'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
HIYOU-CLASS LIGHT CARRIER 066
"JUNYOU"
STATUS: DECEASED'
Shigure dumbly stared around the corner as a mop of drenched purple hair was sundered from her main body and rolled about on the floor, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer no longer breathing as she stepped out into the rain in order to confront what appeared to be the Devil herself.
Black wing ornaments which covered her ears and sideburns before tapering at the tips…
An onyx black cape stretching down from her shoulders and making her appear larger-than-life, with her luminescent and ghoulish-red lightsaber smoking from the raindrops vaporizing upon hitting it…
Her beheaded comrade was lying there as her corpse and uniform was smoking with burns of varying degrees, while blood which was spurting from her white-hot neck like a severed artery and was starting to pool…
Casualties lying all around the Abyssal cruiser, all their gazes straining to ward off Shigure's shakily approaching figure with concerned stares wordlessly screaming for her to abandon them rather than add to the number of casualties…
The Devil.
This had to be her.
What was she doing here, again?
Shigure snapped out of her trance as she realized that amidst the chaos and the rain, she forgot her helmet if her thoroughly soaked hair was any indication, although her trusty MP7 submachine gun was still clasped in her white-knuckled grip.
Right, as if a submachine gun was going to stop an Abyssal who took out three armed light carriers and one heavy cruiser without breaking a sweat.
Wait, what was she doing here, again?
Oh, right, the plan to get herself and Shiranui into Project Psyche.
Suddenly, she didn't feel so good about her odds of surviving the next five minutes, let alone worry about the admittedly half-baked plan.
The Abyssal was staring right at Shigure, her sparkling-blue electric eyes studying her like one would an insect under a microscope, and she was petrified by the callousness in those eyes, almost picturing the Abyssal mentally taking her apart piece by piece before discarding her like one would throw away a broken toy once she lost interest in Shigure, looking away and shifting her gaze to a downed Zuikaku with smoke escaping her burnt lips with every breath and frayed hair.
No.
Raising her MP7 to aim at Yuubari (she finally recognized who it was by recalling and sifting through her ship girl database), her hands were shaking badly as if she had a case of Alzheimer's Disease and likely couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, the rain further impairing her vision and exacerbating her tremors as she croaked numbly.
"F-Freeze."
Yuubari didn't comply, instead lifting her lightsaber in order to begin another execution, Shigure feeling her psyche start to fall apart after watching the first execution as she howled loud enough to make sure she was heard, the safety switch already flipped as she pushed her firearm forward.
"I SAID FREEZE, OR I'LL SHOOT!"
The Abyssal paused as though considering the validity of her threat, but Yuubari swiftly whipped around in order to point lasers which originated from her fingertips and painted red dots on her.
A jumpy Shigure suspected that her downed friends were likely taken out in a single and swift attack, likely of an electric nature due to their severe burns and paralyzed state, dodging a lightning strike with practically no time to spare, although she dropped her MP7 in the process and slipped on the wet floor due to her flinching at the deafening volume of the thunderclap which followed immediately after.
[Vajra.]
Another laser pointed right at her forehead and exciting her eye made her heart stop beating as she evaded yet again, the light cruiser missing another electric attack as Shigure huffed and scrambled to put some distance between herself and the J.O.A.N. unit, the Abyssal clearly attempting to cut her off from her submachine gun as the rumbling thunder resounded in the stormy night and blended with the falling rain to form the background noise to their painfully one-sided battle.
Pulling out her SIG Sauer-P220 pistol and flicking the safety off, she pointed at Yuubari as she clumsily fired, her capacity to hit the Abyssal only accomplished with the aid of her aiming system.
Yuubari could parry this as her lightsaber danced in the rain, almost dazzling in its movements as the heated blade formed arcs with its afterimage, and every bullet was vaporized upon coming into contact with the lightsaber and left the light cruiser untouched, Shigure's hopes of winning sinking from 'pretty much hopeless' to 'downright impossible'.
"No way…"
[Yes way.]
She saw that she had expended all of her ammunition, pressing the button to allow the magazine to slip out while she fumbled to find another to load into the pistol's handle, the patient Abyssal skulking towards her at a snail's pace.
The tremors in her two hands now reached critical levels as numbing, slightly tingling waves danced along her skin while the chilling rain beating down on her didn't help one bit since she couldn't get it to go in, and even when she did, the lack of strength behind her loading meant that the magazine slipped back out and hit the floor with an awkward clack, Shigure now at a loss as to what to do right now as she mumbled,
"Uh, uh…"
Yubari was now all but two meters away from her, Shigure looking at the Abyssal cruiser who readied her lightsaber in order to strike her down, the destroyer's mind racing for solutions to the problem.
Finally, Shigure evaded just as Yuubari slashed down at her previous position, stumbling out of her way as the tremors plaguing her body made it hard for her to right herself, a stab flying her way now as she ducked and performed a combat roll away from the light cruiser while Yuubari skidded to a stop.
Shigure was panting, not from the physical exertion which was nothing in the face of her superhuman stamina and capabilities, but because this was a do-or-die situation which terrified her, to face down a J.O.A.N. unit without knowing what she was capable of and could end up a roasted corpse like her four comrades with a single slip up.
[Hmm, you run fast.
As a destroyer should.]
She blinked at the sound of the Abyssal addressing her, her thoughts running a mile a minute as she retorted with a line she once used on Shimakaze in their downhill race, just paraphrased a little.
"You g-got that right.
T-Too bad for you, I don't run like a coward."
[Hmm.
You believe that alone amounts to bravery?
When going up against me, that's utter foolishness.]
The sky lit up as though the sun itself had been transported into their atmosphere, but even without squinting and shielding her eyes with a palm in order to make out the third party, she suspected that the light source from above was neither a sun nor was it divine intervention.
