Kancolle Alt

by MasterBaiter4.0

A new destroyer joins the Yokosuka Naval Base, befriending old and new allies alike to fight their sworn enemies, the mysterious Abyssals. Little do they know, the first act of the war is drawing to a close...

66. Chapter 66 - Fallout 4

Author's Notes

Hmm, just realized that the rating for this story's a K+ which is like a PG-13 rating, and that's rather inaccurate for a fanfic of such… graphic fight and lewd scenes.

Oh, well.

---

"All that trauma, war and death which you survived without much fuss, and all it took to knock you out was a kiss from that succubus of a heavy cruiser?"

Shiranui rolled her eyes at how unpredictable Shigure was, but the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer got off the bed which she laid on in order to recover as she defended herself.

"W-Well, that Ashigara is certainly quite the enchantress who can play to her feminine charms and wiles, and the fact that she's so unabashed about being naked meant that I couldn't help but faint while in the presence of her shamelessness.

Besides, s-she was looking very attractive, even before her uniform got shredded by enemy fire."

The Kagerou-Class destroyer had no reply to that since she averted her eyes from the Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser back then, and Ashigara-7 was eventually convinced to wear the army uniform since her previous one was too shot up and bloodied to be repaired.

The two destroyers currently stood in a canopy tarp which shielded them from the rapid and steady rhythm of the rain beating down on Amazon company on the 16th of May, Shiranui feeling the slick mud beneath her boots thanks to the rain mixing with the dirt and generally making their lives that little bit more miserable.

Observing their resting comrades outside, she could see that many of them were psychologically and emotionally drained from the constant stress which they were under since sorties were more of a 'high-stress, short-period' kind of thing with down-time in between them for them to temporarily forget the horrors war to help them cope and recover.

Here, they were wallowing in their own misery in the filth and mud of the wet forest, huddling against each other for comfort and to keep themselves warm in the freezing rain as they jumped in fright every time thunder barked and mimicked the sound of cannon fire, some of them breaking down into sobbing fits, hysteria and even a panic attack on one occasion when Jintsuu, understandably distressed not just by the stress of war, but also by the fact that one sister ship was sunk and likely Abyssalized while the other was killed in battle, suddenly broke down and started crying as she sat behind a tree and hugged herself for dear life.

The pained and feral look in her eyes discouraged anyone from even getting close, much less try to comfort her despite their best intentions and could only dispatch a patrol duty to pass by occasionally and make sure she was still there, and Shiranui dreaded to think just what the rest of their Yokosuka comrades must be going through right now.

Her mind drifted towards her sister ships, most of whom were still in the navy and were undoubtedly sailing the seas to fend off the Abyssals, and she felt awful upon thinking about how they could have already sunk and she would be none the wiser until the navy deigned to notify her via letter.

No one was getting any sleep because not only did the peals of thunder jerk them awake and was the primary cause of their insomnia, the Abyssals could also sneak up on them and slit their throats in their sleep, something which they never had to worry about before World War 3 as dark circles lined the rims of their eyes while other concerns filled their minds other than their immediate and distant prospects of survival, for example, the J.O.A.N. units whose wrath was being unleashed on the world.

Shiranui looked back at Shigure and noticed the fatigue which likely chipped away at her psychological, emotional and mental stamina reserves and would only continue to do so until she either broke down or Amazon company finished their tour of duty and were replaced, asking about the conditions of the ship girls who were taken out by Yuubari.

"How are Junyou, Tatsuta and the others?"

"Oh, they're doing fine physically, but this storm's got them riled up psychologically with a fear of lightning and thunder, which means that they need to be kept under observation.

Akashi-san told me that she wasn't sure if this would develop into a phobia, so they'll be temporarily out of action with some psychologists helping them out."

"Understandable.

We've got backup in the form of Ninja company now, and there's certainly no shortage of ship girls on our side to act in their stead.

There's nothing to worry about for now."

Shigure nodded tiredly as her body shuddered from the delayed shock of processing everything which had occurred thus far, the Kagerou-Class destroyer looking out into the forest and watching it all get a layer of gloss due to the rain beating down on the leaves, trees and dirt, ship girls huddling underneath tents made out of tarps and hanging clothes out in order to let the rain wash the sweat, blood and dirt away.

"Well, this uniform sure is restrictive, but I think I made it work."

Turning back to see Ashigara-7 hastily entering the tent, Shiranui was glad that the heavy cruiser was wearing an army uniform in order to cover herself (her ship girl uniform didn't really reveal much, but since it was form-fitting and was worn by her, it might as well be) but it was a marginal improvement as the army uniform barely managed to conceal the heavy cruiser's sex appeal.

She looked as if she just stepped out of a gravure magazine whose monthly feature was on military girls as her skin and facial features were perfect while her adjustable army uniform snugly hugged her hourglass figure, and even her fingernails were immaculate as she sashayed into the tent, noticing the two occupants currently occupying it before walking over to hug Shigure.

Ashigara-7 was perfectly aware of her feminine traits as she pulled Shigure into her bountiful breasts for a hug, the luminescent blush and suddenly submissive attitude meaning that Shigure didn't dislike the deliciously soft mammary glands pressing on her face.

This sight wasn't too titillating by itself, but Shiranui couldn't help but feel something well up within her in response to seeing Shigure have eyes for another woman, her expression crinkling as she wondered why this pang of jealousy existed in the first place.

She wasn't in love with Shigure or anything.

Nope.

Ashigara-7 noted her expression as the heavy cruiser broke out into a genuine smile, one which fully understood and empathized with her inner feelings as they seemed transparent before Ashigara-7's brilliant gaze, causing her to turn away in a totally not-petulant manner to sulk as she heard the adult ship girl speak up.

"I just wanted to know all of you a little better, and what better place to start than here with Shigure-chan?

And just in case you wanted to ask me anything, please do so.

I'm an open book."

Shigure nodded, Shiranui taking the time to focus on cleaning her standard-issue SIG Sauer P220 pistol as she held the pistol's slide out in the rain to lubricate it before cleaning it with a towel while keeping a ear on the conversation.

"U-Um, Ashigara-san…

Why are you so unashamed about showing off your own body?

I mean, doesn't everyone's stares bother you?"

"Oh, well, that's a simple question.

Why should we be ashamed of our bodies when we were created to be physically perfect?

Shame, to me, has no place on a battlefield where survival and victory are of the utmost priority.

After two decades of fighting this war, you learn to see things in a different light."

Shiranui raised an eyebrow as she questioned that development in morality, but it secretly made some sense to her since modesty meant nothing if it resulting in your sinking, and since everyone was female anyway, there was no shame in showing some skin in order to defeat the enemy.

Ashigara had discarded these human values which were thrust on them upon their creation and created her own values to be upheld by being proud and confident of her own body and sexuality while ignoring any forms of negative external judgement, Shigure inquiring about the latter as she spoke.

"And why are you named Mata Hari?

I understand that it translates to 'Eyes of the Sun', but does it stand for how dazzling your gaze was?

I-I mean, you really did have pretty eyes…"

Another pang of jealousy soured Shiranui's mouth and made her swallow an uncomfortable lump which was stuck in her throat, thanking the fact that she was facing away from Ashigara-7 and Shigure as she used a brush dipped in cleaning solvent to clean out the pistol barrel, knowing the heavy cruiser's other career well enough to predict the answer beforehand.

"Oh, it's not just that, dear.

I work as a gravure model as a part-time job, and you know that I'm the escort for Amaya and Ayane, the twin princesses of Japan, right?"

Shigure made a noise of agreement, and Ashigara-7 was unfazed about elaborating on her other skills which helped out the princesses in various ways by playing to her strengths.

"Well, like I said earlier.

The princesses make the rules and policies, but my sexual services to politicians and soldiers alike help to placate and take the edge off the former and help to sate the pent-up frustrations of the latter, and everyone's happy in the end.

Male, female and everything in between, I'll take them all on in battle or in bed!"

A succinct summary of what the heavy cruiser was capable of, and the pregnant pause was enough for Shiranui to anticipate what Shigure was thinking, flinching as another bolt of lightning illuminated the tent and cast creeping shadows on the canopy, relaxed as the lurching figures of the trees outside of their tents disappeared as soon as they materialized, consciously bracing herself for the peal of thunder that was to come.

