackie shouting in her face, a vein popping on her temple as she did so.
"OI, RECRUIT!
HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP?!"
Shigure leapt up three feet into the air due to the fright jump-starting her body into action, and she scrambled to wear her uniform and assemble in the parade square with her equally panicking comrades of the 1st Fleet while Jackie stormed out of the room, that infernal whistle sounding out throughout the bunk building the entire while.
She barely had the time to check her HUD,
'5.48 a.m.
4th May 2015'
Before she managed to stumble down the stairs along with an entire crowd sleepy and tired ship girls as they all made their way down while the crickets chirped under the cover of night.
Yelps and cries could be heard as Jackie made her way through the bunks and cleared everyone out with a sharp blow to her whistle, everyone clearly exhausted from yesterday's brutal training as they gathered in rows of four.
Some ship girls possessed unkempt uniforms while others had undone hair in contrast to Ma'am Jackie since she looked as impeccable as ever, stepping forward after she exited the stairwell in order to face them all with a tight smile as she greeted.
"Good morning, Amazon company!"
And upon hearing nothing but the awkward chirping of crickets in the nearby shrubbery, her smile was wiped off her face as her eyes sharpened their gaze in order to pierce their skulls with a smoldering glare while the temperature around her dipped, readying herself to shout at them again.
Everyone snapped to attention upon feeling her demonic aura gripping their hearts with unadulterated fear, yelling as one.
"Good morning, Ma'am Jackie!"
Her smile was instantly slapped back on her face, a genuine expression which could be controlled at will by someone disciplined enough to control her own emotions after living for so long.
"Very good.
Today's weather forecast was looking good yesterday, so I thought that we could do with some morning exercises and work up an appetite before breakfast."
An audible,
"Hah?!"
Was heard, everyone freezing up and preparing themselves to be reprimanded again, some of them even pulling back a little out of hesitation.
Ma'am Jackie raised her left finger as she opened her mouth to yell, but caught herself at the last second in order to stop herself, likely to prevent pinpointing the culprit and giving everyone a target to focus their disdain and frustrations on for the entirety of the training period, lowering her head to the point where Shigure was pretty certain not even the destroyers in the first row could see her hidden expression.
And finally, she lifted her head and made everyone stop breathing entirely out of dread, because what was plastered on her face was the nicest and brightest smile a Jintsuu could ever hope to display.
But no one was fooled for a second by her radiance as it was a saccharine smile which belied the shit-storm of scoldings and punishments that were no doubt being cooked up in her mind at this moment, and she knew that everyone knew what was likely going through her mind right now as she teased, her serene voice contrasting with her foreboding message of what was to come later.
"Well, I suppose flaring up at you all early in the morning isn't good for anyone, no?
I'll remember this ~ "
And Shigure liked to think that everyone was twitching and trembling because they all felt a collective chill run up their steel spines simultaneously at the sight of Ma'am Jackie appearing affable, almost outright seraphic on the surface while coming up with hellish and punishing exercises on the inside, and was waiting for the right time to drop it on them like a bag of bricks.
Shigure could only safely speak for everyone when she said that they would much rather do without the surprise and just be punished on the spot rather than be blindsided by it when they least expected it.
The day's training went by without any hiccups, and while Shigure was still fatigued, she could feel that little by little, her body was starting to learn how to handle the stress of both the physical and mental aspects to Ma'am Jackie's training, and so did everyone else.
Their bodies were quick to adapt to changing conditions, and Shigure could feel that the decreased fuel and steel servings was a sign for their bodies to learn to self-regulate its intake and maximize efficiency in order to improve their physical performance with less resources and rest.
The canteen was a lot more lively today as fewer ship girls collapsed from the strain of Ma'am Jackie's training, and today, most of them were scarfing down the meal which was tonight's dinner, porridge (surprisingly tasty by army standards) with cut up Chinese oil sticks and shredded chicken thrown in there, servings of scrambled eggs, peanuts and shaved steel along with a cup of fuel and being the cherry on top as even the destroyers were hungrily devouring their own servings after being worked to the bone.
There was little talk amongst them as usual, but the bulk of the JGSDF soldiers were present today as they ate their meals and spoke amongst themselves while sneaking in aside glances in their direction while the ship girls finished their sizable dinner servings and were starting to talk amongst themselves.
And wwhen Jintsuu walked in along with cooks pushing in freezer carts, everyone in the canteen was immediately silenced by her arrival, including the JGSDF soldiers who had likely felt the wrath of the light cruiser instructor sometime in the past.