A jellyfish Beast floated in mid-air, lightning jumping to and from its translucent and luminescent body into the rain clouds as Shigure felt something within her physically sink upon seeing how outclassed she was, Yuubari continuing her sentence just as shouts could be heard from the same stairwell which Shigure used to get up here.
[Of course, not that running does any good against someone like me.
I'll give you this.
At least you won't die tired.]
Before bolting forward with her lightsaber in hand, Tenryuu finally bursting through the door just as Shigure was starting to inch away from the incoming Grim Reaper.
Shigure began mentally praying for Tenryuu's timely intervention with her New Wave power just as Tenryuu ran for her at breakneck speeds, staring down at the lightsaber which was headed for her heart like a wooden stake aimed straight at a vampire's chest, her unfortunate death all but assured unless Tenryuu managed to pull something out of her ass in order to parry Yuubari's lightsaber.
And parry she did.
Tenryuu's flaming sword clashed with the lightsaber for an instant, pushing it off its projected path as the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser stood before her defensively, Shigure collapsing onto the floor as her weakened knees gave out beneath her.
Yuubari stepped back in order to put some distance as her body tensed up at this new development, sensing something else coming her way as her lightsaber parried an incoming glaive and the resulting impact produced a shock wave.
Tatsuta stepped in, her smile wiped off her face as her glaive contracted until it was only as long as a knife in her hand while the blade was red-hot after making contact with the lightsaber, and the sound of a cocking handle was pulled as Ma'am Jackie wielded her FN SCAR assault rifle and wore her combat gear, likely having climbed the fire exit as she approached them from another direction.
Three light cruisers against one, and one destroyer spectating the fight.
On the opposing side was a light cruiser with her jellyfish Beast, Yuubari looking as cool as a cucumber as she lifted her power glove into the air and remarked expectantly, her jellyfish Beast increasing in luminosity and exuding a vibrant electric-blue glow the entire while.
[Three on one.
Let's hope that you'll all prove to be more of a challenge than Shigure or the four ship girls at my feet, especially since two of you possess New Wave powers.]
Before a lightning bolt rained down from her Beast and struck her hand, but there was no illusion as to what it was supposed to do as the light cruiser still stood before them, the Tron lines on her equipment now doubling in luminosity after receiving an electric charge from her Beast.
Tenryuu was eerily silent, raging thoughts swirling in the whirlpool of primal fury within her mind and cancelling each other out to the point where she didn't know what to say.
She took in the sight of the various ship girls who were immobilized which included a beheaded Junyou, Shigure cowering behind her after inexplicably holding Yuubari off long enough for Tenryuu and Tatsuta to intervene.
They had been fending off the Abyssals who encircled the building and tried to flush them out, ensuring that Amazon company safely evacuated the building before running to the top of the building, all while thunder rang out at close range and sounded much like large-caliber cannon fire.
Ma'am Jackie was the first to speak up, looking pissed-off as she usually did in combat scenarios.
"The Abyssals were a diversion, and so was the rain such that we would least expect an attack from above.
My intelligent guess is that you sneaked in on that…"
Lifting her head to look at the jellyfish Beast which was idling about like a hot air balloon in the midst of the rain, tentacles gracefully swaying on their own accord in spite of the howling winds all around them as the clouds almost seemed as they spun around the Beast's body as though in the eye of a storm.
" … and took out our girls, somehow hiding from their radar until the moment you struck.
Anything I missed out?"
Yuubari said nothing in return, and Tenryuu delivered her question in the form of a growl as she was beyond pissed off on the inside.
" … According to our reports, you're the planner and leader of Apocalypse.
Is that right?"
[ … Yes.]
"Then that means all those deaths and sinkings at the Battle of Mikura Jima Island, Naka being turned into one of you, as well as the lethal injuries of several of my friends on this roof.
Were you the one responsible for all that?"
[ … Yes.]
Tenryuu's temper and fighting spirit flared up, tearing off her eyepatch in order to look at her enemy with both her eyes in a seething glare as she unconsciously bled out mana which weighed down the air around her in a show of emotional force, and she could see that Tatsuta's halo turned crimson just like her own mechanical ears-slash-radar equipment likely did as its color corresponded with her mood, her dark expression instantly contorting into the mother of all scowls as she roared.
"Then that means that you're the one whom I have to kill, RIGHT?!"
Yuubari finally broke her stoic exterior as her cheeks stretched out into a coy and serene smile, devoid of warmth as she repeated herself with the utmost of confidence in herself.
[ … Yes.]
Tenryuu raised Ezekiel above her head in order to fire off a Blade Rush, Tatsuta firing a revised God Killing Spear in Yuubari's direction while the Abyssal light cruiser smoothly avoided both attacks, whipping her lightsaber around in order to either evade or block the volley of bullets Ma'am Jackie fired from her FN SCAR, Tenryuu charging forward without abandon as she heard Tatsuta shout.
"Shigure, get our downed comrades out of here!
It doesn't matter if you drop them over the edge of the building, radio in for Amazon company to ready a blanket or whatever in order to catch them!"
"C-Careful!
She fires lightning from her hands, and if you see lasers pointing at you, evade!"
Firing off another Blade Rush in order to keep Yuubari on the move, Tenryuu then brought up her sword in order to pull off the Chorus of a Thousand Birds with a slight revision, pumping mana into her sword in order to eject flaming darts from the blade tip en masse.
Rather than waste energy and time evading or parrying it all, Yuubari moved out of the way before her power glove powered up with lasers pointing at Tenryuu from an unorthodox angle, forcing Tenryuu to evade as a lightning strike missed her, although the bark of thunder next to her ear was not unlike the roar of jet engines blared next to her head, causing her to flinch and stumble.
"Rrhh!"
Yuubari's Beast powered up, Tenryuu taking a few steps away from the Abyssal J.O.A.N. unit before she pulled out a palm-sized sphere from her utility belt, the LED lights on it coming alive with a press of a button before she threw it in Ma'am Jackie's direction.
