Author's Notes
Because the various ways to mark out dialogue is rather limited, from here on out, the Kyoka Suigetsu speech will stay as {this} while anything said in a foreign language will be written like this, with the nationality of the ship girl corresponding with the language used unless stated otherwise.
Also, double upload.
The Situation Room was in a panic in the early afternoon on the 12th of May as Admiral Mako considered the many movements around Chiba, noting how the ship girls and the remaining civilians from Tateyama further down South were moving North to Amazon Company's predicted pathing lines in order to reinforce their numbers.
Kamogawa was a coastal city which was flanked by a Southern ridge and hilled forests up top, and while they could simply make a run for the hilly Northern sectors and engage in jungle warfare right now, she wanted to make sure that their comrades down South were accounted for before doing so.
Right now, this siege in the Kamogawa City Hall was nothing more than to stall for time, and with the Kamo River being defended while a nearby river was used to sortie more ship girls, it was easier for Amazon company and the JSDF to make their stand there.
The elevated positions would allow the artillery and missile launchers to provide cover fire, and the river would be close enough for their battleships to accurately bombard the decisive siege area.
Getting in contact with Ashigara on the ground, she asked her darling cruiser about her current condition down there.
Sure, everything was going to hell, but no harm in asking how bad it was.
"Ashigara, dear?
How's it look like down there?"
"Oh, you know…"
" … just peachy."
Ashigara single-handedly fired her 14 Cm at an advancing Ho-Class light cruiser, causing it to go down as her shell penetrated its helmet and gave it a concussion at the very best, and a very bad case of dead at the worst.
The Abyssals were moving up the river which was supposed to lead them closer to the Kamogawa City Hall than the Kamo River did despite being as wide as a three-lane road, and the land-based Abyssals were trying to overtake this one river by flanking the adjacent lands and supporting the Abyssals sailing up the river, who were getting shot at from all sides as they were bottle-necked.
For the most part, their defense was holding up, hearing the sound of another sniper rifle going off and hitting a Tsu-Class Abyssal in the temple as it penetrated her helmet, spraying grey matter everywhere and downing her in order to topple a Wo-Class sailing up behind her.
Missiles were raining down on the Abyssals in the river while artillery was raining down on the buildings and roads which flanked the river in order to flush out the Abyssals and prevent them from getting into sniping positions, witnessing another casualty listed as,
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
MOGAMI-CLASS DESTROYER 101
"MOGAMI"
STATUS: DECEASED'
And she could hear Admiral Mako injecting some much unneeded snark into the battle, even though she was secretly reassured with the voice of her girlfriend speaking into her ear.
"Y-You know, I really don't like this sarcasm which I'm hearing right now, would you mind toning it down a little?"
"Oh, I'm sorry.
You wanna come down here and get your ass shot at with white-hot lead in my stead, I'd be more than willing to."
"Hey, you know me, darling.
I'd go down if I could, but I work better when I'm in a position to stay on top of things, and we both know it from our time together."
She lifted a deriding eyebrow in agreement at the suggestive statement as she fired off another salvo of torpedoes, suddenly feeling grateful that their torpedoes bothered to detect an enemy's presence before detonating, otherwise the ship girls on the front lines would be decimated by the torpedoes fired from the launchers of their own allies and enemies.
Yikes.
Someone must've spotted something she didn't, because another scream of,
"BRACE!"
Caused her to tense up and be ready to withstand or retaliate against anything which flew her way, another missile being shot out of the sky by the hail of Anti-Air fire which was provided by their own Anti-Air turrets or from the half dozen Type 87 self-propelled Anti-Aircraft guns which were unloading so many bullets into the air, they might as well be forming a wall of lead above them, and Ashigara nearly collapsed from the waves which it made from the ocean.
Another wave of Abyssals fell like wheat before a scythe, a metaphor which was somewhat accurate as they were now fighting in the part of the town which was used for wet rice plantation, several acres now cratered or filled with burning tanks, AFVs and APCs from both sides as they continued to duke it out on land, rumbling either in advance or retreat and unleashing a bolt of thunder or a hail of metal rain upon the opposing war vehicles.
Despite shooting fish in a barrel due to the narrow confines of the river maximizing the accuracy of their torpedoes, the reverse was also true since the ship girls on the shores were carting off ship girls who were either dead or dying, and as they retreated, the Abyssals advanced as they sailed over the corpses of their own kind, a Ri-Class stepping over the headless corpse of her doppelganger without any remorse or sentiment for a fallen comrade.
Damn, that was cold.
Ashigara was actually starting to fear for their lives if this continued, leaning towards Nagato as the slow battleship shrugged off the brunt of the shell damage in order for their carriers behind them to cover their retreat with dive bombers and fighter planes, shouting into her ear as she stretched her arm out underneath Nagato's armpit and fired her 14 Cm cannon all the while.
"Admiral Mako says that we need to retreat towards the Kamogawa City Hall!
From there, Amazon company and the JGSDF can cover us with rocket launchers and the like while we cover them with our cannons and planes!"
"Oh, sure, that's easy to say when these Abyssals are tripping over each other in trying to overrun us with their numbers!
They're practically clogging up the river at this pace!"
Ashigara ducked as a Ru-Class battleship fired a large-caliber shell at them, but Nagato, being the badass commander and battleship that she was, uttered a bestial battle cry as she lifted her gloved palm in order to give the shell the bitch-slap from hell,
"RRAAGHH!"