KRAKOOM.

Releasing a breath she'd been subconsciously holding in anticipation for the thunderclap, Shigure continued on with the conversation after that little light-show.

"So… you're like a prostitute?

Or like a man-eater?"

"Hmm, more a snake eater, really.

My official job is to be a courtesan who accepts anyone, from the highest-paying politician who needs to be convinced to go along with my princesses' policy, to a private in the army who needs to let off some steam.

So long as everything remains consensual and everything is laid out on the table, I believe I can do it with just about anyone.

Besides, the docks cure those kinds of diseases, and even though I make it a point to make sure they were checked beforehand, I take a dip quite often to make sure that nobody gets hurt because of my promiscuous lifestyle.

I also underwent an operation to make sure that I don't get pregnant, because while I like sex, I'm not in the mood to raise someone's kids and take myself out of action for 9 months."

Hmm, loose but responsible.

Shigure certainly sounded as if she wanted to understand Ashigara's unique philosophy, and the only way the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer knew how to do that was to ask more questions and see how the heavy cruiser answered.

"Then, you seem pretty hedonistic to be so sexually active.

But I suspect that you're in it for pleasure as a whole, not just the sexual kind, right?"

Ashigara-7 shrugged, Shiranui glancing back to find that she had plopped down on a folding army chair and allowed Shigure to sit on her lap, and she took extra care to play it cool by turning away slowly while listening to Ashigara-7's little speech.

"You're exactly right.

The five senses must be pleased in different manners, like appreciating art and listening to music in order to appease our sense of sight and hearing respectively.

Another aspect of desire to be sated is knowledge, and to satisfy our curiosity in order to best utilize our knowledge to improve everyone's lives, including our own, is our responsibility as sapient beings.

Social bonds help to elevate the quality of life by making friends and improve productivity, and you'll find that I don't like arguments and often diffuse them in any way I can.

After all, even if you're right, you certainly aren't having fun arguing your point with someone who forcefully contests the point and similarly isn't enjoying every second of it."

Shiranui nodded, understanding that Ashigara-7, AKA 'Mata Hari' helped politicians get together as a courtesan and to help secure deals for the twin princesses, making her more than a pretty face as her extroverted nature helped her to secure this job.

"So I suppose sorties are the exception?

They are rather painful, after all."

"Oh, not at all.

They all serve a greater purpose in the form of helping to win this war, and enduring some pain for the sake of ensuring victory really is the moral thing to do.

Besides…"

The heavy cruiser's breathing became audibly louder and huskier as Ashigara-7 huffed.

"I don't exactly mind the pain, and to take hits for my beloved comrades and have my clothes being forcefully torn from my body and exposing my body for everyone to see…

It would be my pleasure."

Shiranui surmised that it would be natural for a perverted, pleasure-seeking ship girl to find sexual gratification even in suffering, leading to masochism but definitely not allowing herself to be shot at willy-nilly at the risk of sinking.

Shiranui reassembled her P220 pistol and pulled back the slide several times to check that it was still working, and she turned around to throw out a question of her own while holstering the pistol.

"Do you know of the J.O.A.N. units which are terrorizing ship girls on land?

You have the access to such knowledge, and you should know that they possess New Wave powers and Beasts which put them leagues ahead of any land-based threat we've faced thus far."

"Sure.

I certainly won't say that I can take them on all by myself, but even they must have weaknesses or vulnerabilities which we can discover and exploit."

Shiranui snorted derisively as she couldn't help but throw out a caustic remark,

"Well, that's easy to say when you haven't faced off against them in battle."

Ashigara-7 didn't seem to be bothered too much by that comment, instead speaking up about a fight which a certain Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer found herself in.

"Oh, don't say that.

Shigure-chan survived the Kamogawa City Hall rooftop battle, and this shows that the J.O.A.N. units aren't invincible and omnipotent, and sighting them on the battlefield isn't a sure sign of death."

Shiranui reluctantly grunted in agreement since there was some truth to Ashigara-7's words, moving on to her next question since she was also rather curious about how different Ashigara-7 was from every other Ashigara she'd met.

"I'd like to inquire about something.

I understand that you've forged these new values for yourself in order to expand your horizons and accept who you are in all your glory.

But what about killing?

I suppose that with age, your views of life and death must've changed as well.

What do you think only you can feel when you kill an Abyssal with your bare hands?"

Ashigara-7 lifted an eyebrow at how Shiranui wanted to understand just how different she was from everyone else, and the gem of wisdom which was tucked away between her ears now shined through her gaze as Ashigara-7 revealed.

"An appreciation for life, even in the face of death.

Everything of worth to me has always been an expression of either side of the coin, either the frailty of life or the finality of death and how I choose to live life to the fullest by living and copulating, reminding myself of how beautiful this world is and experiencing all there is to experience.

Pain can last, but pleasure is ephemeral and I intend to not just experience it all, but also try to share and spread the pleasure and happiness wherever and whenever I can.

Oh, I would say that our values are rather similar to mankind's with several key differences.

One major difference is how differently we see and treat incest, what with Yamashiro to Fuso, Chikuma to Tone and Hiei to Kongou, although in the final case, I'm not sure who gave her those hickeys if there isn't a Kongou in Amazon company…"

Shiranui's cheeks colored as her first thought came up with her elder sister Kagerou, but she saw that name-dropping Fuso and Yamashiro caused Shigure to perk up with a crestfallen expression, Ashigara-7 cuddling and patting her while Shiranui made herself comfortable as she leaned on the desk with her pistol in her holster.

"To most humans, it's not normal for siblings to possess any romantic feelings for each other, and while most of us aren't naturally predisposed towards it, we don't express revulsion or horror towards siscon ship girls.

Killing Abyssals also comes naturally to us as human weapons, but our conscience is shaped by human values and tells us that the ease in which we kill Abyssals, despite them being a hostile alien race, is worrying to humans, causing us to flip-flop between denying our killer instincts during peacetime and embracing it in battle.

Why is that?

Our values are tweaked from our inception to be different from mankind.

And while we wish for it to be so, we aren't 100% human and will never be, so it might a sign that our current mentality is but a stepping stone towards something radically different, and arguably superior to mankind's limited sense of morality thanks to our vastly enhanced bodies and adaptable mindsets opening up new possibilities and viewpoints to us."

"But we would still be pro-human, right?"

Shigure piped up with a question like a child asking a question about her favorite subject, and Ashigara replied with an equivalent amount of enthusiasm.

"Of course!

You can be anything you wish to be as you strive to reach that stage of mental release, unbound by the bondage of petty human morality as you reshape and create yourself anew.

As superior beings who don't choose to play God but consciously choose to play human, is that not the ideal moral compass of a ship girl?"

Shigure then looked rather confused as she stumbled onto another train of thought.

"But wouldn't we be rather estranged from mankind because of our minor, yet significant differences in perspective, since mankind has had quite the past of rejecting others of differing views and cultures?"

Shiranui shrugged as she offered her own two cents on how mankind's treatment of them changed along with the times.

"You're not wrong there.

Originally, we were treated no differently from weapons to be maintained and sortied on the seas, and there was initially a fair bit of mistrust as a miracle from above certainly seemed too good to be true.

But I'd say that their suspicions weren't unfounded, because not only were we spawned by Fairies and were far more potent and advanced than mankind's existing technological prowess, but the fact that mankind wasn't responsible for our creation and the fact that we're gynoids under their control despite not understanding everything which created us meant that they wanted to make absolutely sure our allegiance to them was legitimate.

Imagine an entire army of super-humans programmed to be loyal to you, but should some third party who was secretly responsible for our creation enter some admin commands in order to either free us from mankind's control, or worse still, turn us against mankind, we'd become threats that are on par with the Abyssals."

Shigure shivered upon hearing that since the thought of killing humans instead of Abyssals had likely never occurred to her as well as the thought of their entire race turning against mankind against their will, and if they were lucky enough, they wouldn't retain their memories of living in peace with humans in order not to go mad from the grief of killing human soldiers and civilians should their programming be changed to target humans instead of Abyssals.