The senior Demon Instructor evaded as its yield revealed itself to be harmless smoke, but the floating jellyfish Beast struck the spreading smoke cloud with a lightning bolt from above and caused it to go up in flames, expanding in volume and temperature at an explosive rate as its radiance forced Tenryuu to shield herself while a pouncing Yuubari slapped away Tatsuta's elongating glaive attack and headed straight for the stumbling Ma'am Jackie with her mechanized boots boosting her forward.
The Sendai-Class cruiser, although pulling the trigger and nicking Yuubari in the shin with a bullet, was a second too late to raise her FN SCAR rifle to aim for center mass as Yuubari sundered Ma'am Jackie's left hand from her arm along with splitting the assault rifle in her hand and rendering it useless, Ma'am Jackie collapsing to her knees as her facial muscles and jaw tensed up from trying to endure the pain, seething through clenched teeth while looking down at the instantly cauterized cross-section of her left arm.
"Rraaghh!
Urgh!"
But before Yuubari could do anything else, Tenryuu ran up and charged up another Blade Rush as she howled,
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Yuubari moved away from the downed Sendai-Class cruiser, using her left mechanized slipper to boost away before facing off against a mid-flight Tatsuta, who only uttered frigidly,
"Life Break."
Her younger sister flew through the air and crossed the distance with a running jump, descending upon the J.O.A.N. unit with her glaive Sado held in a reverse grip as if attempting to spear a fish, stabbing the blade into the tiled floor with a vengeance and causing the ground to shudder and crack from the impact, even throwing up puddles of rainwater in the process.
Tenryuu noted that Shigure, as a child, was having trouble dragging the bodies of her paralyzed adult comrades to the edge of the building, but they were not only trying to bring down Yuubari but also trying to buy her more time for the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
Yuubari was then fired upon by someone, using her power gloves to protect her as sparks flew at the contact between bullets and steel, Tenryuu's attention snapping back to Ma'am Jackie as the wheezing light cruiser was bravely wielding her SIG Sauer-P220 pistol with her working right hand.
Running out of bullets, she pushed on the magazine release button and allowed it to drop to her feet as she slipped the pistol beneath the elbow of her chopped arm, clamping it with help from her stomach before pulling out another magazine to load it.
Tenryuu tackled her to the ground as Ma'am Jackie was too distracted with her reloading to notice an ominous laser pointed at her forehead, another brilliant show of lightning making her hair stand up as it was attracted to the lethal light show above her while Shigure made a futile but valiant attempt to contribute to the fight by firing at Yuubari's head, throwing the J.O.A.N. unit's head to the side as the bullet ricocheted off the winged headdress on the sides of her heads.
Yuubari worked together with her Beast in order to prevent Tenryuu from closing the distance as the Beast swiped at her with its no doubt electrified tentacles, Tenryuu dodging them with her light cruiser agility before bursting forward with Ezekiel brandished and ready to impale the Abyssal, her roar being amplified by an incensed fury boiling within her,
"Stinger!"
While Yuubari parried her sword stab, and her electrified power glove came swiping down in order to try and electrocute her, and gracelessly falling to the roof in a last-ditch attempt to evade the incoming palm worked to some extent, although the steel boot slamming into her stomach was certainly not part of the plan.
Tatsuta came in and slashed at the retreating light cruiser with her shortened glaive, and her sister included several trick shots in order to keep Yuubari guessing as she slipped Sado behind her back before extending it as part of her superpower like a behind-the-back pool shot, Tenryuu hacking and coughing as she got up and stabbed at the Abyssalized light cruiser in order to back the light cruiser into a corner, Yuubari deftly evading several Blade Rush attacks with the finesse and agility befitting that of a light cruiser.
And that was when she had had enough.
Receiving another bolt of lightning from her jellyfish Beast while she retracted her glowing lightsaber blade, Yuubari called out,
[Nice job, Indra!]
Before pocketing her lightsaber with her right hand and pressing a button on her utility belt with her left, Tenryuu hearing some sort of high-pitched whine which could split eardrums as it increased in frequency as she suddenly felt as though she wanted to puke her guts out, her mind blanking out for a while and chills ran up and down her spine, her legs weakening to the point where she stabbed Ezekiel into the ground to keep herself upright while her HUD teared and scrambled, attempting to show the progress of her internal systems rebooting themselves and coming up as garbled hieroglyphs.
Tatsuta crumpled and hit the floor hard, dropping her glaive in the process while Tenryuu battled the numbing sensations spreading across every inch of her body and barely preventing it from freezing up, as well as the incessant tremors which were all part of the aftereffects of a ship girl being hit by an EMP wave.
Feebly swinging her sword around at an approaching Yuubari, who likely safeguarded herself against such an attack for fear of being affected herself, the Yuubari-Class cruiser walking up and slapping a palm on a downed Tatsuta as her sister's body seized up, screaming in a voice of such undignified agony and coming from such an unlikely and personal source, Tenryuu almost feeling the pain on her behalf.
"AAAHHHHH!"
Fingers and arms spasmed for several seconds, Tatsuta's halo falling to the floor just as she did after her smoking clothes started to catch fire, only to be snuffed out by the rain as Tenryuu noticed that blackened flesh was what Yuubari left her with after breaking off contact with her left upper arm, some of the rainwater hitting her also being vaporized due to the heat radiated from Tatsuta's body as her younger sister writhed and convulsed on the floor.
The smell of charred flesh now hit her nose like a fist to the face and caused her face to crinkle in disgust, smelling nothing like rotting fish or anything she had the dubious honor of taking a whiff of in her entire life as chemicals in the ship girl body fouled up the stench, fueling her hatred of the J.O.A.N. unit before her which now burned hotter than the furnaces of Hell itself, Yuubari ignoring the two fallen Tenryuu-Class light cruisers as she turned away and commented.