A shock wave was produced at the point of contact as Nagato slapped the large-caliber shell into the river with monstrous strength and drenched herself in the resulting splash of river water, her 41 Cm Twin Gun Cannon firing from both barrels in order to smash into the cannon column of the same Ru-Class battleship.
The success of this reckless action gave the Abyssals pause as they looked hesitant about confronting someone as powerful as that without proper backup in the form of the Princesses.
Dive bombers were making passes on their enemies regardless of whether they were on land or sea, payloads throwing up swaths of dirt in lieu of seawater as Ashigara was used to in order to take out the Abyssals' tanks, not that the Abyssals made that easy with their own self-propelled Anti-Air guns and missile launchers, Kaga highlighting this as she stated tersely.
"Our planes are getting shot out of the air by their own Anti-Air defenses.
It was a valiant attempt to overwhelm with aerial superiority when they landed, but it was a matter of time before they got this far by bringing human war vehicles in to secure the coasts.
Our best course of action is to to fall back."
"Agreed!
Fall back along this river in order to meet up with Amazon company at the Kamogawa City Hall!"
Ashigara continued firing her Anti-Air turrets in order to stave off dive bomber assaults who dropped bombs on them with varying levels of accuracy.
And if it was any consolation, any torpedo bombers who wanted a piece of the action had to come up front and center in order to drop their payload, and if the meandering route of this river didn't already throw off their aim, having to sail in no other direction than directly towards them allowed the ship girls to open fire with a shower of Anti-Air bullets, putting them down before they knew what hit them.
The Abyssals then halted their advance, most of their land and air vehicles circling around while the dive bombers and fighter planes swooped down in order to scare off the ship girls.
And for the most part, it worked.
The firefight still continued as Ashigara tanked a hail of 5 Inch shells shredding her clothes and drawing minuscule amounts of blood on her stinging skin, and neither side wished to relent or show their back to the enemy as Ashigara found the distance between them increasing meter by meter, and only did the Abyssal horde disappear behind another bend did Ashigara lower her cannons, although she was far from relaxed as she consulted the people looking down from above, noting the Abyssal planes and jet fighters retreating.
"Sparrow 4, is the enemy breaking off their advance?
This might be the precursor to an ambush, so we need you to confirm."
"Nope, looks like they're drawing the line here, although note that some of the land vehicles are still firing in your direction, so it's best to retreat and catch a breather like they are right now.
Today's going to have an unexpected bout of rain slated to occur in the late evening and into the night.
The Abyssal infantry and armored divisions will be back soon enough, though."
Despite the sound of the tank and artillery cannons barking out in the distance and slightly shaking up the river, Nagato and Ashigara's tensed up demeanor softened upon hearing that reassurance, leaning over in order to breathe heavily as she tanked no less than twenty two large-caliber shells and several hundred small-to-medium caliber shells.
She gave the slightly fatigued battleship a concerned sideways glance in order to check up on her, having fought beside her for more than half a decade and knew that Nagato was a hard worker who was willing to take hits so that no one else had to.
But this was taking it to a whole other level as she not only volunteered to be the meat shield for everyone, but had Admiral Mako not intervened, she would have also refused to allow any other battleship take over her place for her to rest and recuperate, placing undue stress on herself.
Damn it all.
Ashigara warily uttered in her mind as she lowered her handheld cannons while keeping them on hand in order to prepare for any curve balls thrown their way,
"Great.
A bout of rain grounding planes on both sides, that means that we need ship girls on the roof to send us the coordinates of our targets for shelling.
Shoukaku, radio in for Amazon company to have several Birdmen keeping watch from the rooftop of the City Hall in order to help us mark out targets!"
"Yes!"
Looking up at the gathering rain clouds as she coupled her cannons to her rigging, she wondered if this was really the end for them as slated to happen during Apocalypse AKA the end of days, shortly before holding up her palms in order to slap herself lightly and banish these thoughts, reaffirming her resolve and putting on her game face as she always did during sorties.
No weakness shown.
No quarter given.
"Hey."
Shigure blinked and flinched at the noise of a pair of fingers being snapped before her as she looked away from the darkening clouds casting a shadow over the ruins of the town, smoke ascending from the wrecked town towards the stormy heavens while the incoming rain must've jogged up some bad memories.
She looked up at a concerned Bismarck as she recalled how she had blanked out after trekking all the way to the Kamogawa City Hall and leaving a trail of Abyssal corpses behind them, and they were now taking a break as the Abyssals did after establishing a stronghold on the beach and the coastal areas, hopefully too busy with counting their dead to attack them in this heavily fortified building anytime soon.
She felt embarrassed at spacing out when someone was trying to get her attention, her body moving into action in order to entertain her superior.
Strangely enough, the fast battleship gently held her down by the shoulder in order to keep her seated, unbuckling her helmet and ruffling her shortened blonde hair in order to achieve that 'unkempt beauty' look which almost all ship girls were capable of, planting her down beside a hesitant Shigure.
Bismarck asked the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer with a palpable amount of concern lacing her voice.
"So.
What's bothering you?"
Shigure could only look at her with an idiot's expression on her face before breaking out in an awkward smile and cough, shifting her gaze away before looking back at Bismarck, who looked unamused as she deflected with a flimsy lie.
"Oh, nothing, really…
I was just lost in my thoughts - "
"Don't."
Bismarck leaned in close with a concerned expression layered behind stern eyes, who knew of loss and devastation and had come out stronger in spite of it.