Ashigara-7 patted her on the head in order to help calm her down, and the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer found it within herself to ask another question regarding the Myoukou-Class cruiser's performance in yesterday's battle.

"Oh, and…

As a veteran ship girl, I thought that you'd emit some form of aura when you're utterly focused on the fight in a battle.

But I didn't get that feeling from you yesterday, even though the battle was chaotic enough to distract me with a million things happening at once…"

The heavy cruiser shrugged again as Ashigara-7 made Shiranui raise an eyebrow by challenging her assumptions about the veteran's hidden capabilities.

"Oh, I wasn't completely serious back then.

Those odds weren't too bad compared to what I've survived in the past."

Shigure pulled her face out of Ashigara's bosom in order to give her an incredulous look, prompting an explanation from the heavy cruiser.

"A synchronization of body, mind and soul allows you to hit harder and faster, since your accumulated experiences moves your war-conditioned body faster than even the speed of thought as you possess super-awareness of every threat around you while stamina ceases to be an issue.

But aside from being in an environment which I wasn't entirely familiar with, those Abyssals weren't too much of a threat despite their numbers and weapons."

Shiranui lifted her other eyebrow incredulously, and she appreciated Shigure's attempts to remain positive even in a time like this as she remarked.

"Well, that means you're even better when you're at your best, no?

With you, Ma'am Jackie and Akashi on our side, I feel a little safer with you 'centenarians' in our company to boost our manpower with experience."

Ashigara-7 gently lifted Shigure off of her lap and stood up in order to look down at the both of them, ruffling Shigure's hair while looking into Shiranui's eyes as she teased.

"Just 'a little'?"

And in response to Shigure's flustered attempt to correct herself, the heavy cruiser's age was reflected in her mature gaze as she consoled.

"Don't worry about it.

But I will say that the Abyssals have certainly never met any ship girls like me, because the war would have long ended should there be another Ashigara-7."

Inhaling sharply and crossing her shoulders, Shiranui waited for the heavy cruiser to leave the room as Mata-Hari sashayed in a sultry manner befitting that of the sexually promiscuous seductress of a ship girl before she turned to Shigure, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer blinking in a stupor while a blush still tinged her cheeks.

Nudging Shigure's side with her own shoulder, Shiranui leaned in close to reveal information she had recently acquired from Admiral Mako.

"Look, Admiral Mako gave me a heads-up about our New Wave equipment.

They've finished crafting my new body, and they have some of your armored suit crafted and ready to be tested."

Shigure raised an impressed eyebrow in response as she asked.

"That fast?

Did they also craft another sword for Tenryuu?"

"Yes.

Getting funding and resources from the princesses as part of a 'helping hand' did wonders, not just for us New Wave ship girls but also for Amazon company as a whole.

You know what this means?"

"Testing?"

Shiranui lifted an eyebrow in agreement, but gave Shigure a friendly reminder as she held up a thumb drive to Shigure's eye level and scrutinized her friend for a response in light of Admiral Mako letting her know that a leak came from within Yokosuka about Central's skeleton-filled closets.

"The stolen listening device means that the perpetrator had to steal it from my safe before I set out for boot camp, and Admiral Mako let me have a copy of this thumb drive since it came from an anonymous source within our base telling of Central's secret activities.

And although it's just a hunch since I'm trying to get a feel for how the spy operates, I think that there are two possible reasons she stole from my safe before I left for boot camp.

One is that she did it to intentionally let me know she existed, as a way of taunting me.

Second is that she needed to do so because she also had to leave for Itazuma camp as part of the chosen Amazon company.

But since this leak occurred after we left and we're now stuck out here with few electronics to leak this message out, there's a higher chance that the mole isn't from Amazon company and is instead a ship girl of Yokosuka who's out on the seas right now."

Shigure's expression creased in a thinking expression as she focused her gaze on the thumb drive and let her thoughts run wild in her attempt to brainstorm and come across other possible explanations,

"Well, I'm not sure in what form this information came in, but…

Could it be that someone from Amazon company sent a mail package around Japan to make sure this thumb drive landed in Admiral Mako's hands, or at least timed a disposable email account to send it out after we left for Itazuma camp?

That way, they could cover their tracks since anyone in Yokosuka could've done it."

A pregnant pause filled the space between them as the rain continued beating down on the canopy tent while another lightning bolt reached down in a white branching path towards the earth in an instant and caused a peal of thunder to rumble in its wake, and a contemplative Shigure finally met her gaze as she hesitantly inquired since she might have unwittingly implicated herself with her own proposed method of delivery.

"Shiranui-san, it might be a little late of me to ask, but…

Do you suspect me of being the spy?"

Shiranui sighed as she pocketed the thumb drive after seeing no signs that revealing the thumb drive to Shigure got any sort of rise out of her, which most people would emote and then attempt to hide when blindsided by surprises, and Shigure might actually be part of a small group of ship girls whom she might be able to trust.

"Not likely.

You might be psyching me out by getting close to me and backstabbing me, and the fact that all your exploits might be a result of you coordinating your efforts with the Abyssals to make sure that you're not sunk as you take part in high-profile sorties like the Battle of Twelve Navies, the battle against the Southern War Princess and the Battle of Mikura Jima Island.

The massacre on the roof of the Kamogawa City Hall might also be one.

But aside from being a newcomer to this base and having little reason to betray us as far as I can tell, you aren't dumb enough to just blurt out your own method of delivering the thumb drive, but certainly don't seem smart enough to play this game of reverse psychology by deliberately revealing it to me to make me doubt you.

Besides, from what I can tell, you were genuinely suicidal before you got better.

And while there exists the possibility that you might be a good actor, if some ship girls can see through your performance as you got us into Project Psyche, I like to think I can too."

And in response to Shigure's confused gaze staring back at her intently with imaginary question marks practically popping into existence above her head as Shigure failed to keep up with her explanation, the Kagerou-Class destroyer sighed again as she lightly punched Shigure in the shoulder and summarized her explanation.

"Relax.

You may be a suspect, but even if you are a mole, you're too smart to make a brain-dead mistake like accidentally confessing that you're the spy without any form of coercion, but definitely not well-trained enough to play mind games by getting close to me."

Shigure blinked sheepishly as realization dawned in her eyes upon comprehending Shiranui's slightly biting but truthful assessment, blinking innocuously as she could only utter a deflated,

"Oh, um…

Phew, I… guess?"

Before lowering her head in order to give Shiranui a doey-eyed upwards glance as she leaned in to rub shoulders with Shiranui and gave her an encouragement straight from the heart.

"Um, Shiranui?

This rain… it'll clear eventually."

Shiranui had nothing to say to that, although she secretly hoped that Shigure was right.

The cloak-and-dagger business took a toll on her as she was forced to suspect all of her comrades-in-arms, and not being able to fully confide in them isolated her from almost everyone else since she was left all alone in this investigation.

'Well…'

Shiranui grudgingly allowed a solitary thought to occupy her mind for a split second as she returned Shigure's encouraging but oblivious gaze.

' … hopefully not for long.'

---

Jintsuu was only now beginning to bring her inner demons under control as her breathing stabilized, her heart beating a mile a minute while her drenched uniform and damp hair clung to her glossy skin as a result of the downpour beating down on her, having sat beneath a tree and away from Amazon company in order to get away from everything.

The fact that Sendai was dead and Naka was Abyssalized didn't help her psyche at all while in the midst of a high-intensity battle, and after she had some time to bask in the aftermath of the forest battle as they counted their dead, the strain of the Abyssal War temporarily broke her as she mindlessly lashed out at everyone, shook everyone off and ran into a corner of their temporary base where her friends could keep an eye on her, but she could still be alone to wallow in her misery and not have someone take pity on her and try to console her.

Sometimes, you just couldn't stand other people's presence, even if they had the best of intentions.

Her tears had mixed with the raindrops which slid down her face as the chilling effect of the rain was only now starting to cause her to body and limbs to shiver, sniffling in order to clear her blocked nose while thinking about Sendai and Naka.