[Disappointing…
I was hoping you'd put up a little more of a fight, but I should have known that Cynthia's saying of 'No expectations means no disappointments' holds true even now.
You all got your powers recently, and it's too much for me to expect anything more from you.
Akashi isn't here as well, so my interest in you all has reached its end.]
But Tenryuu still found it within her to try and talk back to and taunt the retreating enemy, if only to spite her even though their opponent was too calm to get baited into making mistakes through words alone.
"Where ya goin', huh?
Running?"
Yuubari didn't miss a step as she responded offhandedly.
[Back to those who possess true power, unlike you children who play at being adults.]
Her sense of touch was slowly coming back to her at a snail's pace, now screaming herself hoarse in order to get her point across through sheer volume.
"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, YOU COWARD!"
That stopped the J.O.A.N. unit dead as Tenryuu flexed her mana reserves, allowing herself to let loose and allow her passionate and intensified willpower to be felt, Tenryuu pulling Ezekiel out of the floor and activated her Sword of Billowing Flames in order to envelop it in spirited black flames once more as it flowed out of her sword like a protective aura.
Charging forward without much concern for her well-being, she put all her spirit into her final attack in order to strike the enemy with all her might.
She wanted to make Yuubari bleed.
She needed to, partially to convince herself that all her gambles and training thus far in Project Psyche thus far haven't been for nothing, and also to convince herself that the Abyssal unit she was facing off against could bleed and thus be killed.
Yuubari's front lit up with a ominous red before she spun around in order to block Tenryuu's blade, and the thing to note here was that instead of parrying it by allowing the blade to meet at an angle and deflect some of the momentum behind the enemy's sword swing, she had the two blades meet at 90-degree angles.
Hearing some sort of metallic squeal scratch on her soul as her sword seemingly hit nothing, Tenryuu had a second of doubt that their blades met and that one of them had whiffed, but pulling Ezekiel back into full view allowed her to deduce what happened.
The upper half of Ezekiel's blade clanged as it smashed into the roof's floor and skidded off to who-knows-where, Tenryuu's eyes widening in surprise and horror to find Ezekiel slashed clean in half by Yuubari's lightsaber, the molten cross-section of her sword spurting out black flames like a severed artery for a few more seconds before coughing it out like the wheezing exhaust of a dying car before stopping entirely.
Tenryuu collapsed on her knees as she just kept staring disbelievingly at what was left of her sword, smoking water vapor wafting from the tip like a lighted incense stick, Yuubari retracting her lightsaber as her words barely registered in Tenryuu's mind.
[Your current capabilities have been weighed on the scales of power, and you are found … wanting.]
Before Indra scooped Yuubari up with its tentacles, the light cruiser likely immune to its electrifying capacities as she radioed in something or another on her winded headdress, the distant explosions and the pop of discharging firearms promptly halting and leaving the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser alone with her thoughts in the rain, the raindrops streaking down Tenryuu's cheeks as she hung her head while looking down at her broken blade, a lump formed in her throat as her heart ached and her expression was now utterly wracked.
Good.
At least that way, Tenryuu could pretend that she wasn't crying over Ezekiel, who would likely never be put back together and be the same ever again.
Tatsuta was experiencing by far the worst moments of her life.
She thought that dying would be the worst experience of all, but the saying went that for a ship girl, dying was the least of her worries, it's how she died, if at all due to the severity of her injuries.
For the last three times she'd been awake, she slipped in and out of consciousness as she waked up in various states of being, none of which were particularly pleasant.
She first awoke in a van with screaming, crying and other all forms of incessant noises around her, and everything hurt as her body recovered just enough to allow her to feel sensations in her body again, to let her know what it felt to have every inch of burnt skin on her body sting upon being exposed to air,
Someone was shouting,
"Prepare some clean bandages!
When I remove the burn uniform, I need you to apply pressure on that burn wound!"
While the tremors of the distant yet intense shelling could be felt by the earth and was transmitted into the shaky chassis of the van they rode in, Akashi leaning in with a no-nonsense look on her face and urgently slapping her on the cheeks before speaking up.
"Tatsuta, if you're awake, sorry about this."
And as cloth was torn from scorched flesh like a Velcro strip, she barely recognized her own voice screeching in agony as the army uniform had been burnt into her skin, and had to be peeled off in order to begin the recovery process.
The blood loss and excruciating pain was the upper limit of what her fatally injured body could handle before blacking out, and the last thing which she heard was.
"She's blacking out again!"
And the last thing she could think was,
'Well, no shit.'
The second was in a field hospital, where she was lying on a few tables and was half-naked for Akashi and several other ship girls to operate on, with Mutsu holding up a heavy-duty flashlight in order to illuminate the wound.
Repair Fairies stood on her bare shoulders with clipboards, concreting equipment and a few extendable rollers, except that they were using them to lay out medicinal gel on affected areas.
Concerned voices sounded out as they attempted to placate an approaching someone,
"Tenryuu-san!
Please don't, Tatsuta-san's being operated on!"
While she could hear her elder sister yelling her name with the desperation a lost child would use when calling out for his mother,
"Tatsuta!
Tatsuta!"
And she could feel that her psyche was still too frail at this point in time as she started to black out again while everyone's attention shifted to someone just beyond her field of vision, feeling Tenryuu approach her as Akashi and Mutsu tried to push her away.
But she could see on the peripheral of her vision that Tenryuu's expression was utterly crushed as if she was on the brink of an emotional collapse, reaching out to Tatsuta with her eyebrows furrowed in concern with tears streaking down her cheeks.
Her last thoughts were chiding in tone but were ultimately concerned about Tenryuu,
'Oh, Tenryuu-chan.
Please don't make that face, and don't cry, because that make me feel bad about dying more than anything else.