"I don't know what it is about Japanese people or some ship girls in general, and I can't for the life of me understand what it is despite living here for so long, but I don't like it when people care about keeping up appearances for the sake of keeping them up.
You'll find that there'll come a breaking point where keeping them up does nothing and means nothing, and pride?
Honor?
Convention?
That all means nothing in the end when you're facing down the wrong end of a barrel, so tell me what's wrong.
Please."
Huh.
Although Bismarck carried herself around with a haughty air, it was clear from the company she kept and her turbulent past that she was different from many other Bismarck doppelgangers, and this was nowhere more evident than right now as the fast battleship continued, gesturing at her own face.
"You have that same look on your face, the one which many devastated ship girls have when things just get too rough for them, when they blank out and look at nothing.
I had that look once, when the world which was crumbling about me was smashed to bits by a wave of seawater 20 to 30 meters tall, so I of all people would know best that everyone needs someone else to lean on sooner or later, so please.
Allow yourself to lean on me."
Shigure's gaze then flitted about in order to check up on her comrades, watching ship girls awkwardly opening up to each other in order to be each other's therapists or at least as someone to confide in while the mentally resilient ship girls of Amazon company worked with the JSDF in order to prepare for the upcoming siege, a strange sight being Inazuma consoling a dispirited Chokai as a senior destroyer to a junior heavy cruiser.
Ma'am Jackie, strangely enough, was also sitting down beside a sobbing Maikaze, allowing the crying Kagerou-Class destroyer to lean on her and cry her heart out while bringing a comforting arm around the child's hunched and curled-in shoulders, looking to be a tough-love parent being there for her child when it really mattered, stoic and unsure of what to do in times like these, but her powerful presence was all that she provided and all that mattered when they were fully embroiled in a world war.
Bismarck followed her gaze in order to look at their instructor with Shigure, playing with her hair as she commented.
"Mrs. Commander…
She's still a good person, it's just buried underneath all that pessimism and self-loathing she holds for herself for not saving enough of her comrades."
Shigure sort of saw it coming a mile away since Jintsuu's inner niceness couldn't be beaten out of her much like Akashi's, as the medic always made an effort to help repair and patch others up, even going out of her way to talk to troubled ship girls like how she had that talk with Shigure shortly after coming to Yokosuka, and after her reckless performance at Mikura Jima Island which resulted in her first death.
Shigure exhaled as the fatigue rolled off her shoulders just as her breath left her lungs, feeling quite overwhelmed about having to fight on land for real.
Things were moving too quickly for her, and the stress of such prolonged conflict really tired her out along with the juggling of priorities as she struggled to keep track of the Abyssals, J.O.A.N. units and keeping herself and her team alive while the Abyssals piled on the pressure.
And the pointlessness of it all…
"It's just…
Resisting feels so pointless at this point in time, and I know that we can't just roll over and die, it'd go against our nature as weapons to stop fighting and give in, but…"
"But you wonder if you can keep fighting on in the face of standing to lose everyone and everything just like you did before?"
Shigure looked up in surprise, and Bismarck looked down at her understandingly as she elaborated.
"Forgive me, but your reputation precedes you, Shigure.
And might I hazard a guess as to how you feel, to wonder if what little that's left at the end of this war is worth everything we've lost.
Is that it?"
Hanging her head, Shigure felt a little down after surviving the bulk of today's fighting, and to think that she'd have to keep fighting tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that day…
Not that she was going to give up, oh no.
She just wanted to rest, Bismarck resting a weary palm on her shoulder as she spoke.
"It's alright to think like that every once in awhile, especially when considering how much resources and reserves the Abyssals possess.
Just let it all out, and we'll talk about it."
To talk…
No.
She needed to think.
She wanted and needed something else to think about, and she looked to Bismarck in order to ask for that something in the form of what Bismarck thought about the topic at hand, perhaps incidentally being the right person she needed to hear from right now due to her troubled past, both distant and recent.
It'd help her understand a comrade better and distract her from the hell which she was well and truly stuck in now.
"Actually, I think I'd want to hear you have to say, Bismarck-san.
If you start talking, I can focus more on your words and less on what I'm currently going through, and it works even better if you want to express your opinion, because it gives me another perspective with which to see things."
"Hmm, I suppose for a precocious little girl like you, it might work better this way.
In which case…"
The German's expression became contemplative as she reviewed her entire life experience thus far, her shifting gaze an indicator of deep thought before speaking up again.
"I suppose I could share with you a drug-induced hallucination which I had some time ago, and how it helped to tide over a bout of depression which I had after feeling the same way."
"Alright, lay it on me."
Bismarck gave her a look in order to make sure that she was alright with just listening, and Shigure's inquisitive eyes must have convinced her, because she looked down at her boots and began.
"Back in about '12, I had another existential crisis as to what we were really fighting for much like your current predicament, and Akitsu Maru suggested that I take some drugs in order to find my answers as a last resort."
And in response to Shigure's disbelieving eyebrow raise which spoke volumes about such a dubious method of 'finding answers', Bismarck replied,
"Well, sometimes you need to see things from a different point of view, and although I don't advocate drugs at all, I will admit that drugs sometimes help if used correctly.
And as super-soldiers with heightened withdrawal resistance and are always stuck in trauma-inducing combat, it's not out of the question to use it every once in awhile in order to take the edge off.
When I used it, I couldn't remember the specifics of the initial high due to everything being a blur right then, but eventually, I ended up at what I thought was the end of the world."