Naka was torn from her life and left a gaping hole in her heart while the sight of Sendai's lifeless body made her question why she was fighting anymore, bemoaning the fact that their memories were vivid and permanent while an inability to forget prevented them from forgetting anything short of traumatic for fear of widespread abuse of memory-wiping functions in order to erase any unpleasant memories, potentially causing over reliance on the self-destructive function like a drug addict in order to escape from reality.

She couldn't shake how Sendai's lifeless eyes looked towards the empty sky with blood flowing from her mouth while Naka's Abyssalized form had some kind of metallic contraption welded onto her jaw, and she likely had to be killed in order to put her out of her misery.

Sure, Sendai was slated to return once she was revived by the portable docks, but her softer and more empathetic side couldn't help but feel devastated as she looked down at Sendai's corpse even if she was fully aware that it wasn't permanent.

Dying was never a pleasant affair, and every wound inflicted on her precious sisters was also inflicted on her, with Naka's sinking being the equivalent of excruciatingly ripping her tender heart out.

Footsteps were heard as twigs snapped underneath crunching boots, and Jintsuu turned around to find Ma'am Jackie appearing from the foliage in her army uniform, looking none the worse for wear in spite of her battle with the enemy on the roof of the Kamogawa City Hall and had had a hand sundered from her arm ala Luke Skywalker.

The major was not looking too pleased about having to come all the way out here in order to find her weeping as she dryly remarked.

"I was done with beating Sendai into the ground in order to knock some sense into her, please don't tell me that you, my past self, also requires one this soon after my recovery."

"H-H-How did you find me?"

Ma'am Jackie pointed back towards the direction she came in from, pushing a branch out of the way to join her as she retraced her steps for Jintsuu to hear.

"Wasn't too hard.

Even without following the camp patrol route which came close to your current position for your friends to check on you, the fact that you ran through this forest and broke every branch in your path only left behind tracks which made it painfully easy for me to find you."

Jintsuu hurried to push herself off the floor in order to greet her superior-slash-future-self, but Ma'am Jackie gestured for her to remain seated as she lowered herself to sit beside Jintsuu, speaking up with a tone of subdued fatigue immediately after being hospitalized.

"No, no, don't get up.

I flew down here via helicopter in order to talk some sense into you after hearing that you broke down harder than most."

" … But that happened this morning, like, about five hours ago.

How did you get here from the hospital?"

"I'm a major.

I can hail and commander a helicopter whenever I want in order to go wherever I want.

But I prefer to talk to you as Jackie now, not as Ma'am Jackie."

Jintsuu lowered her head and acquiesced, the both of them sitting beside each other in the rain as the drizzle let up little by little in order to let them converse in relative silence.

"So you're me when I was recently crafted all those years ago, right?"

Jintsuu sniffled upon hearing that, and couldn't help but point out the obvious.

"W-Well, I mean, isn't that because we're essentially the same person?"

"A part of me hopes not, because I wouldn't want you to end up becoming anything like me when you grow up."

"You a-and me both, Ma'am."

Jackie gave her a pointed aside glance and caused Jintsuu to shrivel up where she sat as she threw out an apology, something she was quick to do in order to avoid exacerbating the situation.

"S-Sorry."

Jackie looked away and looked into the forest, any trace of anger now gone from her expression and was replaced by annoyance.

"Don't feel as if you have to apologize for whatever you've said, doubly so if it made sense.

It's true that my current state is far from desirable, and to tell you the truth, I don't have anything resembling a life outside of the battlefield.

No boyfriend, no family, no neighbors whom I'm well-acquainted with or anything of the sort."

"Doesn't that get lonely?

Not having anyone to share the pain with?"

An offhand shrug was what the senior light cruiser gave as an answer,

"Yes, but we all have to learn to live with it.

I did, anyway."

Things got rather awkward for them then as neither Sendai-Class light cruiser knew how to continue this conversation, Ma'am Jackie getting soaked by the rain hitting her uniform and was spreading like ink blots in order to darken her uniform, and Jintsuu eventually turned towards her dour future self as she meekly asked.

"Um, I-I don't suppose you brought an umbre - "

"No."

"Oh."

The uncomfortable silenced painfully dragged on as Jintsuu wiped the tears from her puffy eyes and flushed cheeks, clearing her nose before she asked something which had been on her mind ever since she met Ma'am Jackie during boot camp.

"If may ask, what exactly were you doing in the past as a super soldier in the War on Terror, and what happened to you which made you who you are today?

I-If possible, I would like to share that burden with you.

Please."

Jintsuu was genuinely curious about what her future self's past career was like and what kind of past was capable of molding her into such a radically different light cruiser when compared to herself, and Jackie gave her a look to ascertain Jintsuu's sincerity as the junior light cruiser fixed gazes with her future self and steeled herself for what she might find.

And after a period of serious contemplation, Jackie heaved a weary sigh and eventually chose to sate Jintsuu's concern-fueled curiosity by agreeing to her request.

"Fine.

Let me remember how to torrent memories, it's been an entire lifetime since I've really bothered to use it after fighting alongside humans for so long."

---

"If you accept this offer, you will commit to this program, soldier.

You will no longer be known as Jintsuu; you will henceforth be known as Jacqueline 'Jackie' Shinozaki, a Japanese woman with deceased parents and no relatives, and you enlisted in the JSDF in 1995 to protect the assets of our allies, kill terrorists and save soldiers' lives.

Due to your stellar physical abilities and intellect, you will be hand-picked from the 1st Airborne after three years to be drafted into the Japanese Special Forces.

Your ship girl abilities will be used in order to support your comrades from the shadows to get the job done with as few casualties as possible."

Jintsuu found herself sitting before a panel of shadowy silhouettes speaking to her, having remembered various ship girls from IJN stting in the waiting room outside, none of them having been introduced to each other.

The atmosphere was too stifling and heavy for them to do anything of the sort, being sent into various rooms to be assigned to God-knows-where to fight someone else's fight.

Jintsuu found herself nodding since there really wasn't any other choice which she was given in this situation, the silhouettes continuing to speak up about their rules of engagement.

"Your past life as a warship is over, and you will do your best to follow these three rules to the best of your abilities, sort of like a Three Rules of Updated Robotics for your new career.

First, you may not injure an allied soldier or, through inaction, allow a soldier to come to harm.

Second, you must obey orders given by superiors except where such orders would conflict with the First Rule.

Third, pending further notice, you must protect your own existence and your true nature as a ship girl as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Rules."

Jintsuu looked as a voice came from her right, explaining how hard and fast they were expected to play by these rules.

"This concept originates from the Three Laws of Robotics, but we call them rules because we don't want to tie your hands too tightly while you're out on the field.

And in our case, these aren't laws so much as they're simply… guidelines for you to follow and, should circumstances become dire enough, break in order to get the job done with minimal casualties."

Another shadow spoke up from her left pertaining to other ship girls who were similarly recruited from around the world for the same role.

"Of course, as a ship girl, you may harbor strong feelings against ship girls of certain nationalities who are also reincarnated as ship girls.

Some of them will be working undercover in the same environment as you.

You will not pursue any vendettas from your past life.

They will be instructed to do the same, and should you discover the identity of another ship girl, whoever it is, do not make contact and reveal your nature as a ship girl unless in a life-or-death situation.

Consider it the fourth rule, that you must not pursue vendettas against ship who sank you or let your judgement be affected by antagonistic feelings against countries or warships of previously opposing factions, factions who are now allied with us.

Do you commit to this program?"

Jackie, still known as Jintsuu before accepting her new career path, had been silent the entire time as she listened to the humans speak about the terms and conditions of her new life.

And with 20/20 hindsight, the response from a younger and far more innocent Ma'am Jackie was a predictable yet slightly heartbreaking,

"Yes."

---

Going through clips of Ma'am Jackie's life opened her eyes to the human military life, the light cruiser being drafted into the JGSDF's 1st Airborne Brigade before being recruited into the Japanese Special Forces.