It also makes the Tenryuu-Class cruisers look bad, and while I like seeing your flustered or annoyed expressions, I never want to see that expression which you're wearing right now.
What do all of my power-ups and training amount to, if you still end up looking like that by the end of it all?'
Before everything faded to black again.
The third time was the last, and she jolted awake in a kindergarten which had likely been turned into a makeshift hospital ward for the injured or the dead as she assumed they were quite far away from the city hall which they did battle in due to the lack of tremors or gunfire, Ma'am Jackie and Junyou lying on the foldable tables beside her, with the former having her hand reattached and the latter, her neck, while the 1st Fleet was sleeping in this tent and were using either Junyou or her bed as head rests.
Her attempts at movement managed to wake a sleepy Tenryuu up, her elder sister waking up with red circles around her eye (and likely her eye-patch-covered one as well), mentally registering the fact that she was awake before leaning in with nothing but the utmost of concern for her well-being reflected on her face, asking her a question whose pained tone silently pleaded for a positive answer.
"Tatsuta!
Are you alright?!"
Her raised voice managed to wake Hiei, Shigure and Ayanami up, all of them still wearing their army uniform along with Aoba and her copper helmet as the heavy cruiser fell asleep near the electronic monitoring equipment, Akashi and Nagato entering the room after hearing the commotion as they wore their normal ship girl uniforms, since the former was simply an overseer of Amazon company and not officially a 'land ship' combatant, and the latter was still a ship girl.
Hiei, Shigure and Ayanami's face crowded her vision since she was conscious and Junyou was not, the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser feeling a fair bit unnerved at the amount of attention she was receiving in the form of concern as she sank into the pillow in hopes that she'd be swallowed up whole by it, Nagato placing a reassuring hand on Hiei's shoulder in order to speak up in a 'benevolent authority' tone which she pulled off with ease.
"Look, Hiei.
We need to talk to Tatsuta and Tenryuu about what happened the both of them two days ago on the roof Kamogawa City Hall.
After that, you can spend as much time with her as you wish, at least until the Abyssals start attacking again."
Hiei looked uncertain about leaving them alone, but she acquiesced with a reluctant nod, leaning in close as her expression darkened,
"Tatsuta.
I'll make sure that whoever did this to you pays for this."
Before her gaze shifted back into one of compassion and hurt as she left the tent with Ayanami by her side, and Akashi snapped her fingers as several orderlies filed into the room in order to wheel both Junyou and Ma'am Jackie out of the First-Aid tent.
Akashi herself didn't even need to look back as her right hand shot out behind her and grabbed onto the back of Shigure's collar in order to stop her from escaping, darkly remarking.
"You stay."
Aoba rolled her own seat over to her bed, looking at the equipment and then back at her as she inquired,
"Do you feel any tremors in your body?
Splitting headaches or static-y vision?
Numbness?
Shortness of breath or pangs of pain inside your body?"
She went through the list of questions as she tried moving her body, nerves flaring up in order to shoot down any attempts to move her left arm while her body became numb from the failed action, wincing as the heart rate monitor spiked in response to her body reacting adversely to pain, seething through clenched teeth which hurt her gums.
"My left arm hurts…
The numbness doesn't hurt, but it doesn't entirely drown out the pain, either."
Akashi pulled a meekly complying Shigure along with her as she notified,
"Not surprising, because that's where Yuubari slapped her power glove on you in order to electrocute you."
Yuubari…
Her mood soured at how easily they were defeated, Nagato remarking on how they might have played a hand in their defeat.
"Apologies.
Had we dared to fire danger close and cut that jellyfish Beast off from Yuubari, you might have stood a better chance against the J.O.A.N. unit."
Aoba shook her head and idly waved her hand, looking up at a monitor as she shared how the Beast might have had tricks up its metaphorical sleeves.
"I don't believe it would have helped.
We don't know what the jellyfish Beast is capable of, and it might have turned its wrath on us instead, especially when our equipment showed that the jellyfish was controlling the weather."
"Damn, so it can not only shock people to death via lightning bolts, but also summon rain wherever it goes?
That's going to be a problem, especially since it can ground our planes at will."
Nagato's concern was understandable, and Tatsuta noticed that Shigure and Tenryuu had been silent all the while, it being natural for the former as a reserved and precocious little girl, but it was her sister which she was worried about.
There was no time to worry about others, though, as a dizzy spell hit and she began jerking her limbs, ignoring the stabs of pain in her skull as her vision warped before her very eyes, puffing out her cheeks all while everyone flew into a rightful panic.
Rolling over onto her left shoulder and instantly regretting her move with another blistering wave of pain flooding her nervous system, Tatsuta threw up into someone's helmet as her stomach churned in order to regurgitate scalding bile which came straight from her gut.
This was very likely the worst day of her life.
She heard Shigure ask and Akashi answer,
"Who does this helmet belong to?"
"It's Tatsuta's."
And the good news just kept rolling in.
Flopping back to a supine position while allowing herself to wallow in her own misery for once without trying to put on a strong front, she heard Tenryuu finally speak up with a weary voice,
"Yuubari called her Beast Indra.
She was also interested in looking for you, Akashi-san."
Akashi raised a nonchalant eyebrow as she remarked.
"Of course she was.
But one thing to note is that she stated how she was working for someone above even her, and we'll have to find some way to cut the snake off at the head in order for her superiors to reveal themselves."
"You do realize they could be lying to us about everything, right?
That's one of the perks of being a J.O.A.N. unit, that their modus operandi would be different and they'd be capable of playing us all with their glib tongues."
The medic shrugged at Nagato's entirely plausible suggestion as she countered,
"That may be so, but it doesn't change the fact that she's an important target, and their loss that day only proves that we need more New Wave units to take her down.
Which leads us to you."
Looking down at a silent Shigure, Akashi then shifted her flinty gaze back to Tenryuu and Tatsuta as she addressed the twin dragons.