Shigure's attention was piqued as she leaned in and grabbed onto every word which flowed out of the German battleship while building a mental recreation of her drug-induced world, Bismarck looking more and more invested in sharing her revelation with the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
"But then I realized that it wasn't the end of the world, but rather it's start.
Imagine it.
A world consisting of dirt hills and boiling water flowing everywhere, along with dusty-brown, overcast skies above us and stretching out for miles.
An orange sun illuminating the clouds as they rained lightning down from above while dust storms rage on the surface, volcanoes and fissures vomiting out red-to-white lava, and with it, the belching of gases and ash not unlike a smoker's drag of his cigarette and the exhalation of smoke.
Of course, as a disclaimer, it's all a drug trip, so I really don't think it'll be scientifically accurate in any sense of the word."
Getting that disclaimer out of the way, the German battleship continued.
"It was complete death on our world back then, but not in the sense that beings have left this earth, but that feeling that no one was ever there in the first place, and that desolation, that nothingness, that sticks with you for life.
It's like getting that chilling feeling of utter emptiness at Auschwitz and Dachau, which I've been to, but even worse with the lack of birds chirping and fauna rustling.
Not because of a massive reaping of life back then, but a complete absence of it before life began."
Shigure saw that Bismarck's expression became heavy upon using such locations for comparison, but it was a burden she had likely learnt to live with some time ago as she continued, her MINIMI machine gun lazily laid on her shapely lap with the safety on.
"I was aware of everything around me.
Every building block of life, every molecule in the air around me, in the dirt, water and air struggling to piece themselves together in the right positions in order to even begin the process of performing simple chemical reactions, all without being conscious of what they were doing, like…
Like solving a Rubik's Cube without being conscious of what you're doing, it's all rather difficult to translate things like these into words.
In the end, when the first microorganisms put themselves together by sheer luck and by virtue of trying so many times, like pulling at the lever of a slot machine a trillion trillion times and coming up with three '7's a million times in a row, instead of dying out in an environment which was still far from what you'd call habitable even after stabilizing considerably after this planet's formation, that little microorganism instead did the opposite.
Struggle and struggle, and in the end, multiply, survive and thrive."
Bismarck seemed as though she were relieving the initial awe of her experiences all over again, and Shigure certainly felt herself get swept up in the intellectual fervor of this seemingly meaningful hallucination as she continued.
"In that drug-induced vision, the simplest life form, without possessing a mind or anything resembling a consciousness, struggled to overcome everything the world threw at it as it was surrounded by the nothingness that was death.
And instead of returning to the void from whence it came, it chose to fight the status quo and fill this once-barren planet with life."
Shigure was now entranced by the drug-induced hallucination which Bismarck experienced as it all seemed so symbolic of something just beyond her grasp, gulping before daring to ask the Bismarck-Class battleship about it all meant, since she certainly had the time to ponder over its true meaning.
"W-What do you think it all meant?"
Bismarck now looked far older and wearier than she normally did after letting all her experiences and thoughts out, her shortened blonde hair making her look radically different from her usual ship girl self as the German explained.
"I think that you might probably be right that all of this might be meaningless, the fact that we're all going to die in the end being quite probable.
But, I don't think that just because we die in the end, it means that we should throw in the towel, roll over and die before allowing the Abyssals to make fertilizers of our corpses or whatever."
A slightly revolting idea, but one which had some merit as Shigure pushed that thought out of her mind with great effort in order to focus on Bismarck's discussion on her own ideology.
"Life's always been a struggle and an uphill climb, to stay on top of the game and try to climb up the food chain or the social ladder, surviving whatever it is that comes our way or even just trying to get through the daily grind.
Some have it harder than others, of course.
But we owe it to ourselves to keep fighting to the end, to give meaning to our struggle and make the Abyssals remember that we went down fighting to the last man in order to ensure the continued existence of ship girls and humans alike."
Bismarck lowered her head and cast a shadow over her expression, but the look in her eyes was anything but defeated as she shared.
"After the Indian Ocean Tsunami and after the drug hallucination, I sincerely believe that there's really no inherent meaning or value to life, and that hallucination exemplifies that since life itself was created as a result of getting lucky.
But if that's so, then why are we still here and not offing ourselves or sitting around, holding each other's hands and waiting for the end?"
Bismarck's eyes were now shining, looking more alive and expressive than she'd ever been as she was now revealing her ideology and part of her way of thinking to Shigure, something which the German had no obligation to do but wanted to do so in order to both help give Shigure some peace of mind and to distract her from what she just experienced.
And it worked.
"Because we give the experience of life, and by extension, the struggle to survive some semblance of meaning, and because of that, we can and will resist the imminent threat of death with all our might simply because we can.
Because we're still here, still living, still fighting.
Sure, when the cannons and guns stop ringing, and the missiles stop falling after the last ship girl falls, just like in that drug-induced world before life sprang into existence, sure, there'll be nothing save for complete silence reigning supreme once more.
But until then?
It's going to be loud."
Shigure exhaled upon hearing the verbal affirmation of Bismarck's convictions to keep fighting on, and she saw that despite the German battleship's horrific past weighing down on her conscience, she still soldiered on nonetheless simply because it was what she was made to do.
The German was strong, to do that even after living for so long and surviving traumatizing experiences which might have broken the minds of lesser ship girls, and she could see past and discard any notions of misplaced pride in her country and battleship skills by virtue of having them beaten out of her.
Beaten down, but certainly not defeated.