Everyone silently listened out of fear, respect and curiosity at what was going on, the chilled smoke escaping the opened carts and slithering down along the sides of the freezer carts as Ma'am Jackie elaborated.
"You all performed brilliantly during the past two days, and I understand that some of you here might not be used to the sudden change in environment.
I don't exactly have anything resembling a welcome gift, but what I have is the money to buy everyone in this camp some ice cream as the 'surprise' as well as a reward of sorts…"
Everyone in the canteen stood up in order to hoot, cheer and clap at the thought of their dreaded Ma'am warming up to them on this exceptionally rare occasion, the spirited and clapping JGSDF soldiers clearly looking enthused about something more than just ice cream.
And Ma'am Jackie took out a cup of ice cream which was likely lime flavored due to its green wrapping, the light cruiser officer using her free hand to waggle an index finger at the watching JGSDF soldiers while a cheeky grin threatened to stretch out her taut cheeks.
"Ice cream cups, that is."
The male soldiers all let out a disappointed but clearly lighthearted,
"Aww…"
As they visibly deflated, and a few of the ship girls either looked amused or annoyed at the fact that the men would rather see them eat a Popsicle rather than a cup of ice cream, which they would have to suck on and swa ohhhhh.
That's why.
Shigure felt her face go beet red as she chanced upon that realization, and she kept her head down the entire time as she quietly got in line and queued up for her own serving of ice cream, sitting down with Ayanami as she peeled off the plastic cover while being equipped with a wooden spoon.
Ayanami, looking fatigued yet thankful for the resupply of ice cream, questioned why their instructor would be so nice to them, to the point where she bought ice cream for them while asking of nothing in return.
"Not to say that I'm ungrateful, but why get us all ice cream?
Is it some kind of morale booster of sorts?"
Shigure agreed with her supposed answer before asking another question,
"I suppose so.
Because while the land invasion is imminent and inching closer with every passing day, morale is also an important factor in keeping us invigorated and ready to fight a war.
I won't say that fighting spirit alone wins a war since it provides no sustenance to feed your troops, but I have to say that it wasn't a bad idea to spend some money in order to keep us well-fed and relatively happy instead of being constantly miserable, which would no doubt dampen our spirits and hamper our ability to fight back effectively.
I believe that the real question is, how is she capable of buying out several ice cream carts of ice cream?"
Ayanami shrugged as she dug into her cup of ice cream, citing a very possible reason on how the light cruiser would go about doing that.
"Well, she is long-lived, much like Akashi.
And a ship girl's lifestyle is honed to be very minimalistic since we rarely waste whatever we earn on superfluous items, which means that most ship girl veterans retire with way more money than they know what to do with.
It wouldn't surprise me if she's filthy rich like Akashi but doesn't even bother touching her fortune after being embroiled in war for so long."
Shigure hummed in agreement, following suit as she moved onto the next topic and asked about how Ayanami was doing, since she was a comrade and was someone whom Shigure wanted to be alright in any and every way possible, since Ayanami was going to be watching her back and risking her life out there alongside Shigure on the battlefield.
"So, how's life?
Aside from the hellish training we're subject to, of course."
Ayanami tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow, clearly not used to what she was subjected to as she gave an honest response.
"Not really.
The training's hellish, I understand that, but it's nothing that we didn't expect in the back of our minds due to our history, the role we're now expected to play and how soon we're expected to get good at it before the Abyssals invade us on land.
In other news, I feel strange, because living, eating and sleeping inland without the ocean being close to us feels like a ship that's stranded in the middle of the desert; we're out of our element here.
Maybe it's something which we'll get used to over time, but it feels strange, to know that there'll be no more chances for us to sortie on the seas ever again, and it's the antithesis of what a ship girl is, to not just be beached, but stranded in the middle of nowhere."
Shigure nodded, understanding how it might feel difficult for a ship girl to transition from a world filled with naval battles to that of land battles, and although being a sapient android helped to alleviate said feelings due to humans being flexible in the sense that they were capable of travelling via air, land and sea, their warship selves simply didn't see this as their 'rightful battleground' and felt like a fish out of water, perhaps in a more literal sense.
Also, she was very interested in how Ma'am Jackie chose to stick to a self-christened name instead of her old name, Jintsuu.
"Why is it that even in the presence of fellow ship girls, Ma'am Jackie responds to her second name Jacqueline or Jackie, and not Jintsuu?
I wonder if she wanted to leave her past along with her name behind that badly, after being conscripted into a world of land combat without her consent."
"It wouldn't be out of the question, that's for sure.
I mean, if your old name makes you remember those in your past who've been brought back to life but you're never gonna meet because of your career, why not make a new name in order to live a new life?