"You used your powers in front of others.
Not that you had much of a choice in that matter, but Shigure now knows of what you two can do.
We needed more candidates for the Project anyway, but we need to keep this on the down low before an entire swarm of ship girls come begging us for superpowers."
Tatsuta moved in her bed, struggling to look Akashi in the eye over the mounds of flesh on her chest as she wheezed.
"It… was justified.
The enemy was before us, and we had no choice but to use them lest we allow more ship girls to die if we kept them hidden."
Aoba looked up at Akashi, now leaning more towards their side as she tried to convince the repair ship.
"Hey, I mean…
If Tenryuu and Tatsuta didn't use their New Wave weapons and caused more ship girls like Shigure to die, perhaps permanently, the 'what if's that haunt them might be too much for them to bear in the long run.
At least if they used their powers and still lost, we all know they did their best, and the enemy was just that much more powerful."
And with Shigure giving Akashi the 'puppy-dog eyes' look and Nagato placing a hand on her shoulder in order to let it go, Akashi found herself outnumbered and was also starting to see things from their point of view anyway, icily acknowledging.
"Fair enough."
Shigure was remaining silent throughout all this, and Akashi released her hold on her collar in order to question her.
"Yo.
Why were you even on the rooftop two days ago?
The instruction was for Amazon company to evacuate, and you instead ran towards trouble instead of away from it."
"Well, I wanted to leave, but I suddenly remembered that Junyou-san was on the rooftop, and the light show up there made me fear the worst.
A-And when I got up there, Yuubari-san had already beheaded her, and was about t-to do the same to the others…"
She started to tear up as she hiccuped, a precursor to a crying fit as the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer did her best to keep her emotions in check, and even though many ship girls present bought her story, Tatsuta didn't believe her sob story for a second, and judging from the stink-eye which Akashi secretly gave Shigure when the destroyer wasn't looking, neither did she.
But there really was no way for them to prove anything against Shigure, and them requiring more ship girls to participate in Project Psyche meant that trying to lock her out at this stage meant that they'd have to bring more ship girls into the loop than was necessary, complicating the whole affair.
Shigure piped up with a recommendation, either having planned this all along to be implemented once she got in, or probably came up with it off the top of her head.
Knowing the precocious little brat, it was likely the former.
"There's also someone else I'd like to recommend for this Project Psyche you all are talking about, since she's also in the same predicament as I am.
She also wants to get stronger despite her limits holding her back, and I believe that with the skills she possesses, she'll be quite an asset to your current team."
Everyone looked at her with veiled interest, Tatsuta lifting an exhausted eyebrow at the amount of hype Shigure managed to build around this mystery ship girl which even got her intrigued.
Shiranui was sitting with a hospitalized Shigure, Tenryuu and Tatsuta along with Aoba, Nagato and Akashi on the other, having been called in to participate in a confidential Project which meant that Shigure had succeeded.
Ma'am Jackie was sitting in on the meeting after waking up and dismissing everyone's pleas for her to rest, flexing her reattached hand with a hand grip exercise tool which emitted a squeak with every squeeze as it acted as a metronome for the ship girls present.
Aoba was sharing their currently gathered intelligence on the enemy's abilities.
"From what we know, Yuubari possesses several weapons at her disposal in order to complement her superpowers.
Her utility belt is capable of emitting an EMP wave which can cause nausea, dizziness and temporary disabling of HUD displays in order for her to do as she pleases, being immune to her own attack.
Another tool is the lightsaber which, as shown, is capable of cutting through steel due to its insanely high temperatures which managed to cut Tenryuu's sword in half."
Moving onto the next drawing of the jellyfish Beast Indra, everyone could feel Tenryuu's depression forming a downer aura around her, her destroyed sword Ezekiel being a sore point as of now.
"The jellyfish Beast is called Indra, and with good reason as it likely controls the weather in order to create thunderstorms, attacking with electrified tentacles or sending down lightning bolts in order to either strike ship girls down or to give Yuubari a power up while somehow being capable of evading radar detection.
Her lightning attack Vajra appears to utilize lasers in order to ionize the air and allow electricity to flow down its ionized path, not unlike how a wireless stun gun works."
Now moving onto the next drawing of an Abyssalized Naka on a metal elephant, it looked as if someone drew an elephant before filled in the plates and rivets on the Beast.
"Then there's Naka.
We've received several reports of Abyssal Naka clones terrorizing the coasts, and while we initially believed that this was some sort of mistake, there appears to be more than one Naka running over buildings in order to act as juggernauts to clear paths through towns.
Her Beast Airavata is named after an Indian mythological mount, and as it transforms into an M270 MLRS, it stands to reason that it can fire missiles even in its Beast mode while its snout fires hyper beams."
Pointing up at Naka, Aoba reported on the enemy abilities with a renewed passion to put her information-gathering skills to good use.
"The full extents of Naka's abilities are not known, but it is clear that she is capable of emitting a scream which can shatter glass, crack the earth and, at close enough range, deafen ship girls and humans alike.
We're not sure about this yet, but their ability to coordinate their attacks so as to keep us moving up Chiba might hint at some sort of long-range communication ability which we're not privy to yet."
The next drawing then moved to a map of America, with several places marked out with mushroom clouds and red dots.
"Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans are all bombed out by the nukes, but the last city, being coastal, is now being overrun by radiation-resistant Abyssals and ship girls alike in a bid to control the city, and by extension the entire affected state.
An Abyssal J.O.A.N. unit which Akashi identified as a Mark III Washington-Class battleship Washington is created to be different from existing Mark I and II Washington battleships."
A crude drawing of some sort of Abyssal stood beside a Smilodon Beast with its long and sharp canines and, true to its name, formed a slasher smile as a result.
"These Mark III Abyssals are dangerous because we are not sure which naval base they hail from, their pasts and thus their motivations and behavioral patterns.