The battleship was now on a roll, and the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer, subconsciously wishing to focus on Bismarck's voice and learn of her convictions in order to drown out the dire situation at hand, was now fully invested in Bismarck's monologue.
"The Abyssals' form of peace is built upon the death of all mankind.
But death isn't peace.
Peace requires a constant effort to maintain, and requires a lot of communication and bonds to be able to connect and live with one another, but it's certainly not found in death.
Death's just a dead end, and seeing what we reincarnate into, our afterlives really aren't a better alternative.
But…"
Bismarck looked a little conflicted about something or another, but what she was about to share with Shigure showed that she didn't wish to avoid whatever it was as she looked towards the sky, instead choosing to learn from those who experienced a historical tragedy but sadly didn't survive it despite leaving behind words of wisdom.
"I'll share this quote with you.
'It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death.
I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions.
And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.'"
Shigure inhaled sharply the instant she realized where that quote came from, and she could only utter in astonishment,
"An Anne Frank quote?"
Bismarck looked into Shigure's eyes with a sagely smile on her face and nothing but warmth flowing from her kind eyes as she elaborated.
"Yes.
I know that I can't run from my past, but I really don't want to run anymore, not unlike what Akitsu Maru still does, and I still try to help her with that even now.
And I know that things may seem bleak now, but like President Miller said, this storm will pass, as it always does.
Looking up at the sky, that's what I reassure myself with in order to find it within me to make a stand, to expand all my strength into making tomorrow a little better for everyone else."
Shigure looked up at the darkening skies outside the windows as she now was lost in her own thoughts, thinking about her own namesake and how it was related to the issue at hand.
The rain of shells, payloads, missiles and even of blood and ash, no matter how loud and intense, will end eventually, and when the skies cleared up and the clouds parted, the daybreak which shone down upon them was what she yearned for.
What she fought for.
Yes.
Preferably not what she'd die for, though, she had learnt the hard way that dying was bad in every way, because like Akashi and Bismarck said, it was a dead end where nothing else could be done.
Bismarck seemed to understand that Shigure had come across an epiphany of some sort, giving her a sentimental look as she asked.
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
" … I think so, yes."
"That's good then.
I suppose there's one last thing I can do for you…"
Shigure was brought in close for a hearty hug courtesy of Bismarck as the coarse fabric of their army uniform and her bra failed to hide the German's large bosom, Bismarck's soft and heavenly breasts threatening to smother her alive as she felt her oxygen supply get cut off while she struggled in vain against her comrade's overwhelming physical strength, despite the German battleship holding back in order not to break her.
Feeling around before lightly tapping Bismarck's hugging arm, she felt her darkened vision start to swim while her lungs burned from the deprivation of precious oxygen as the battleship's mammary glands pressed on her face like a fleshy pillow, and it took another two full seconds before Bismarck eased up on the hug and allowed her to haul her head out of the German's right breast, her mouth forming an 'O' while she inhaled through her nose and mouth in order to savor the air soothing the stinging sensation in her lungs and chest.
Doubling over in order to breathe in deeply, Bismarck's tone was now remorseful as she leaned in to apologize sincerely,
"Oh, I'm sorry!
Did I put too much force into that hug?"
But Shigure held up a hand to reassure Bismarck that this wasn't really her fault, and the intentions behind the hug was all that really mattered to her.
"Oh, no, no.
That was quite the passionate hug, and I needed that.
It's just…"
Although she recalled Hiei doing the same to her like one would with a security blanket back during Ma'am Jackie's briefing before the twin nuking of the USA and President Miller's World War 3 address, and seeing how this hug also almost asphyxiated her, she did not want to go out in this fashion.
Not because it didn't feel good (which it most assuredly did), but it was especially humiliating after considering everything she lived through, blushing a little at the thought as she elaborated.
"If these kinds of hugs are going to be a recurring thing, I think that an investment in snorkels or breathing apparatuses would be a real lifesaver, lest I get smothered into unconsciousness by another one of these hugs.
Or worse still, keeping my helmet on at all times lest I get knocked out cold by anyone's pair of melon-sized knockers slamming into the side my head or whatever."
Bismarck gave her an exasperated smile as she clapped a hand on her shoulder and commented dryly.
"Girl…
When you say things like that, you're really tempting the heavens to make fun of you by making it all come true."
Shigure considered how the world now seemed as if it was starting to regard her as its new chew toy (although her meddling, nosiness and inquisitiveness didn't make it entirely unwarranted), and this time was no different with her 'disaster luck' keeping her from dying, getting into a thinking pose as she seconded the notion.
"Shit, you might be onto something here.
Note to self, stay away from well-endowed teammates and closer to flat-chested ones…"
Before she felt the kevlar vest which she was wearing, and considering how she felt Bismarck's bosom through her uniform and bra instead of hard kevlar, she looked up with a confused look as she inquired.
"Wait, why aren't you wearing body armor, Bismarck-san?"
Bismarck's look changed to become slightly bashful about why, looking down at her own chest and explaining.
"Well, we battleships can stand to take a few more scrapes than the other classes, and I lent mine to Haruna-san when we battleships were short of a few, Musashi and I deciding to take the bullet for everyone else.
Don't tell anyone else this, though, because the more everyone else tries to protect us once they learn of this, the more it'll call attention to us rather than mixing in with everyone else and taking a few bullets that'll only sting more than anything else."
She agreed with the logic even if she still disagreed about going onto the battlefield without proper protection, but they had to come to a compromise in the situation they were in, and she was a little destroyer while Bismarck was a mighty battleship, so she could only nod and express her concern for Bismarck's well-being.