The 9/11 attacks precipitated an invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003 respectively, and while the existence of ship girls and the Abyssal War went public in 2003, it was the perfect distraction for them since no one expected ship girls to fight anywhere but on the seas as Jackie wore a balaclava face mask the entire time, even when off-duty, in order to hide her identity and her beauty.

The reasoning given was that aside from hiding her abilities to avoid being exploited in more ways than one and encourage over reliance on their superhuman capabilities to get the job done, exposing their attractive faces did them no favors on the battlefield since their enemies might single them out to be captured and raped before being tortured.

Seeing what a ship girl could survive without dying, killing her would be the kindest thing they could do to her should worst come to worst.

Best to blend in with everyone as a faceless operator to get the job done.

The excuse for the mask?

She was allergic to sunlight.

What.

Human warfare was shockingly costly in terms of lives since homo sapiens were built to be relatively squishy and killable when getting shot at, and Jintsuu found herself going in as a prodigy who never made small talk with others, an introvert who got the job done as her inclination towards silence was accepted not as her own way of being stuck-up or whatever, but was a part of her personality borne from a need to keep her true nature to herself.

Her line of work was stressful and had its ups and downs, with deaths of her fellow comrades being rock-bottom even as she risked life and limb to save them, having jumped on grenades several times in order to save her team and had popped back into action a week later.

The excuse for the miraculously quick recovery, thanks to the docks healing her up?

Tis' but a flesh wound.

Sigh.

She suspected that her comrades eventually caught on to the possibility that she was likely a ship girl, but the military's 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy meant that if she couldn't tell them the reason for keeping her pathetically flimsy identity a secret despite fully willing to trust them with her life and defend them to the death, they didn't push her to reveal them and instead treated her like one of them.

That said, her superhuman strength was utilized on several occasions to 'manually hack' doors and walls (mind you, this was the Middle East, with wooden doors and earthen walls) in order to make some missions easier, all while her comrades turned a conveniently blind eye to maintain plausible deniability.

Easily kicking in a door with a reverse spin kick and allowing her comrade to enter first, Jackie was the second person through the splintered door and cleared the abandoned room in a practiced manner, but it took a few seconds after detecting the personnel within the room as allies before her mind registered just what she was looking at.

Lowering her FN SCAR rifle while her jaw hung slack, she looked around at the bloody room which was illuminated by the sun peeking through thin, rectangular window panes near the roof of the room and lit up the Marines who were previously captured and were suspected to be held here in captivity.

These boys would have to be shipped back to America in pieces, since their beheaded heads and hands were arranged in an uncanny manner as if they were making faces, with their eyelids being removed to have them permanently stare into the distance, muscles and skin bloodily stapled in place while fishing hooks were wrapped in twine as they tore into their faces and pulled at the sides of their jaws in order to achieve a disgusting post-mortem pose for a group photo, the bloody words scrawled onto the wall on the other end of the room reading,

'FOREIGN DEVILS'

Jackie, despite feeling her body quivering from head to toe while her voice was stolen by the sight of this needlessly cruel and drawn out execution, inexplicably found herself stepping close for a better look while a comrade was heard stepping out in order to empty his stomach due to the inhuman (or perhaps all too human) odor of blood and death as their corpses were starting to rot and gave off a pungent and sickening smell which made her blood curdle and her insides twist.

These body parts were screwed onto some sort of mannequin with its plastic head and hands removed to be replaced with fleshy counterparts, rusty nails and bloody stapler bullets driven into each section of their fingers in order to keep them in position while their fingernails had been forcibly removed and left them as fleshy stubs with crusted blood on them, showing how it was far from painless.

Their naked bodies sans head and hands were nailed onto the walls and were held up by meat hooks in order to successfully emulate the feeling of a slaughterhouse, their skin defiled by blood-red paint while their flesh was disfigured by crisscrossing scars and lacerations implying torture, and their private parts were little more than stumps as their bodies were emptied of blood in order to paint these walls a grisly crimson.

Jackie's gaze turned to look in between the mannequins' legs, and…

She whipped around in order to avert her gaze, squeezing her eyes shut and willing herself to forget the traumatizing sight of the horribly mutilated reproductive parts stuck onto the respective locations on the mannequins, recalling their peeled-off eyelids and blinded eyes due to some kind of chemical being poured into their eyes, unfocused gazes all staring into her soul with smiles carved onto their faces as if mocking her for not being able to get to them in time -

Jackie found herself hyperventilating at the gruesome sight and her self-blaming personality taking personal responsibility for their deaths, and she briskly stepped out from the room and into the desert and bracing herself against the blistering heat wave hitting her in order to join her comrades in dry-heaving onto the sand beneath her feet, since none of them expected anything like this.

Executions by firing squad, one-sided firefights and begging hostages which she was sometimes forced to ignore and not play hero for the sake of accomplishing her mission, she had already learnt to live with what she had to do in her line of work.

But her training and experiences couldn't prepare her for this.

Monsters did this.

Monsters, in human guises.

Her photographic ship girl memory would never allow her to forget what she had seen today as a part of her died along with these deceased Marines, a pit of despair forming within her and translated into a misanthropic view slowly worming into and poisoning her mind, her gaze hardening as she swallowed a dry breath which sapped the moisture from her parched tongue and the walls of her mouth but helped to stabilize her breathing, centering herself shortly before she pushed herself off of her knees in order to shakily stand back up and continue her mission.

---

"Revelations about US soldiers torturing Iraqi inmates in Abu Ghraib prison…"

Jintsuu now found herself sitting in an incredibly spartan one-room flat in the middle of the night as it was filled with a brown wardrobe, a TV set tuned into the news, a plain bed which she currently sat on with vanilla white bed-sheets and pillow casing, and a air-conditioner was stuck above the door which led to the kitchen.

The sinking feeling which gripped her heart was now analogous to a black hole as she listened to the news report about systematic abuse of suspected terrorists in the Middle East which finally led to the Abu Ghraib scandal which was being aired right now, and Jintsuu was looking at some very explicit images which she didn't feel too comfortable remembering in detail as her gaze was unfocused while the only source of light was coming from the TV before her.

Some of those 'suspects' weren't even remotely involved with terrorism, just unlucky enough to incur the wrath of American soldiers and would be released, only to be led into the welcoming arms of the terrorists as their views of the USA would be tainted by their horrific experiences.

Her mind was just a whirlpool of jumbled thoughts, a completely silent mental breakdown as the past, present and future all bled into one in her train wreck of a mind.

Soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Empire abusing and mistreating POWs, raping and pillaging civilians in conquered territories as comfort women and child killings were vividly remembered and recounted by the victims and affecting Japan's relationships with its neighboring countries in various way even in the modern age.

Vietnam, and how wars started to blur the line between civilians and combatants which in turn started to result in far more collateral damage being aired and painting war in a truly horrific light, mutations from Agent Orange abuse and civilian executions on the side of the Americans then captured on film and souring the public's opinion on the war.

Nowadays, literally no one was safe from acts of terror, and their crusade to seek out revenge for the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor was further fueled by the fact that 9/11 was targeted at a civilian target, not a military one.

America wasn't the first and certainly not the worst offender as evidenced by that hellhole of a torture room several years don'tthinkaboutitdon'tthinkaboutitdon'tthinkaboutitdon'tthinkaboutit.

The message of the news report was enough for her to register the fact that in their attempt to combat monsters, anyone could become a monster in their thirst for revenge, the boredom of military life given its daily minutiae of paperwork, physical training and combat tours and the fact that war was hell, this making the perfect breeding ground for atrocities to occur when soldiers and guards were convinced they could get away with acts and behavior which they'd never deign to show to their own family and friends.

What sway did justice have over anyone when a higher power that was the government, military or even society as a whole wasn't looking down on them in the dark, and the Geneva Conventions didn't apply to all sides in a world gone mad?

No one side was completely good.

Nothing had changed.

Stuck in a foreign land, always fighting someone else's fight.

Upholding childish and old-fashioned ideals of justice which no one played by, she was all alone in her moral high ground as human lives passed her by like water through a sieve as she was isolated by her own immortality, the futility of clinging to her prior ideals seeming so foolish in hindsight.