For example, for Yuubari, we know that she has an obsession with Akashi and might be baited into a trap if we sortie her.
But for these Mark III Abyssals, we'll have to discern their M.O. the old-fashioned way."
Akashi stood up and loomed over the two destroyers, looking down at Shigure and Shiranui as the former looked rather apprehensive about the repair ship's intimidating presence, and Shiranui herself managed to maintain her poker face even as the repugnant smell of blood seeped from Akashi's very being in spite of all the showers to rinse away the stench of blood.
"You two brats are going to be a part of Project Psyche, and even though I'm going to say that it's quite likely that you may die, you two aren't going to bat an eye at that, are you?"
Shigure spoke up, her deterministic vigor coming back to her as she announced.
"If I can harness this power in order to protect Tenryuu and Tatsuta-san, I don't mind taking that risk!"
And Shiranui intoned her answer.
"I'll do what I must in order to win."
Shiranui then turned to look at Tatsuta as the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser wheezed.
"Oh, Shigure.
Don't you know that the both of us accepted this gamble while putting our lives on the line in order to protect you?
You're just so precocious, wanting to protect everyone you know despite having been through so much…
Can't you allow us to protect you just this once?"
To which Akashi remarked, partially to shoot down Tatsuta's misaimed goals.
"That's just not possible now.
I understand that you might get cold feet after facing off against Yuubari, to want to keep Shigure in a secure box in order to protect her from the monsters which now walk the earth.
But she's stronger than you think, and it's undeniable that she has more potential than you do, as harsh as that might sound.
If she wants to participate, don't you think you should allow her to make the choice instead of making it for her?"
" … She's a child, and isn't even three months old.
She's also the biggest magnet for life-threatening trouble."
The repair ship thought about it, finally shrugging and lifting an eyebrow in order to concede the point.
"Eh, fair point.
What do you think, Shigure, Shiranui?"
Wait.
How did she get involved in this?
Shiranui was stumped at why her opinion mattered on a debate which barely involved her, but Shigure made it a point to lean in as close as possible in order to pull the 'puppy-dog eyes' look on the light cruiser as she pleaded sincerely,
"Tatsuta-san.
Please let me participate, and let me carry part of the burden for you, pwwease?"
And Shiranui stood behind her and gave her two cents for what it was worth.
"Um, Tatsuta-san.
I will take care of Shigure, and make sure that she never gets into trouble."
And when Shigure wasn't looking since she was too preoccupied with maintaining her gaze on Tatsuta, Shiranui rolled her eyes at what she said as though silently deriding,
'Not that this little lass is going to stop suicidally jumping into them, from the looks of her pathetic little attempt to fight Yuubari.
Might as well give herself something to defend herself with, if this is going to be a recurring thing.'
Tatsuta deflated upon witnessing their convictions, weakly waving a dismissive hand while Tenryuu gave the barest of nods in order to give her reluctant blessings, which brought that conversation to an abrupt and awkward end.
Nagato then chipped in with some news about something seemingly unrelated but concerned their company of ship girls,
"Oh, and I suppose this is a good time as any to tell you all in advance that Admiral Mako wishes to pay us a visit.
She wishes to be here when the first Anti-Abyssal weapons are shipped to the front lines along with the twin Princesses of Japan paying us a visit in order to keep morale high."
Shigure seemed interested in what they were talking about now despite having no knowledge of it, and Shiranui leaned in to elaborate in a whisper.
"Our latest heir apparent didn't have a male heir who was old enough to succeed the throne after him, so in their desperate bid to find suitable successors, they birthed a pair of female twins in order to raise them as future candidates."
"Couldn't they have adopted someone from outside the traditional family tree?"
"Ah, but then they wouldn't be completely 'divine', as is part of tradition.
In the end, they decided that raising female heirs who knew what they were doing, and allowing them to succeed was far more preferable than allowing a relative unknown on the throne."
Shiranui rolled her eyes in order to display just how trite all these little arguments were, giving her own personal opinion.
"Personally, I find that they're no better than a bunch of boys creating a club with the rule,
'No Girls Allowed'.
Add that to the fact that there has been a sort of 'female empowerment' movement of sorts whose effects are most strongly felt in Japan ever since the Abyssal War began, can anyone blame them for changing the rules in accordance with the times?"
Shiranui leaned back in order to make herself comfortable in the chair which she sat on while folding her arms, continuing her explanation as to what these twins were doing by coming all the way out here to visit.
"These twins are surprisingly vocal about supporting the Abyssal War, and their visit to the front lines, although dangerous, would be a huge morale booster to all our forces.
After all, it has been noted that they're two halves who complement each other, and whichever one of the two will succeed the throne, is often touted as 'the Amaterasu-ōmikami who will unite and lead our nation to victory and greatness'."
Followed by another eye roll at the amount of self-fellating present in that sentence, Shigure looking a little more interested in what they would bring to the table, Shiranui lifting her chin
"They'll be meeting us at the Kamogawa Golf Center here, and they'll be escorted by Ashigara-7, who has been reactivated and brought back into service in order to back up our retreating forces."
Shiranui noted the tone of grudging respect in spite of the slight disgust in her tone, in which Aoba replied.
"Her, of all people, being posted here?
Our Ashigara won't like it."
"She doesn't have to.
Our Ashigara can go suck her thumb in annoyance, but Ashigara-7's just that good, and she has expressed genuine interest in helping out on the front lines."
Shigure leaned in after hearing the hype around the escort heavy cruiser, her eyes gleaming with the curiosity of a child as she asked.
"Ashigara-7…
What does the '7' stand for?
7th ship girl to be produced?"
Shiranui sighed, tuning out the sound of the adults speaking in order to speak with her friend.
"You're not wrong there, but not entirely right either.
She was the 7th Ashigara doppelganger to be crafted, not the 7th ship girl overall.