"I don't want you to go, Bismarck-san.
Not after Naka-san sank, and how she might have been turned into one of them…"
But Bismarck reassured her as she pulled Shigure in close in order to only lean on her bosom this time, commenting.
"Yes, dear.
Nobody wants to go, but things happen whether we want to or not, and many of them lie beyond our power to influence or prevent."
Power…
Yes, she needed more power to be able to protect more people.
Project Psyche, Tenryuu, Tatsuta…
There was no more time for her to dawdle.
Her Kai Ni remodel was still a ways away, and Project Psyche would provide her with the power boost needed before her second remodel helped to make her even more powerful.
If it didn't kill her first.
Tenryu and Tatsuta were both caught in a Catch-22 situation right now, where they were likely ordered to conceal their powers due to their inexperience in using them in order to combat New Wave J.O.A.N. units, but without adequate time to train or the chance to engage the J.O.A.N. units in combat, they remained inexperienced in their usage of their own powers.
One of the possible ways for them to escape this conundrum was to have more ship girls participate in Project Psyche in order to bolster their numbers in combat, because the fact that the Abyssals had several J.O.A.N. units while they only had two was ultimately what forced them hide their powers lest they get overwhelmed.
Time to make her next move, then.
Junyou was sitting with Zuikaku along with one other bird carrier and a heavy cruiser in the top floor of the Kamogawa City Hall as dark clouds floated over the town at around 6.34 p.m., sniper rifles close by as they scouted the area with military binoculars, Junyou's gaze roving over the abandoned medical center across the road which was raided for medical supplies before being booby-trapped to hell and back by the submarines, just like most of the buildings around them.
Zuikaku's surveying sector was overlooking the nearby river where the military battery was firing on sporadically in order to help the recuperating ship girls and soldiers stall for time, with portable rocket launchers hauled up onto the roof for the carriers to use should the Abyssals return.
While the threat of rain discouraged any further planes on either side from taking off, another assault was entirely possible, and any armored vehicles were to be taken out with these rocket launchers and with help from both the ship girls in the river and from the battery located further up North, covering their position from a junior high school.
Junyou was using the radio's private chat function in order to be heard over the breezing wind and the occasional explosion in the distance as she looked at a pigeon soaring through the skies, thinking out loud about what the enemy might do next.
"You know, what do you think might happen if the Abyssals drop a MOAB on us?
Those Americans really love their explosions, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Abyssals, being good ol' copycats, had one manufactured to be dropped on us right now and we all go poof into the air right now."
"Well,"
Zuikaku was certainly not enjoying how Junyou was nonchalantly predicting their doom in order to pass the time if her vexed tone was any indication, pointing out how unfeasible that would be as of now.
"To my knowledge, that bomb is heavy, and they'd need a big and thus slow military transport aircraft for that, which our military can likely detect and shoot down in our airspace.
Not that they'd bother with that when they have jet fighters which can make a break for our location, fire everything and retreat and do as much damage to us with higher odds of success.
Besides, it's about to rain heavily, I don't think any plane's taking off in that weather."
Junyou only let out a bored,
"Hmm. Ok."
To which Zuikaku silently ground her teeth in annoyance, but she had already abandoned that morbid train of thought as the Hiyou-Class light carrier teased.
"Say…
Are you looking down at Kaga's clothing-damaged form right now?
You do have the equipment and the right excuse to do so, you know?"
"You know that at this distance, I can give you a mini-concussion by throwing these military binoculars at your head, right?"
"And pay for them out of your paycheck?
For someone like me, dear, definitely not worth it.
But admit it, you thought about it when I suggested it, didn't you?"
Zuikaku's fuming silent treatment was what she received, Junyou completely understanding that the carrier displaying the bristling side to her personality was a reaction to the paradigm shift of a world war, turning to Saratoga as the carrier still hesitantly held her rifle despite looking somewhat eager to contribute to the fight, attempting to strike a conversation with the friendly yet subdued USN carrier in order to lighten the mood without distracting them from their duties.
"So, Saratoga-san?
How about you?
Moving from being a fish-out-of-water carrier in Yokosuka to camping in the middle of a bombed-out town in World War 3, how're you holding out?"
Saratoga still looked rather dispirited about the drastic turn of events, but her compassionate nature still shone through as she gave her response.
"Well, it's all moving too fast for someone like me to keep up with, and I still don't know what to think about it all, especially since we were still in Yokosuka two weeks ago.
But…"
Clutching the military-issued sniper rifle in her hands, Saratoga's gaze hardened as she looked into the distance, everyone looking at her and listening with rapt attention.
"What I do know is that this weapon is what will change everything, and all superfluous thoughts are unnecessary in order to wield it effectively.
The battlefield's changed, but what we're fighting for hasn't changed in the slightest, and in order to protect you all, I won't hesitate to step up as a USN carrier who's fighting for more than her country now."
Junyou was surprised at the carrier's conviction to protect them, but considering her heart-of-gold-fist-of-steel personality and how she cared for them all despite being a soft-spoken carrier who had no reservations about putting her foot down and playing rough in order to protect those dear to her, she really should've seen it coming.
She then heard the radio crackle before a JASDF pilot spoke up on the other end.
"Amazon company, this is Sparrow 3 heading back to base in order to refuel after performing our bombing runs and to avoid getting rained on.
We're detecting a good number of enemy signatures headed your way on the fringe on our radar.