An understandable decision, especially since very few Japanese people, to my knowledge, are named Jintsuu, and might equate it to the warship more than the river her name was based on.
Perhaps a more commonplace name like mine, 'Ayanami' would be easier to explain away than say, Tenryuu, Aka 'Heavenly Dragon'."
Shigure nodded and accepted the reasoning behind how certain inconspicuous names would fly under the radar more easily than others, especially for ship girls with archaic or unusual names.
They both sat in silence for a while as they ate the free ice cream and enjoyed the sound of ship girls speaking with more liveliness in their voice than ever before, Shigure feeling a bit more at home in this kind of atmosphere, which was something to be treasured in the days leading up to Apocalypse.
She was all too aware of how war, especially when things got tough, would consist of extended periods of silence which would be punctuated by the occasional jet fighter flying overhead, the unloading of firearms, a tank its cannon firing or even the rare earth-quaking explosion in the distance, and while Shigure was prepared for it in the sense that she already knew what lay in store from here on out, she was still emotionally unprepared to accept the fact that there really was nowhere left to hide when the time came, that any hole they hid in would be blown to kingdom come by Abyssal jet fighters, that the enemy's steel tracks would mow down anyone who stood in their way and -
"Shigure!"
Ayanami's voice snapped the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer out of her thoughts, and she turned to look back at a concerned Ayanami as her expression was soured with anxiety, and although the Ayanami-Class destroyer's hair was cut and she was now missing her identifiable ponytail, her signature hair parting easily distinguished her from the rest of the destroyers, and she was now leaning in close as she expressed her genuine concern for Shigure's well being.
"You look like you just had a Vietnam flashback.
What's on your mind?"
Shigure realized that the shock and stress of the war was slowly taking its toll on her as it no doubt did to everyone else even if they didn't realize it right now, eroding away at their will and psyche day by day like drops of water chipping its way through a boulder.
Having someone else to lean on was a relief, as she would soon find out when she opened her heart to Ayanami.
"I don't know.
Maybe this is what it feels like to be claustrophobic, but I got this feeling that everything is closing in on us, and it's just going to get worse from here on out.
Previously, we all felt that the seas were where it was most dangerous despite being our domain, and while it wasn't our natural habitat, the land was our safe zone where we couldn't be touched.
Now, even that's gone, and having nowhere to run on sea, land and air while being boxed in from all sides and can't get out…"
Shigure couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine at the Abyssal horde swarming and encircling them like an endless army of ants before they were either taken out and killed in battle, or executed when captured, or even wor -
"Shigure!"
Ayanami had to shake her on the shoulder in order to derail her morbid train of thoughts, and Shigure suddenly felt more fatigued and on edge than ever before as she snapped her head to the side in order to look around, turning to look at Ayanami and focus on her face which helped to anchor her psyche.
She felt the fear, anxiety and paranoia threaten to overwhelm and break her like it did to Saratoga as she took slow, deep breaths in order to calm her nerves down and help ease the trembling which was staring to plague her body and was causing her to shake like a leaf.
Crushing the wooden ice cream paddle in her hands while placing the cup on the table in order to free up her hand, she looked away and guiltily shielded her eyes with her arms as she mumbled aimlessly, trying to convince both Ayanami and herself that she was alright.
"Just…
Just let me think…"
She attempted to rationalize away her fear and consider the scale of everything that was to come, Apocalypse, the fates of her sisters and comrades, Project Psyche, the hydrogen bombs, the Flying Dutchman, the incoming intensity and horror of land combat, the likes of which even her admittedly limited imagination failed to truly grasp…
Ayanami sidled up to her and wrapped a hand around her, and although she jumped a little at the surprise body contact, she leaned on Ayanami as the destroyer nameship utilized her 'older sister' instincts and persona in order to pacify Shigure.
"Maybe that's the problem, Shigure.
You think too much.
You're a strong girl, but you're still fallible and also a child who's been through so much in both lives.
It's completely understandable for you to feel scared, scared of dying, scared of losing it all on the battlefield, it's all understandable.
Right now, for tonight, please just relax.
Just relax…"
"But… But…
Everything's falling apart and closing in all around us… and…"
Her own thoughts began to swim in her own head, lowering her head onto her table as her overloaded mind started to slow down from the fatigue of thinking too much under physical and mental stress, and being a child in the midst of a war didn't help her one bit.
Ayanami soothed her anxiety with her voice, her voice a comfort to Shigure as a pseudo-sister ship on her own team as the name ship destroyer cooed.