The Ashigara doppelgangers created before her have all sunk, and she is arguably one of the greatest success stories of any ship girl in the First Decade, being chosen as the royal escort to the Twin Princesses being one of them.
She's naturally got insane skill required for the job to be qualified for the job even if she is a ship girl, even though her behavior can be quite… off-putting even to those who are acquainted with her.
But… I won't say anything more and allow you to form your own opinion when you meet her yourself."
Shigure raised an eyebrow in agreement and left the topic alone to be investigated at a later date, and Shiranui looked up as Nagato took the stage in order to explain how the meeting would go down.
"The ship girls from Tateyama are going to rendezvous with us here in these hills in another three days, since they've constantly been on the move on land and air vehicles.
Nothing but rice paddies from here on out, so we'll be able to move fast.
Together, we'll move Northwest inland and further into the forest-lush hills, and from there on out, we move North along Tokyo Bay to ensure air support and should the need arise for us to cross it and head for Yokosuka and Tokyo.
The two Princesses, Amaya and Ayane will touch down via helicopter at the Golf Course with Ashigara-7, and we'll have them meet Admiral Mako as she drops off the Anti-Abyssal weapons nearby before the meeting.
If we yield another inch of land to them from there on out, we'll jeopardize the lives of the ship girls in Ninja company, who hail from the Tateyama Naval Base."
The Nagato-Class battleship turned to look at the Tenryuu-Class light cruisers as she raised two fingers to point at them and remarked sympathetically,
"You two, rest.
Before looking back down at Shiranui and Shigure, her titanic bosom partially eclipsed her face from Shiranui's point of view as she continued.
"And you two, I'm sorry to say, will have to be worked a little harder and faster than usual.
We can buy some time with Amazon and Ninja company's combined might, we're not so weak or desperate as to hinge all our hopes and lives on the success of two ship girls."
"Yet."
Nagato gave Akashi a withering sideways glance which bounced off the stone wall that was the repair ship, who shrugged it off with an eye roll before Nagato continued with a receding scowl.
"But we need to push forward the speed in which you two will get your powers and get some training in before being deployed.
Tenryuu's sword is broken, and we need to craft a stronger one for her in the meantime.
You two will sadly have to bear the burden before Tatsuta recovers and Tenryuu gets another sword."
Shiranui and Shigure didn't look as if they expected anything different, especially since they were already knee-deep in shit ever since World War III began, Shiranui feeling her own expression become taut with determination and smoldering rage as she uttered.
"I'll do whatever is required of me in order to win."
In which Shigure chimed, as her own form of enthusiasm was more of a hopeful yet realistic one.
"If that's what it takes.
This power, if it's everything it's hyped up to be, is worth risking my life over.
To help Tenryuu and Tatsuta to push the Abyssals back, that's all that matters right now."
Nagato was likely surprised at the amount of fight left in the two destroyers, nodding respectfully as she commented.
"Very well then."
We can't afford to keep still when we have to make the rendezvous and meet up with Ninja company in the South, so our operations will have to go mobile.
We… are capable of going mobile, right?"
Aoba nodded in response to Nagato's concerned look, looking a bit more optimistic about this as she shared their various developments.
"Yeah, it'll do the job.
The problem is the power source, in which we'll need to carry some kind of generator with us, which'll slow us down.
But it'll do the job, and we'll be done by time we get to the hills, which isn't too far from us anyway."
Shigure and Shiranui were sitting in a transportation van of sorts, the Fairies having jerry-rigged several contraptions such that when inserted into car keyholes, they'd automatically unlock them so that they didn't have to hunt around for the car keys all the time.
Thank God for small mercies.
The road wasn't too bumpy since it wasn't bombarded too heavily, although it was offset by the fact that they fitted six ship girls into a cramped space, with various technical equipment being shoved in along with them and the four seats which were for them to sit down in before logging in, and it made for one uncomfortable ride even if the suspension managed to make it marginally more bearable.
Besides, as many ship girls found out the hard way, at least 'uncomfortable' didn't kill you.
"Alright, preparations are almost done, and once we reach the camp in the woods, Akio and Kousuke can arrange for the start of the creation process further inland before shipping the finished products to us.
You girls ready?"
Aoba turned to them, her helmet now taken off as the exterior of the van was welded with lead and copper plates prior to this in order to allow her some peace of mind, the former acting as protection while the latter was to block radio waves.
Shiranui was munching on a soggy sandwich which doubled as her dinner, finishing whatever remained of it and savoring whatever taste was left within the tuna, and she nodded grimly as she maneuvered herself onto one of the four seats, Tatsuta having been helped onto one by a concerned Tenryuu before this.
Shigure did the same as she gave Shiranui a concerned sideways glance, and for once, the Kagerou-Class destroyer found it within herself to return the sentiment with a look which wanted nothing more than for her to be safe, and infuriatingly, there was nothing she could do for her friend since there was nothing more to this than simply chancing it.
Just as Shiranui's average luck could come in clutch, Shigure's incredible luck could fail her this time and kill her in this life-or-death gamble.
Akashi leaned over the two destroyers, genuine concern shining through her world-weary eyes as she asked, perhaps to distract them from the gravity of the situation at hand.
"Any last words?"
Shigure shook her head, a strange sort of determination shining through her eyes which seemed too old for her apparent age as she spoke up.
"'I won't die.'
If that isn't irony at its finest should I die, I don't know what is."
Shiranui rolled her eyes along with Akashi, but as the repair ship looked down at her, Shiranui couldn't help but find herself saying the same thing for the different reasons.
"What she said.
I don't wish to die anytime soon, I've got too much riding on this and too much people counting on me to fail now."
Akashi raised an eyebrow at her show of implacability, but she nodded at Aoba as the heavy cruiser responded in kind with one of her own, Shiranui forcing herself to remain calm in times like these as she reassured herself.
'Relax.
It's just like falling… asleep… '