One smashed-in television set and several drinks later, Jackie was on her bed, wrapping her head in her pillow and crying into it with a bitter knot in her throat as she ruminated on how her life had gone so astray as she had fallen down a rabbit hole where lives, morals, basic respect for human life and dignity all ceased to matter in that dark pit, and all that was left was madness borne of bloodshed as man killed man.

That night, Jintsuu well and truly died within the soldier hiding within the darkness of her room, reborn as a Ma'am Jackie who was far more reprehensible than her current self, even more than Jintsuu could ever imagine ship girl to be in the modern age.

Except her.

---

Having put on some lipstick and eyeliner in order to play up her feminine appeal as a woman before donning a niqab and gown in order to blend in with the civilians while outside of the army base, Jackie continued her trek towards a suspected terrorist base of operations.

Some sort of boundary which was laid down by the hosting country due to tradition or religion, she had already forgotten the exact reason, prevented the U.S. army from even entering this area and meant that the terrorist base beyond it was untouchable, and the fact that the base was underground meant that bombing runs did next to nothing to stop or even deter their production and recruitment activities.

As a supposed civilian, though…

She walked across the desert and felt the heat of the desert escaping from the shifting ground beneath her feet, the canteen hidden in her gown serving her well during the four hours she'd been alternating between jogging and sprinting into the desert in the dead of night, with only the crescent moon and constellation of stars keeping her company on the 30th of September.

The map of this area was easily memorized by her, and despite her radar not working very well since there was nothing but sand dunes in every direction, her compass was still working fine, and the cold desert was a result of the sands expelling all the heat trapped within them during the day, leaving it bone-chillingly cold in the dead of night.

Approaching some sort of half-buried rock formation which likely led further down into the terrorists' base of operations, it was protected by the nondescript rocky layer which shielded the inhabitants from aerial bombardment, and the fact that they had someone on lookout duty meant that they already spotted her from a mile away, with her civilian disguise likely being the main reason why she wasn't immediately shot on sight.

Of course, since she was headed straight for their base, she was bound to be stopped and questioned before being shot for trespassing, but she'd long thrown caution to the wind as the four guards on duty spotted her thanks to spotters likely warning them ahead of time.

"Freeze!"

They used Arabic to address her, and it was thanks to some newfangled technology in her ship girl mind which helped her perfectly understand their words, and working in this country for more than a decade only served to refine her understanding of its nuances.

Their response to her arrival in the middle of the night was swift as the four Middle-Eastern guards held up their assault rifles to aim at her in an unambiguously hostile move for her to stop in her tracks, even if their hostile attitude towards her presence was evident even before their first words were uttered.

"No civilians should be here!

Show yourself!"

"Remove your niqab!"

She chose not to grace that with a response, naming them #1 to #4 from left to right.

Holding her hands up placatingly to show that she wasn't a threat, she gently gestured with a hand to wordlessly ask for permission to remove her veil, a lift of the chin from the leftmost #1 signalling for her to reach for her veil.

Pulling off her niqab and the face mask in the face of the four insurgents shouting for her to slow down as they jabbed their assault rifles in her direction, she removed her hairnet and shook free her army regulation hair, basking in the revolting silence of the terrorists being stunned by her inhuman beauty which was enhanced by her makeup, the four of them sporting widened eyes, slack jaws and froze up for a second as if laying their eyes upon Medusa herself.

A perfect distraction for these testosterone-filled terrorists who hadn't seen a woman in forever, much less one this drop-dead gorgeous.

The dawning realization lit up in #3's eyes, and spotting this, Jackie threw her niqab into #1's face before punching #3 in the throat, causing him to drop his assault rifle as she moved on to using that arm to knee #2 in the face while punching #4 in the solar plexus and silencing him for an instant by knocking the wind out of him.

Plan A had already failed since the terrorists recognized her (damn those ship girls, even if she was one and supported their cause).

Plan B, stealthily infiltrate the compound, died as their trigger fingers reflexively jerked and unloaded rounds everywhere, although thankfully not hitting her as she closed the distance and was within range to smell two weeks' worth of poorly-washed body odor clinging onto their bodies after hiding in this out-of-the-woods base.

#2, #3 and #4 collapsed while #1 flailed in order to get the cloth off his head, Jackie punching him out with a right hook and using a hind kick to knock out a wheezing #4 with her momentum, finally settling on Plan C.

Kill everyone in the insurgent base.

Taking off her gown to reveal the myriad of firearms she purchased on the black market, she brought out a M1911 pistol and emptied one round into the skulls of the downed terrorists in order to neutralize them.

All guilty due to the fact that they were here.

Because why would they be here, if they weren't terrorists?

Today, she was judge, jury and executioner.

Activating her ship girl mode for combat, she picked up an AK-74 rifle as she heard voices shouting at the end of the tunnel leading into the facility, the rocky backdrop casting shadows upon the arena as she waltzed up to the cave entrance and opened fire.

Two insurgents were downed by her hail of bullets, and the third pushed on the corpse of the second to act as a meat shield before getting into cover while those coming up behind him shouted about hiding behind cover.

Meaningless.

All meaningless.

Didn't they know that she was allowing them the chance to die in combat, supposedly a great honor in many warmongering cultures and religions?

It was unlikely that her bloody journey into this base was going to be a one-way trip for her, but having a good idea of what would happen to her after this as well as all the traumatic things she had seen and lived through made her wish that it was.

Those thoughts were shoved out of her head in order to remain professional as she burst-fired to keep the enemy behind cover while she advanced, evading shots which would wound her more while gritting her teeth till her gums hurt as she shrugged off the pain arising from bullets which either bounced off her skin or dealt superficial damage.

Variants of,

"Get that whore!" and,

"Kill her!" were heard, and she ignored the stray thought of whether these people had families, children and wives, silencing any dissenting thoughts with,

'They made their choice by being here.'

While watching the head of another insurgent burst like a popped water balloon with red 'paint' flying everywhere, turning her assault rifle against those hiding behind cover whose blind firing grazed her skin with a handful of bullets, and she didn't say anything to give away her location.

No pre-death one liners.

No shouting about how they killed those Marines and should die far more messier deaths, which was everything they deserved in her mind and more.

She behaved like the professional she was by summarily executing them with a bullet to the brain or the brain-stem, lest their nervous system transmit post-mortem signals down into their bodies and cause their fingers to pull on the trigger as dead man's switches and injure her.

Grief, hatred, pain and rage seeped into and poisoned her soul, and unlike before where she fought with determination and vigor before her breakdown, here, she became apathetic and unfettered.

The grief helped her justify her actions as the Grim Reaper tonight.

The pain punished her for every mistake and kept her on her toes.

The hatred pushed her on to wipe every one of them from the face of this earth.

The rage helped to push her body beyond what even she thought was possible, making the pain that little bit more tolerable as a pseudo-anesthetic.

But eventually, it mixed together in her blackened heart and was distilled into an apathetic indifference about these insurgents' previous lives, her eyes unfocused despite her vision sharpening in resolution thanks to the adrenaline being pumped throughout her body as her mental processing speed went into overdrive and made everything seem much slower than usual.

The terrorists were no more harmful to her than children armed with water pistols, throwing down her AKM assault rifle the moment it clicked empty in order to dual-wield her pistols with impeccable aim, sirens blaring incessantly while more shouts were heard regarding a female mass murderer headed down into the caves as everything devolved into a ballad of bullets.

She mowed them all down like no tomorrow until she was actively trying not to trip over the corpses which littered the floor at one point in time as the coating of blood on the floor caused the ground to become slick.

A rocket launcher was involved at one point, and she almost had a heart attack as the RP-7 missed her by a hair and would have incapacitated her or worse had she not shot the wielder in the other shoulder to throw off his aim, the resulting explosion bringing down the rock walls and caking her in a layer of dust.

And eventually, the voices echoing within the caves shifted from angry, to wary, and eventually fearful and even terrified as no one could stop her.

Coming up at a T-junction in the cave, she fired one round into the tip of the boot which peeked out of the corner, a slightly pudgy Middle-Easterner shrieking as he dropped his rifle to clutch at his bloody foot and opening him up for an easy bullet through his head and dropping him like a sack of potatoes which he resembled.