"I know.
All too well.
But we're still here, and we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Whatever comes our way, we'll face it as a team, alright?"
Shigure's entire body was shutting down on its own accord, and the drowsiness which overcame her mind forced her to lose focus as she mumbled, seeing both the members of the Nishimura Fleet and her 1st Fleet in her mind as people who were dear to her in wholly different, yet equally important ways before blanking out.
"Got… it…
I… Protect every… zzzzzzzz…"
"Shigure."
The Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's eyelids pried open despite her body resisting her efforts and tempting her to go back to sleep as she heard her friend calling out to her, recognizing the location as her bunk and coming to the conclusion that someone carried her back to the bunk and helped her into a change of clothes before tucking her into bed.
And now, a stranger was crouched beside her, statue-esque and immobile as she wore the darkness like a blanket in order to hide the childish figure who was expertly hidden in the shadows, save for the lights illuminating the corridor through the glass window slats which highlighted her figure.
Shiranui had sneaked out of her own bunk in order to sneak past the duty night guards, and while it wasn't the hardest thing in the world to do when everyone was pretty much hibernating in order to conserve and recover their depleted stamina, but Shigure could see that the Kagerou-Class destroyer was adept at stealth as she positioned herself such that not a ray of light was able to shine upon her motionless figure.
Shigure wanted to call out to her friend, but she held her tongue and only sat up on her bed in order to acknowledge the fact that she was awake, and Shiranui finally allowed the light to shine on her stoic face in order to confirm her identity before elaborating on her situation.
"We have a situation.
You know how I infiltrated Admiral Mako's room in order to plant the bugs?"
Shigure nodded silently, and Shiranui's expression darkened in consternation as she continued, and if someone as composed as Shiranui was looking concerned about the situation at hand, it was serious, and Shigure sat up straighter as a result.
"Back then, I found that someone else had beaten me to the punch by bugging all of Admiral Mako's clothes before I did, and I crushed all but one in order to save it for future investigations.
Before we left for Camp Itazuma yesterday, I sifted through my own belongings and the secret safe which I use to store really private items from even my sister ships, and before you ask, no, I am not paranoid."
"What happened?"
Shigure was starting to anticipate the wave of dread which was about to hit her like a freight train, and the silence which Shiranui left her in made her wonder what was going on as she waited for the silent destroyer to continue the story.
"It was stolen from my safe.
Not even my sisters knew about my safe's existence, and it's gone.
Also, before you ask, it is virtually impossible for me to have lost it since it's such a vital clue, and also a lead to help me find whoever's responsible for this, however small it may be.
Unfortunately, aside from sneaking into Admiral Mako's bedroom in the dead of night, there were a few more opportunities for someone to do so, like the finished laundry which was left in straw baskets to be distributed to their respective owners long before the meeting, or someone who has access to Admiral Mako's bedroom slipping in and bugging them before I did, neither method being available to us back then.
The point is, even if we were to narrow down the list of possible culprits, there would still be too many ship girls to investigate into at a time like this."
Shigure narrowed her eyes as she echoed her own thoughts.
"So you mean that someone knows you bugged the Admiral's clothes?
But… wouldn't that mean that I would be the prime suspect, since I was the only one to know of your infiltration mission that night?"
Shiranui lifted a slightly derisive eyebrow, stating to her how the thought of an untrained destroyer pulling it off to be unthinkable.
"Very unlikely, although I haven't quite discounted the possibility.
If you already knew how to bug Admiral Mako's clothes and listen in on her, you wouldn't have come to me for help in the first place and raise my suspicion later on by breaking into my safe and retrieving the untouched listening device, and that isn't even getting into how you have absolutely no reason to know of my secret safe's existence before this.
To knowingly tip your hand like that would require a level of foolishness that's beyond even you."
Shigure lowered her head with raised eyebrows and half-lidded eyes, unable to say anything to counter Shiranui's points, but eventually focused her gaze to look back at Shiranui solemnly as she asked.
"Then what are we going to do about this?
Especially since we've lost our lead regarding this mystery person who intended to listen in on Admiral Mako's briefing like we did."
"For now, nothing.
I'll be continuing the investigation, but as a partner and someone whom I chose to confide in, I want you to be in on the loop, and act as a second pair of eyes for me.
With any chance, this mystery spy might act again when Apocalypse comes around."
"But is she with us or against us?"
Shiranui's expression creased in frustration at not having all the answers, and being forced to suspect all her ship girl comrades with an impending world war well on the way didn't help matters one bit, with only herself and Shigure being the only ship girls she could trust as of now.
"I don't know."