Birdmen, recommend you tighten your surveillance in the South by SouthEast direction in order to catch them in the radars on your fighter planes before the rain falls and the sun sets, over."
"Copy that."
Shoukaku's voice sounded out over the radio as the nameship carrier spoke up.
"Amazon company, this surprise bout of rain is going to interfere with us carriers' ability to sortie our bombers, so all airstrikes are unavailable for now.
It's up to the JSDF up North to cover you all with battery fire.
Please be on the lookout for any Abyssals moving in your direction through the ruins of the buildings."
Junyou looked back at Zuikaku, who also pulled back from her binoculars in order to give her a look as they moved into position along with Kinugasa and Saratoga as the designated Birdmen who kept watch from above, Junyou now mumbling.
"You know, it might be a bit late for this, but I suppose it's now or never."
Before uncapping a flask in order to take a sip of her beloved alcohol, knowing her own limits as she felt the warm and bitter taste of the familiar nectar sliding down her throat.
A hand pulled her baby from her, Zuikaku now holding the flask in her hand as she looked back at an irked Junyou.
"What?
Is it a crime to drink when on the job?"
"No.
The real crime here is not sharing."
Zuikaku threw her head back and took a swig of her flask, coming back down with a hearty exhalation as she wiped her mouth and passed it to Kinugasa, who followed suit.
Her heart ached at the sight of someone else drinking her alcohol, but seeing how Saratoga, being so silent after watching the falling nukes and being through a grueling training regimen at Camp Itazuma, looking better as her cheeks colored a little from the shot of alcohol, it wasn't too bad of a loss.
Junyou lifted the flask, only to find it now devoid of alcohol while Kinugasa piped up with a warning as she diligently continued looking for the enemy along with Zuikaku,
"Watch out.
I spot several tanks making a beeline for us, but I'm not sure about how many Abyssals are hiding in the ruins.
They may be camouflaged, because all I'm seeing are moving shadows."
Lifting up her binoculars while leaning over in order to grab her rifle, Junyou spotted some shadows slipping through the skeletal wreck of collapsed houses and the upturned bodies of vehicles in the backdrop of the orange setting sun, and any doubt was erased as she spotted a Ta-Class battleship, wearing a black poncho to camouflage and hide their albinism when moving through the darkness, holding out metal detectors as they advanced.
Calling out anxiously,
"Check the shadows again, girls.
They're wearing black to blend with the shadows and are using metal detectors, take them out if you can.
Amazon company, got that?"
Which she got several replies of,
"Got it!" or,
"Acknowledged."
Kinugasa was now passing out ponchos in order for them to keep themselves dry as another peal of lightning preceded an ever present rumble of thunder around them, and Junyou kept her binoculars on the Abyssal horde in the distance while she donned the poncho by draping it over her head.
The Abyssals were still too far away to be of any threat while their war vehicles were keeping their distance, likely waiting for the rain to fall before attacking, since the range of their vision would be heavily reduced by then.
And right on cue, someone up in the sky decided that now was the best time to rain on their parade just as Junyou finished that thought.
The rain hit them like a curtain of water, Junyou squinting as she looked down the scope of her M24 SWS while her poncho did an abysmal job of protecting her against the rain, Kinugasa standing back from the bird carriers and standing guard with her Howa Type 89 assault rifle.
Junyou heard the crack of a rifle going off next to her, and Saratoga must've spotted an enemy in her sights, because she called out.
"Everyone, we've got trouble.
The Abyssals are headed our way, and there seems to be a whole lot of them, likely about two hundred foot mobiles advancing with their armored vehicles!"
"Birdman, we need you to mark out targets for us, otherwise we're firing blind here!"
Nagato's voice sounded out over the radio with grainy static in the background due to the rain, and Junyou zoomed in with her military-grade binoculars, straining to spot the enemy vehicles in the distance before clicking a button on the binoculars in order to highlight two spots on its HUD reticle, Nagato then calling out,
"Coordinates received!
Firing now!"
Before a barrage of artillery, cannon shells and missiles lit up the dark graveyard of a town before them.
One artillery shell punched through a tank off in the distance as the ensuing explosion, though dwarfed by the fireball caused by the missiles, was enough to illuminate several nearby Abyssal foot soldiers being thrown off their feet.
Not that the armored vehicles made it easy for them to hit as they zigzagged erratically and swerved out of the way of incoming barrages, although the latter caused several vehicles and medium tanks to flip over on their side as they were thrown off by the blast wave, Abyssals climbing out of them either to flip them back into an upright position with their superhuman strength or to distance themselves from their vehicles, lest another barrage do them in.
The Czech Hedgehogs placed on the roads were effective at slowing them down, and even though the Abyssal battleships could simply walk up to them and toss them aside with relative ease, occasionally, landmines planted around them went boom, Abyssal went everywhere.
Despite their metal detectors decreasing the casualty count, several Abyssals were still triggering the booby traps with their distinct signatures as the cautious approach slowed down their advance, the three bird carriers now more concerned with putting as much lead downrange as possible just as Amazon company was starting to do the same in the building levels below them in order to stop the advance of the Abyssals.
Not that they didn't take any damage on their side as an incoming rocket was fired from the shoulder of a Wo-Class before being downed by Zuikaku, someone shouting over the radio,
"BRACE!"
Before the entire building shook from the explosive impact along with the symphony of window panes shattering, Nagato asking anxiously while her deafening cannons fired in the background.
"Amazon company!
Is everyone alright?"
"Everything's not alright!