A rifle butt swinging her way almost caught her by the temple and would've given her a headache and double vision had she not evaded in time, grabbing the AKM rifle with both arms as she then kicked the wielder in the gut and sent him flying into the cave wall, something audibly cracking upon impact.

The poor man slumped to the floor and didn't get up again.

Arming herself with the assault rifle and swinging around the corner to bring up the barrel and take out anyone on the other end, her twitching trigger finger was barely stopped by the sight of a wiry Middle-Eastern man dropping his assault rifle and holding his arms up in a universal sign of surrender, noting his turban, clothes and unshaven beard and placing him as a local who, like some of these insurgents, was likely freshly recruited for a extremist cause which he didn't yet fully understand.

His experiences, continuous indoctrination and peer pressure would do the rest to sway him to their cause as it did to the others, although that wasn't going to happen anytime soon when he was staring down the barrel of a firearm.

Predictably, he tried to reason with Jackie as he squirmed to stand as far away from the assault rifle as possible since running was akin to a death sentence in these caves, and pleading for his life might have seemed like it contained better prospects of survival.

"Please.

I have - "

Using the acquired AKM to shoot him in the head, she exhaled sharply and suppressed her nagging conscience as she responded with a pithy,

"Not interested."

With the deadpan tone one used to address a sidewalk seller while in a rush, reaching down and pulling several magazines off of the man's splayed body and stuffing them into her pockets before hearing more shouts echoing from beyond.

The pitter-patter of footsteps were still soft, but certainly getting louder as they got closer, and Jackie was certain that this night was just getting started, and she was in for a world of pain as she reloaded the AKM assault rifle in her hands while marching further down into the dimly-lit caves thanks to the rudimentary lighting system in these winding caves, her flinty gaze hardening along with her heart as she raised the assault rifle and opened fire.

---

A Japanese woman wearing remnants of a shredded civilian gown was seen limping through a nearby town and was drenched in what wary onlookers thought was red paint, shortly before passersby pulled back from the overwhelming stench of blood hanging over her like a poisonous miasma, stinging noses with its coppery scent and pervading their senses.

Several eyewitnesses could almost taste it on their tongues as if Death itself Frenched them in the mouth as she walked into town from the desert, most of the blood having dried up into crust on her skin, caking her fingernails and disheveled hair to make her look positively unhinged.

The woman's clothes were torn as if she had walked through a warzone, her pallid expression looking haggard as her half-lidded gaze looked towards the thousand yards before her, and the fact that she was wearing empty military holsters put some onlookers on edge despite the lack of firearms.

An Iraqi police officer warily inching towards Ma'am Jackie's back in order to arrest her at gunpoint was swiftly disarmed as the madwoman spun around like a top in order to trap his hand which held the Glock 19 pistol, her left arm coiling around his right before locking his pistol-wielding arm beneath her left armpit and jerking it up by the elbow, causing two rounds to be accidentally discharged out of agony and was the cue for panicked bystanders to shriek along with the hurting police officer as they dispersed like a herd of spooked gazelles.

Ma'am Jackie then delivered a punishing, but non-lethal blow to his chest with her right fist to silence his cries of pain and leave him stunned while gasping for breath, hearing the Glock 19 being dropped behind her as she finished him off with a palm strike to the face in order to leave him writhing on the ground, the bloody mad-woman turning around to pick the firearm off the sidewalk.

Dismantling the Glock with practiced ease and throwing parts into a nearby dustbin or simply crushing them in her palm, Ma'am Jackie leaned in to take out and crush the officer's radio underneath her heel, then picking up his keys and tossing it away.

Ma'am Jackie walked on for about another half an hour in isolation, trudging through the town and wallowing in the misery that was her own life as she allowed the weight of her crumbling military career to sink in due to,

A, trespassing and cutting through restricted areas drawn out by the country which they were (supposedly) liberating.

B, acting out on her own without orders and was now likely going to be fined, charged, imprisoned, executed via scrapping or even all of the above.

C, killing that viper's den of terrorists didn't make her feel any better about it all.

In fact, it made her feel worse, knowing what was in store for her was coming for her right now as she picked up the drone of vehicles not matching that of most civilian vehicles within this country, desert-beige colored Humvees pulling up around her and soldiers popping out from them in droves to stand in a semicircle around her so as not to stand in each other's line of fire.

They were deathly afraid of her as their fear was betrayed by the distance in which they maintained, their jumpy body language as well as the constant shifting of their hold on the foregrip of their rifles, but the posturing and intimidation talk instilled in every soldier during basic military training hid their anxiety well enough as they glowered at her and yelled.

"Halt!"

"FREEZE!"

"STOP, OR WE WILL FIRE ON YOU!"

Ma'am Jackie found herself complying as the military police surrounded her and unanimously pulled the cocking handles of their M4 Carbines and raised them to point at her in order to show that they meant business, and she calmly raised her hands in surrender as she called out in English.

"Don't shoot, alright?

I'm one of you, I'm now reaching for my identification card."

"Y-yeah?!

Slowly… slowly!"

" … Tossing it over to you."

She used a movement speed which didn't register as aggressive to most wary soldiers as she reached into her pants to pull them out, praying that her camp pass and IC weren't shot up too badly to have its writing still be legible, seven of them keeping their weapons trained on her while one reached down for the IC on the ground with one hand.

They could relax.

She didn't want to take them out since they were allies, and she had already resigned herself to her fate after reflecting on the pathos of things.

She was in a foreign land and fighting for laughably outdated ideals which samurai 'supposedly' embodied in which she once aspired to uphold.

And in the end, the massacre of terrorists and the loss of friends led to this, friendlies pointing their firearms at her, attempting to shout her into submission after she had broken several rules to act out on her own accord and could only look forward to a court martial and worse, all while her rogue actions would likely strain the relationship between their countries for the foreseeable future.

And even then, it failed to matter to her now that all those irreversible deaths happened.

Killing all those terrorists wasn't going to bring her friends or those Marines back, and these military police grunts opening fire and inexplicably killing her on the spot wouldn't either.

A shadowy figure in the backseat of one Humvee exited the vehicle, a middle-aged man who possessed slicked-back graying hair and sunglasses to indicate a desk job, but his humble swagger and the way he carried himself meant that he likely started from the bottom in the military.

His tan complemented his aged face to show that he was not adverse to being out on the field, clearly demonstrating this by stepping forward while wearing a business suit in a Middle-Eastern country which could knock out unprepared soldiers via heat exhaustion while he looked cool as a cucumber, standing before her as he asked.

"Jacqueline Shinozaki?

Also known as Jackie of the Japanese Special Forces?"

Jackie raised an eyebrow at the familiar voice in a memory which occurred so long ago, it was almost akin to a dream to her which woke her up to this horrid life of suffering and death, although she still remained cordial as she responded aloofly.

"Who's asking?"

"I'm Patrick Hartman.

I'm the one who recruited you all those years ago, and who's going to relieve you of duty."

And in the face of Jackie's expression souring as the life was sapped out of her upon connecting the dots and finding that her execution was likely inevitable, the man reassured her since he likely never intended to crush her heart like this.

"Don't worry, nobody has to die.

You'll be receiving your proper awards and a rank promotion after your dedicated services to your country as well as a permanent ticket home to rest and recover, although that promotion might have to be bumped down in order to make it seem as if we're actually doing something to punish you instead of allowing you to walk away scot-free."

"But it's essentially a slap on the wrist."

"Exactly."

Patrick removed his glasses to look her straight in the eye, idly waving to the MPs to get them to stand down as they acquiesced by lowering their rifles, although they maintained their position around her as a compromise as Patrick consoled the sullen Jackie, the Sendai-Class light cruiser noting the sincere regret in his eyes.

"Look, we … controllers, we take full responsibility for your little breakdown and deciding to go rogue, because we once thought that you ship could handle more stress than human soldiers normally would for extended periods of time.

But… we were wrong, and there have been a recent slew of ship girls acting out defiantly in order to kill insurgents on their own accord, and we decided to pull you all out and sign you up for the counselling you all deserve.