Kiyoshimo, Kinu and Yahagi are down, and several more are wounded!"
"Then evacuate them!"
Mutsu barked out on the radio, being large and in charge while several voices sounded out and the chaotic rhythm of disorganized machine gun fire could be heard.
"Go out the back, and use the vehicles we managed to procure from the nearby auto shops!
Drive inland before crossing the river and getting in touch with the medics, the nearby bridge has been demolished in our retreat!"
Junyou looked through the scope of her M24 sniper rifle and was lining up another shot in order to take out a Tsu-Class cruiser hiding behind a blue sedan, but she heard a simple,
"Rocket, out!"
Over the radio right before a rocket breezed into her view through the sniper scope and annihilated the sedan, and hopefully the Tsu-Class too as Junyou pulled up and peeked back at Kinugasa as she held a smoking Panzerfaust 3 propped on her shoulder, stepping down from the roof's elevated edge platform in order to load the next rocket.
Zuikaku was firing her rifle at the Abyssals who were covering the advancing faction's movements, Junyou almost being counter-sniped as spotting a flash of an Abyssal Wo-Class's scope was all the warning she needed to duck for cover, the concrete shortly below her position powdered by the bullet which impacted it.
She let out a curse,
"Goddammit!"
Her army uniform was getting drenched from head to toe, and the poncho did jack shit in attempting to keep her dry due to the rain soaking into her poncho and through her army uniform, and even though her boots were designed to prevent water from getting trapped inside like buckets, her socks and feet were still thoroughly soaked due to a lack of roof cover.
Zuikaku shouted into Junyou's ear in order to be heard as Abyssals took pot shots at them in order to avoid being dealt death from above while Saratoga called down another JSDF battery barrage with her binoculars,
"This isn't ideal!
We need to get off this roof before they start trying to blow us to kingdom come with mortars or rocket launchers!
Get some Amazon company ship girls down there and push them beyond mortar-firing range!"
[Hello.]
The four of them whirled around in order to point their weapons at whoever said that, but the presence of an Abyssal standing behind them while evading their detection until that moment shocked them into a second of silence as her signature suddenly popped up on their radar, staring at a caped Yuubari in the downpour as it drenched both parties.
She raised both her gloved hands as lasers mounted on her fingertips emitted red dots which danced on their bodies while something within the gloves whirred at an increasing pitch and caused the gloves to glow, her luminescent eyes crackling with lightning while electricity streaked from her pupils as the four of them were now spooked enough to start pulling the trigger on their firearms.
Too late.
Lightning jumped from the light cruiser's glove like coiled snakes riding along invisible laser beams towards them while letting out thunderous roars like the world's loudest firecrackers going off in their faces.
And soon, all four of them were being electrocuted and let out bloodcurdling screams from the bottom of their roasting lungs while their firearms were accidentally discharged due to the coursing electricity causing their trigger fingers to spasm, Junyou collapsing onto the slick floor while her body failed to respond to any command prompts coming from her frazzled mind.
There were no more sensations coming from her supine body as her brain stem was disconnected from her spinal cord to prevent brain damage, and the rainwater hitting her burn wounds caused her flailing body to writhe about on the ground unconsciously, twitching wildly as muscles likely contracted and squeezed at random while wisps of smoke wafted from her charred body in order to obscure her view of the approaching light cruiser.
Yuubari waltzed into Junyou's bloodied field of vision as the paralyzed light carrier did everything in her power to do anything in a fight-or-flight response while damage assessment reports popped up on the side of her tearing, static-y HUD, and only after giving them a cursory glance did she realize that she was now at the complete mercy of the enemy.
She heard Nagato's voice come in to ask for their status.
"Birdman, I saw something happening up on the roof, what's your status?"
'The bloody enemy snuck up and tased us, that's what!
Help!'
But despite being unable to even speak, the bright idea which struck her was to turn her mental radio on and off three times quickly, then three extended intervals and thrice again in quick succession, the wary Nagato-Class battleship now shouting into the radio in outright panic upon recognizing the SOS signal.
"Amazon company, there's an enemy up on the roof, and it's taken out the bird carriers keeping watch up there!
Tenryuu, Tatsuta, get up there, now!
Everyone else, the building is compromised, evacuate the City Hall!
We'll cover your escape!"
And above her, a tubular handheld tool extended from the shadows of Yuubari's cape in order to heat up into an unholy, luminescent red before her while Yuubari's ghostly-blue, electrified eyes stared down at her, Junyou starting to fear for her life as she could only look up dumbly, mentally pleading, begging and wailing for anyone to save her in a fit of desperation while she outwardly remained mute in spite of all her efforts to scream for help.
The light cruiser, once belonging to their naval base, now lifted her lightsaber in an executioner's pose, devoid of any remorse or satisfaction in her own actions, and in Junyou's panicking mind, she briefly wondered if she was going a wee bit mad from hysteria as she giddily thought to herself.
'Oh, come on.
Not even an "Off with your head"?
Well, I at least deserve to get a post-mortem Bond one-liner, right?
How about 'Don't lose your head'?
Heehee…'
And just as she saw the lightsaber swing down and leave a brilliant afterimage in order to form an arc which was aimed somewhere close to her head, she saw a familiar Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's face peeking out the stairwell which led up to the roof, thinking to herself,
'Shigure!
Help -'
Before her vision started to roll as though she were trapped in a washing machine, the last thought running through her mind being,
' - me… '
As Shigure's eyes widened in abject horror shortly before the Hiyou-Class carrier blanked out.