You should feel proud, we're already dubbing your massacre the 'Red Wedding', because it was by far the bloodiest and possessed the most ramifications for our enemies."

" … So nobody's being executed."

Patrick pulled his head back, appearing genuinely confused as to why that thought even appeared in her head at all.

"What?

No.

You all served this country faithfully, and your skills are refined over the years by battle and hardship, it would be remiss of us to punish you all for doing what we re-purposed you all to do, albeit doing so outside of the law after breaking down like almost any human would in your shoes and taking matters into your hands, especially not after we accepted the fact that we neglected your mental states in lieu of pushing you all so hard for so long.

And, um, what the hell happened to you, anyway?

That's blood, isn't it?"

Jackie could only deign to exhale sharply in lieu of laughter as she retorted sarcastically in response to Patrick's confused stare.

"No, sir.

It's smeared lipstick."

Patrick gave her an extended look and allowed the pause to linger before breaking out into a smile and using the end tips of his glasses to gesture at Jackie, remarking good-naturedly.

"See that sense of humor there?

That's how I knew that all you ship girls were more human than robot all along.

I don't believe Abyssals would learn to appreciate humor, unlike you ship girls."

Jackie nodded along with him, and Patrick cleared his throat as he turned and gestured to the MPs who were still waiting to step in as he remarked.

"Anyway…

You're not going to give these boys any trouble, are you, Jackie?"

"No."

"Right, let's get this over with, then."

Snapping his fingers for the military police to warily shuffle forward with steel cuffs which she was quite certain weren't going to actually hold her in any way, but she played along by holding her hands out to be cuffed and brought towards the Humvee, the last memory Jintsuu had access to being that of Ma'am Jackie having her head held and pressed down on to push her into the vehicle and having three other MPs in the car with loaded rifles at the ready, the door unceremoniously slamming closed on her.

---

Jintsuu snapped out of the memory clip, far more emotionally and psychologically shaken up by the memories than several hours of moping and crying, the fatigue now piling up as she found herself speechless and confused as to how best to continue her plan to review Ma'am Jackie's memory clip before trying to comfort her superior.

She was shivering and crying after relieving her older self's life in the span of about two to three minutes, and Ma'am Jackie was looking at her intently as she asked.

"So…?

How did it feel to be me, who's only one of your many possible future selves?"

Jintsuu was confused as to what her future self had to suffer as a punishment for acting out on her own, to take matters into her own hands.

"I-I don't get it.

You're here, so you didn't get imprisoned for any of that?"

Ma'am Jackie shrugged as she looked down at her boots, now completely drenched like Jintsuu was as she answered.

"Well,

My promotion to Colonel was downgraded to Major, high enough of a rank to honor my services but low enough to be a legitimate punishment since I was pushed out onto the field where they could keep me further away from them and closer to the front lines, where I excelled.

That, and a two-year ban on carrying firearms which was lifted as soon as I was assigned to train and fight alongside all of you on the front lines as a way to keep me under their thumb, along with several years of grief counselling which continue to this day.

Unfortunately for them, I'm rather occupied with fighting a bloody world war."

Jintsuu blinked the tears away from her eyes and rubbed them as if waking up from a dream, daring to ask about how Ma'am Jackie could find the strength within her to fight on.

"B-But, how?

I mean, you've been through what we've experienced several times over in the span of your life, how do you keep going on even with everyone dying so easily all around you, even after fighting in such a traumatizing war and working in such a morally ambiguous profession which took such a a toll on your conscience?"

"I don't know.

Our responsibility as soldiers, which is to keep fighting?

We wouldn't be very effective soldiers if we broke down and stopped fighting should we become emotionally compromised.

That would be unprofessional."

Ma'am Jackie turned to lock gazes with her, the world-weary gaze which filled her pupils now softening into something resembling hope as she laid eyes on Jintsuu while adding.

"That, and you.

In which case would also mean me, or a younger me who is me but also… isn't me?"

Jintsuu similarly furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but she nodded understandingly at the peculiar situation of speaking to either your past or future self which mucked up the 'me-you' usage to refer to either one of them, Ma'am Jackie finally raising her eyebrows in order to move on with her point.

"You, being a younger me, reminded me that I wasn't always like this.

And even though my admittedly limited memories of being in your shoes are clear as day, they seem like they occurred a lifetime ago.

And even if you share your entire life story with me, just like how you didn't inherit any of my traits after reviewing my memory files, me looking through your entire life isn't going to miraculously make me a happier Jackie.

But in you, I can see that I was a happier person.

A better person."

"Oh, Ma'am…"

Jintsuu leaned on Ma'am Jackie's shoulder in order to comfort her older self, speaking up in her (but not her?) own defense.

"You're still me, in the sense that you can still do good.

It's just a matter of whether you make an effort to do so."

She felt her elder self shrug and move her own head in the process, speaking up about how her perception of 'good' had been changed over the years.

"I used to believe in doing good, and I still do.

The difference is that now, I believe 'doing good' involves a lot more dead bodies by my hand than ever before."

Jintsuu sweatdropped and gulped anxiously upon hearing that since she knew Ma'am Jackie was dead serious about this after pulling off the so-called 'Red Wedding' massacre, where she was the bloody bride tearing through hordes of terrorists and leaving corpses behind by the hundreds while painting the caves, and by extension the desert sands red with blood.

Jintsuu shuddered violently at the mere recollection of what her future self did as she did her best to comment,

"Well, you seemed as if you gave Him a run for his money since the blood you spilled that day would've filled the Nile River with blood, albeit for a day or two."

It took Ma'am Jackie a while to realize that her infamous Red Wedding massacre was being compared to the First Plague of Egypt, lifting an eyebrow and answering the only way she knew how.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Jintsuu nodded awkwardly as the both of them lapsed into a silence which was filled by the rain-forest as it was teeming with life, seemingly continuing on without a care in the world even when caught in the midst of a world war.

Eventually, Jackie opened up to her as she voiced her thoughts.

"You know…

I sometimes wonder if I'm selfish to think this way, to wonder what I could have been as a ship girl and negate everything I've ever done as a soldier.

Because even if I did help more people than I ever could as a soldier instead of a ship girl, in light of the things I've seen and the equally horrendous things I've done, I can't help but wish that I'd never accepted that damned offer.

Would more people have died because of that?

I'm afraid I can't bring myself to care anymore."

Jintsuu patted her on the back and felt all the fatigue seeping from Ma'am Jackie's muscles into her palm, doing her best to comfort the depressed light cruiser.

"Well, it starts with small steps.

Asking these questions means that you aren't completely apathetic as of now, because you still question your partial apathy and whether it's right for you to go all the way and emotionally cut yourself off from empathizing with everyone's plight."

Jackie could only grunt in agreement as she allowed her feelings to pour out of her for what appeared to be the first time in a long while, her expression crumpling up as her eyes started to water a little.

"I know.

It's just, I don't want you to end up like me, but I'm afraid that it'll happen anyway because of my mere existence.

With this world war, I wonder if everything I've given in order to save the lives of human soldiers will all be for naught as the Abyssals hunt mankind to extinction.

And did my experiences mold me into the heartless soldier I am today, or was I always like this, and my experiences simply caused it to rear its ugly head?

I hate what I've become, and you remind me that I wasn't always like this."

The drizzle started to subside, the rain-forest now brimming with the first signs of life in the form of croaking frogs, flowing water and birds cawing in the background, Jintsuu doing her best not to move as the Demon Instructor rested her head on her left shoulder, and she felt not just the strength of the senior light cruiser seeping from her pores, but also the desolation of not knowing anyone whom she could share the burden with when she needed it most as well as the emotional turmoil and suffering which she had endured in order to make her a stronger, albeit also lonelier and broken person in many aspects.

Jintsuu now realized that as a younger version of Ma'am Jackie, she could learn from her future self and could avoid whatever molded Ma'am Jackie into the person she was today in order to fulfill both their wishes of her becoming a better version of Ma'am Jackie.

After all, they were the same person, but she had friends which Ma'am Jackie didn't when she was Jintsuu's age, so she had to turn out better, right?

Right?

"Please, don't end up like me."

"I'll… I'll do my best."